Notes on "Caroline's Wedding"(KK)

 1) identifying characters, 2) summarizing the plot, and 3) offering some personal response/ideas about the story

   In the story, main characters are Grace, the narrator, her mom(Ma), her younger sister Caroline who lost one of her forearm, her sister's husband Eric, and her father who passed away.

The story starts from the narrator Grace got the certificate. She finally became an American citizen. In the story, the citizenship is pretty important. Grace even mentions that: "Without the certificate, I suddenly felt like unclaimed property. She was her parents' first child, who was born in Haiti. But since Caroline was born in US, she already got the citizenship. Their dad got a citizenship by married a widow in US. But her dad died because of cancer. The main story line is talking about Caroline and her wedding. Her mom did not like Eric because she insists that Caroline should marry a Haitian. And her mom is also an old-fashioned woman, who thought her children are too american. Even though their dad died long time ago, he is still an important character. Grace and Caroline always wear black panties in order to meet their dad in dreams. Caroline was hoping to get the permission from her dad in the dream. Her mom always talked about how the proposal was going on when their dad tried to propose. Another reason her mom did not like Eric is that her child will leave them when she gets married. But at the later part, her mom even comforts Caroline when she was Premarital Phobia. After Caroline and Eric goes to Honeymoon, Grace has a dream about her dad. In the dream her dad asks her some questions just like they play the games before; 'If we were painters, which landscapes would we paint?' 'When you become mothers, how will you name your sons?' Grace does know how to answer this, so she asks her mom when she wakes up. But at the end, her mom does not reply it and asks the same question that her dad asked before: 'Why is it that when you lose something, it is always in the last place that you look for it?' The answer is that because when you find it, you will not look for it anymore. This story is long and contains a main theme - family love. Caroline's mom does not like Eric because she cares about her daughter so much that she thinks Eric is not worth. There are also loves from the couples. Their mom loves their dad so much that in the every letter she will explain that love to him; she also keeps the proposal even though the paper turns yellow and old. The story also talks about Haiti and America. In the beginning of the story, Ma and Grace even attended Célianne's, the pregnant teenager in the first story, Mass. There are also differences in the culture. Ma thinks Eric is not sincere enough compared to how she got treated by her husband. She also thinks children should listen to their parents, and that means that she should be the one who picks husbands for her daughters.