Short Story -Ghosts

8/10/2019 Short Story -Ghosts

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Edwige Danticats Ghosts

Students


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Index

1. Hati

2. Biography

3.

Setting and summary4. Title

5. Characters

6. Themes and Symbols

7. Type of narration

8. Conclusion


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Hati

Government: Republic

Language: Haitian Creole & French

Religion: Christianity

Population: White, Mulatto & Black

History:

1492: discovered by Columbus---> Colonization 1804: Independence

1915: US occupation

1957: Dictatorship

2004: Coup dtat

2014: Resignment

Society & economy

Overpopulation Illiteracy

Poverty

No infrastructure

Natural disasters

Corruption


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Biography

January 19, 1969 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Her parents moved to New York,she was raised by her uncle.

At the age of 12, she movedto New York.

Studies: Barnard College in NewYork City, BA in French literature,MFA in Creative Writingfrom Brown University in 1993.

Languages: French and Kreyl. Some film projects and

documentaries.


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Biography

Literary production

Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994)

Krik? Krak! (1996)

The Farming of Bones(novel, 1998)

Behind the Mountains(2002) After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in

Jacmel, Haiti (2002)

The Dew Breaker(2004)

Anacaona: Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490 (2005)

Brother, I'm Dying (2007)

Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist atWork (2010)

Claire of the Sea Light (novel, August 2013)
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Butterfly%27s_Way&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tent_Life:_Haiti&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tent_Life:_Haiti&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tent_Life:_Haiti&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Butterfly%27s_Way&action=edit&redlink=1


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Biography

Awards

1994 Fiction Award The Caribbean Writer

1995 Woman of Achievement Award, Barnard College

1996 Best Young American Novelists for Breath, Eyes, Memoryby Granta

1999 American Book Award for The Farming of Bones 2005 The Story Prize for The Dew Breaker

2005 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for "The Dew Breaker"

2007 The National Book Critics Circle Award for Brother, I'm Dying

2008 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Brother, I'm Dying

2009 MacArthur Fellows Program Genius grant

2011 Langston Hughes Medal, City College of New York

2011 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for Create Dangerously 2012 Smith College Honorary Degree

2013 Yale University Honorary Degree

2014 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, shortlist for Claire of theSea Light
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushcart_Prizehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushcart_Prize


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Setting and summary

Bel Airneighborhood of Port-au-Prince,

Haiti

Slum area

Crime, poverty, political demonstrations

2010 Earthquake


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Setting and summary


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Setting and summary

Pascal Dorien was living in Bel AirtheBaghdad of Haiti, some people called it

BelAir was actually a mid-level slum. It had afew Protestant and Catholic churches, vodoutemples, restaurants, bakeries, and drycleaners, even Internet cafs. For a while,there were no gang wars; there was just onegang


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Setting and summary

Bel Air - Pascal Dorien

Gang Baz Benin Tiye(gang leader)

Family, restaurant

Changes in the neighborhood

Radio Zry - Pascalsradio program

Shooting - Arrested - Questioning - Scapegoat

Corruption


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Setting and summary

You wanted to know what its like for us,he

said. I just thought Id give you a taste.


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Title

[..]Then he would go from limbs to souls, tothe number of people who had lostfamilysiblings, parents, childrenandfriends. These were the real ghosts, hewould say, the phantom limbs, phantomminds, phantom loves that haunt us,because they were used, thenabandoned, because they were desolate,because they were violent, because theywere merciless, because they were out

of choices, because they did not want tobe driven away, because they werepoor.


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Characters

Pascal Jules

Minor characters


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Themes and Symbols

Corruption-> Politicians/Police

Disappointment-> no hope

Identity-> poor/ghosts

Survival->Pascals family, the

Gangs

Ghosts

Pigeons

Unity-> Gangs

the white mans

powder - control the

poor


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Type of Narration

Easy and informal language

Very descriptive passages

Pascals parents were shop owners andrestaurateurs in Bel Air. They had a slightly largeryard than most of their crammed-in neighbors, sothey had closed it off with sheets of rustycorrugated metal, and there, at four long wooden

tables beneath a string of light bulbs whichdangled from a second-story clostra-blockwindow, they served up to thirty customers pernight, if the turnover was fast. They sold rice andbeans, of course, and fried plantains andcornmeal, but their specialty, for a long time, was

fried pigeon meat.


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Type of Narration

Internal narration: omniscient 3rd personnarrator

Pascal went to bed with all these thoughts swirling inhis head, stirred up, he knew, by his disappointmentover his show. Now it would be much harder for him topitch the idea to another radio station. Theprogrammers could always say, But Homme Homme is already airing. We dont want to give thesegangsters too much of a platform. He fell asleepthinking that hed have to redefine his idea, sharpen it

up a bit. Maybe hed add music to it. Max could helpwith that. They could play throbbing, urgent-sounding,reggae-influenced hip-hop, and, in between songs, hewould let his neighbors speak.


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Type of Narration

Dialogues: Free Direct Speech (FDS)

Do you know Tiye? one of his interrogators asked, suckingon a cigarette and blowing the smoke in his face.

Yes, Pascal replied, coughing. His lungs seemed to beclosing down. The constriction forced pieces of last nightsdinner onto the front of his pajama top and, when he wasallowed to bend his neck, down to his lap.

The questions continued. How do you know Tiye?He lives in my neighborhood and often eats at my parents

restaurant, he stammered.

Youre a big man, huh? Your parents have a restaurant inthe slums. Im hungry now. Feed me. Feed me.()How much did you pay the crew from Baz Benin to shoot at

the station? someone else asked.


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Conclusion

Universal story

Struggle to Survive

Ambiguous ending


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Thank you for your attention !

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Short Story -Ghosts