Between The Pool And The Gardenias Analysis

Plot Overview

Krik? Krak! contains nine stories and an epilogue. Although the stories take place in Port-au-Prince or Ville Rose, Haiti, or New York, they do not overlap. The only exception is “Between the Pool and the Gardenias,” which mentions women from earlier stories. All the stories are all about Haitian women trying to understand their relationships to their families and to Haiti. The epilogue, “Women Like Us,” suggests that these women are related. The epilogue’s unnamed narrator, possibly Danticat herself, notices her similarity to her mother and female ancestors. These women cook to express sorrow, but the narrator chooses to write. Her mother doesn’t approve because Haitian writers are often killed. However, the narrator’s female ancestors are united in death, and she uses stories to keep their history alive..

“Nineteen Thirty-Seven”

Josephine - A young woman whose mother is in prison. Josephine is sad and confused about the
Her mother had to choose whether to save Josephine’s life or try to save her grandmother’s, so Josephine’s birth depended on her grandmother’s death. She feels a bond with her grandmother and her mother as a result of the rituals her mother made her take part in at Massacre River, even though she has never understood them. Josephine is awed by her mother’s rituals and stories, and she has absorbed them more than she realizes. When Jacqueline visits her, Josephine asks questions that only a fellow performer of the rituals would understand. Despite the strength this tradition gives her, Josephine feels overwhelmed by the depressing world around her and helpless to change it. She doesn’t know how to connect with her mother, perhaps because she is ashamed of her inability to help her. She attempts to be strong by hiding her profound sorrow. Though she cannot express it, Josephine highly values her relationship with her mother and the tradition of which she is