Jacqueline Danticat Quotes

It is common when we see events from the past influence more of what goes on in the present. The stories Danticat has written about the past majority influenced the present time in her book. In one of the stories from the past, a woman named Jacqueline appeared at the door of one of the ‘daughters of the river’. In the story Josephine remembers that if Jacqueline really is one of the daughters of the river, then she'll know the answers to specific questions. Since the daughters of the river were always to do this before letting one of their own into their house - that's what Josephine did. Jacqueline answered each question correctly and continued her business with Josephine. This event carried on the tradition of these questions between the Haitian women. In the

Seeing as I'm the fourth generation daughter, I spent most of my time growing up around the three women before me. Another thing is I am both black and white, therefore my hair is a lot different from theirs. As I was growing up it became clear to me they had straight hair. I'd been so jealous and upset, though my mother always tried hard for me to love my big hair. For a long time I'd always get my mother to straighten my hair so if have ‘hair like hers’. The women before me inherited grey hairs at young ages. This resulted in them dying their hair a lot. Now even though my mother allowed me to have my hair straightened, she hadn't let me dye my hair. Now it's 10 years later and I've dyed my hair many times, many different colors. I also have burned most of my curls out from flat irons and curling wands. My present day hair result is caused by my past influences. I didn't know what to do with my coarse hair so I wanted badly to have hair like the three generation of women before me. I think back to then and shake my head. If only if listened to my mother if have healthy hair. That's a time something from my past influenced my life