Four Essential Gods

My Love, My Love Or The Peasant Girl written by Rosa Guy is a retelling of the tale The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. Therefore, I could find some similarities between two books as I read. This book was also adapted into the Broadway musical version called Once on This Island, which will be Cheshire Academy's winter drama production. This story is set on the island where the boundary between rich and poor is obvious, and according to our class, the character's names sound like quite French name because the author is from Haiti whose official language Creole resulted from French. The whole plot is about the peasant girl Ti Moune (Desiree) who fell in love with a guy from rich side. In the book, there are four gods in which peasants firmly believe. Asaka is goddess of Earth, of plants, of all growing things, Agwe is god of the sea, Papa Ge is god of death, and Erzulie is goddess of love. They are all responsible for four essential factors of human life. If I were to stage this novel and create four god characters, I would try to think simple to make them fit.  

First, for Asaka, I will dress her in a green dress and flower hat. I thought simply that because Asaka is goddess of natural things, she needs to wear in the color of nature: Green. Because of the same reason, I want to make her put flower hat on. Also I think Asaka has pretty bright personality according to "Asaka smiled and we laughed with joy. She laughed and we danced" (Guy, 11), so I want her make up to be in bright color and to be little short. I think it will show that Asaka is very bright active goddess who loves nature. Secondly, for Agwe, through my simple thinking process, he will have to wear deep blue color robe and maybe blue wig (or maybe fish mask haha). He seems very generous and adoring Asaka, so I want him to be looking a little old; I will draw some wrinkles and put some long beard. Third, for Papa Ge, obviously I want him to wear black clothes. I think all the peasants are afraid of him because they say "Papa Ge, don't come around me", so I would draw very scary makeup on his face like the phantom. Also I do not know why but I feel like make him wear a magician hat. I think it will make him look scary and keep others from approaching. Lastly, for Erzulie, I would like her to wear very lovely long pink dress and have a long hair. I would like her to be looking mature since love is understandable when a person is mature. Thus I will put a lot of eye makeup which will help make her look older. As a result, all four gods have different color and appearance and so do other characters. The four gods, who will make the story interesting, would be easily distinguished. 

So far I have only read very small portion of the book, so I am not sure about the whole plot. Also I do not know well about the base story The Little Mermaid so it will be hard time. However as Tonton Julian in the production. I will try to get this novel as perfectly as I can.