The Book Of Night Women Essay

During the day she tempts men and at night they come to her house.

Although the portrayal of womanhood is different, they share some similarities.

To start with, I would like to express my thoughts about “Night Women”, which has become one of my favorite stories due to its unique language, exquisite metaphors, and powerful message.

The woman’s love for her son fuels most of her actions.

She has sex with strangers to provide for their living, at great risk to herself and her body.

The woman describes how shadows “shrink” and “spread” over the curtain dividing her and her son (Danticat 81).

The Book Of Night Women Essay

For a brief moment, her son’s shadow stretches into the silhouette of a grown man, before shrinking back to his own size.On Mondays and Thursdays, Alexandre the accordion player is the visitor.He likes to make accordion sounds in the night woman’s ear when they lie together.She tries her hardest to hide the truth of her nighttime activities from her son, in an attempt to preserve his innocence. Fifteen years ago, when Marlon James was working on his first novel, he requested an exorcism.When describing herself, the woman says she is stuck in the brief time between day and night, in the fleeting moments of amber-colored twilight.Later on in the story, she compares her son to a fluttering butterfly that momentarily rests on a rock: at any moment, he could fly away from her.She watches a group of women walk towards the marketplace and thanks the stars that her days are her own.She goes back into the house and hears her son waking up. She slips into his bed, tells him the angels have a lifetime to visit them, and then she rocks him back to sleep.This is the scarf the woman uses to attract her nighttime patrons.The woman is a prostitute, a woman stuck between the daytime and the nighttime.