Recitatif

When Twyla first met Roberta, she didn’t like her at first because she was stuck in one room with a new girl of a different color. Morrison said that nobody wanted to play with Twyla and Roberta because they weren’t real orphans with beautiful dead parents in the sky. They were dumped. The older children picked on the younger ones a lot. Twyla reminisce about one lady name Maggie. She fell in the orchard and the older children laughed at her. That Sunday both Roberta and Twyla’s mothers were coming. When Twyla said that her mother dances, I assumed she was a stripper because earlier in the story she said that she loves to dance all night. Roberta’s mother was sick. Twyla thought that if her dancing mother met the sick mother it might be good for her. Later Twyla thought that the reason why she got into waitressing later was that so she could match up the right people with the right food. One day while she was working at Howard Johnson she saw Roberta. She acted different. She was with two guys. One of them was off to the Coast because he had an appointment with Jimi Hendrix. After that Twyla felt turned off. Years later they both got older they met again. They acted like long lost sisters. They are both married and have kids. Even Roberta learned how to read which was good. When they talked about Maggie Twyla thought she fell down by herself. Roberta said that she didn’t, that the older girls knocked her down. Twyla didn’t remember that part. Roberta asked if her mother was still dancing. She was, and Roberta’s mother was still sick. Roberta said that back then was different, black and white. After they were arguing more Roberta said that they both kicked Maggie but Twyla didn’t remember it. It was like she blocked out that part. Again, years later they met again. Roberta wanted to talk to her. She said they Twyla was right, they didn’t kick her.

            At the end of the story, Roberta asked, “What the hell happened to Maggie?” That is the question I wanted to know too. If I was in Twyla’s shoes I would be turned off by Roberta that day in Howard Johnsons. Roberta should have acted a little more better instead acting like the regular teens. But it was good that later she acted a little better like she hasn’t seen each other in a long time.

Zalzah

    I think out of all the stories I read in the book so far, I like this one the most. It talks about a young Jewish girl working her butt off so she can survive. When her aunt in America tells her mom about her son needs a wife, Zelzah’s mother tells her sister that Zelzah would make a good wife. So Zelzah goes to America to Vermont.  The family treats her well. She gets to know Jake (soon to be husband) more until one brother’s girlfriend took him away and gets secretly married and pregnant. The aunt was ashamed and asked Zalzah what she would like to do. Zalzah then went back to New York City to a family’s home to work for a while. Then she found a job in a factory. She started receiving her education. She wanted her sister Shulamith to join her so she started sending money for her to come. After a few years she finally came. She joined with Zalzah to work in a factory. After a while she met a man and married him. They have six children together. Zalzah went to college and got her bachelor degree. She became a third grade teacher. She rented a nice house of her own.

    Towards the end of the story, on page 198 she says that she work up one morning and thought how strange life was. She thought of her life back home and her new life here in America. I think she said life was strange because just years ago she was at home working to survive. Then she moved to America and she has a good life now. She worked hard to get where she was now, education and all. She received news from home that her sisters were getting married too. I think she felt relieved that her sisters were being taken care of. I don’t think she ever thought about getting married, just focused on herself first. This story makes me feel inspired because she moved to America to marry but ended up not getting married but making a better life here. I felt bad for her in beginning because she had a big family and shared a bed with her sisters. She had to walk three miles to work on a farm.  At the end of the story she asks what is happiness? I think the answer to that question would be doing things for yourself and others to be better, around things you love.

Little Saigon

       When I first read it I didn’t understand it at all. Then I read it again and I finally understood it. Little Saigon may be a short story but it was empowering! There were five different parts in the story. It seems that the albino peacock was a symbol of the mother.  For weeks the mother was secretly talking to an old man that lived by the tobacco shop. The mother wanted to leave her home to escape. When they arrive to the boat the Jack Pirate told the mother to go on the other boat while the two daughters go on his boat. Before they left, the mother called to the oldest daughter, saying, “Take care of your sister!” They had run out of food so the oldest had to do the unthinkable to survive. She told the Jack Pirate, “Give me water and food for my sister.” Night after night, she had to suffer so her sister Mai Chi can have food and water. They finally arrived, but their mother hasn’t. They stayed with the mother’s cousin in Little Saigon, California. Later their aunt came and got them. They lived in a nice home with the aunt and uncle was very good to them.

      To actually be asked to take care of your younger sibling? Wow.  I don’t think many people have the courage to do it unless they really have to. To do what she had to do every night took a lot of guts.  I don’t think I can ever do that unless it is the last thing to do on earth. I have a little sister. She is two years old. I think that if our parents left and left my sister with me I think I would be able to take care of her because I have my older brother for support, if you think of today’s modern world. I learned that the younger sister is her half sister. The mother had sex with an American black man. The older sister painted but she never showed to anyone except Mai Chi. At the end of the story she showed her a painting of the mother walking in the streets, and the white peacock was beside her, the tail spread out. Mai Chi began to cry and the older sister consoled her by saying that the mother is finally safe. Mai Chi said, “Ngoc Be! So are we…”