Scene Proposal

My group proposed to build a focus on the contrast between rich and poor.The idea was discussed during class in various ways and I think it shows the main conflict of My Love My Love the Peasant Girl. The whole story is based on a fact that different civilians are separated by social divisions. Villagers including Desiree are pure and innocent while rich people are mean and manipulating the poor. 

From her journey to her death, one thing that my group noticed was the rich’s ignorance. While the main character Desiree is a pure, innocent, and naive girl, the rich people, Daniel and his father, misled her and pushed her off the cliff. Desiree had really pure thoughts and the upper-class people destroyed that piece of pureness. Among the aristocratic world, Desiree is never a part of it. She made an effort to fit in but her destiny rejected her. People looked down on her and thought she did not deserve to love Daniel. In addition, Daniel's father made Tonton go back to his town which was in far away by foot instead of providing a helicopter. Daniel fooled Desiree, who was willing to give her everything for him, even her life. Therefore, we want to make a scene that focuses on the contrast of rich and poor. According to what We felt, the upper-class people will be drawn as bad guys and peasants will be drawn as victims of rich's bossing. 

Because there are four people in this group, the video should be at least 20 minutes long. Nothing is sure yet, but it seems like Ryan is going to be Daniel, Ben is going to be Daniel's father, James is going to be Tonton, and Julie is going to be Desiree. We are thinking about doing about six scenes from the book. To highlight the conflict between the rich and poor, we will use costumes, languages, music, and body languages.

Blog 13

The ending was definitely tragic and it was frustrating for me to read. Desiree once lived on her own imagination (dream) and she did not really care about what people said about her. What she did was just following her dream which was an obtainable love with the rich boy. She believed she would make into her dream and she almost made it for real. She thought she was special. Later, however, the boy rejected her and fell in love with another girl. This was already frustrating to me because she lost her dream in front of her eyes, but moreover in the end, the way she died was as one of the peasant crowd and stampeded by them and policemen. Even when she died, she was not special. The only thing left was lonely, pitiful corpse on the ground. The thing that made this situation worse was Gabriele's attitude towards her corpse. He said, "I don't pay you good money to leave dead peasants in front of my hotel. Do you want to discourage my guests?". The his gatekeeper picked up the corpse and dumped it at the side of road as if the dead body was a thing. Not only her dream was ripped off, but also her death did not make any sympathy of the rich. Also she came along really long way with helping of gods, but it could not make her realize her dream. When I think that she was dreaming completenonsense and lost her dream completely, I feel like this story is so frustrating. 

Therefore I think this story is telling us the corruption of the rich and also telling us to not get blinded by the extreme dream. As I said above, the rich's attitude toward the peasants was inhumane. He did not feel any guilt about her death and looked down on the peasants. He showed the typical type of corrupted rich very well. Also, Desiree died because she was blinded by her extreme dream. Her active attitude to obtain what she wants was a good thing, but it also led her to the tragic death. She did not take care of herself when she felt all lost and kept on searching for her dream without realizing her situation which was almost hopeless. I think this says sometimes the reckless following of dream can be destructive so take care of you first. 

Questions

1. What would happen to the little girl in chapter 9 whom Ti Moune gave an advice to go to the peasant village?

2. Do you think Ti Moune was really happy when she finally met Daniel?

3. What is the relationship between her songs to Daniel?

4. Why did the gatekeepers and others laugh at her? Only because she did not wear shoes?

My Favorite Character In The Book

A rendition of The Little Mermaid called My Love My Love the Peasant Girl contains many interesting characters. Having them in, the island which appears in this book must be very magical place. There is an invisible border between rich and poor and they do not tend to contact to each other. The story mainly focuses on the poor (peasant) side and draws the main character Desiree's (Ti Moune) story which is about her love with Daniel who is a rich side guy. There are Ti Moune, Daniel, Tonton, Mama Euralie, Agwe, Asaka, Papa Ge, Erzulie... and other characters. Among them, I would say my favorite one is Tonton Julian. 
Tonton Julian is an adoptive father of Ti Moune and also a peasant. There are several reasons why I like him. First, he is going to be my role in the musical. Thus, he surely is one that I know the best and one that I have to love as a character. 
Secondly, I feel like he and I have a few things in common. On page 27, it says, "Men like Tonton Julian were absent. They met instead outside of huts to talk, to complain, to drink rum and shout of their grievances to each other". I was so surprised that he acts just like me. To talk, to complain, and to drink (for me it will be orange juice) are the things that I always do when I want to dissolve my stressful life. When I felt something in common with the fictional character, I think it is natural to like the character more. 
Lastly, he is not only a very protective and loving father but also a funny and friendly husband. On page 34, it says "Tonton Julian, seeing the fearful faces around him, the begging eyes of his little gem, shrugged". I think it shows his caring about his gem-like daughter. When she said she wants to make the strange guy who she likes on her mat, he was worried about her being in danger but because he loves his daughter so much, he could not just reject her wish and her begging eyes. On page 36, he says to Mama Euralie, laughed, "Now we are asked to pray for sun, when what we must have to survive is rain. It's in this way men participate in their own doom". I felt like he was the only character who makes some jokes. This characteristic is what I like the most about him. He is funny and makes boring reading into a little bit entertaining. He is teasing and funny especially to his wife. For example, on page 63, he says "Real joy only comes in the future", when Mama Euralie said "But what joy can come from her [Desiree] hopeless dreams?" with a little anxiety. His teasing answer drew her angry but being teaseful is his own feature. 
Tonton Julian seemed very strict at first, but as I read the book, I found that he was actually a very soft, caring, frank, and cute in some ways. He is an essential character in this book and therefore he would be my favorite character. 

Question 4

If you were to stage this novel as a play, how would you costume Desiree (Ti Moune) in order to show her as a member of the peasant village yet also an outsider, a dreamer who longs for something different? Would you show any connection to the Gods or to the rich and if so, how? Explain your answer.

Desiree (Ti Moune) is a peasant girl who devotes herself to the love which is a dream. She has really smooth skin and her body is shiny as the Jewel. Although she belongs to the peasant village, her mind actually is outside of the village. She is a character who has a quite mixed characteristic of peasant and rich, I would say. However she anyway belongs to the peasant group, so I will costume her as a peasant girl, such as one piece dress and barefoot. These costumes are to show that she is a peasant. To also show that this girl longs for the love, I want to make a connection with the god of love Erzulie. Therefore, as I imagined that Erzulie would wear pink and purple, I want Desiree's one-piece dress in pink and purple (maybe more like pink). Also, because the image of an outsider and dreamer seems like who are seeking for the freedom, I do not want to make her wear the hood that most of peasant women wear. Instead, I want her to let down her to look more freely. Lastly, because she later falls in love with the grande Homme who is from the rich side, I want to make the connection between her and the rich. Luckily the story said she has very smooth skin and shiny eyes like Jewels which seem like the trait of rich, so I want to emphasize it through makeup. For instance, (I don't know much about makeup) use powder to make a lighter-looking skin or use moist to make skin look shiny.

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. 

Plants on the Island

Magnolias 

Eucalyptus 

Ficus

Azaleas

Poinsettias 

Flamboyant