Night Women/ Theme of Krik! Krak?

In the short story "Night Women" from Dandicat's "krik?krak!", there is a woman who works in the night, which is reason for the name "night women." However, the work that the women does isn't what most people would call a real job, but it helps her provide for her young son. Unfortunately, the work that this mother must take part in to provide for her son is prostitution. At night, next to her son's bed, the woman takes part in prostitution always afraid that her son may awaken and catch her in the act, especially as he grows older and more aware of what's going on around him. Every night before her son goes to bed, the women gets dressed up and preps herself for the clients that will be visiting. When her son asks his mother why she gets prettied up she tells him that she is waiting for angels to come in the night. If the son ever awakens and catches the mother at her job, she tells herself that she will tell her son that the client is his father just visiting for the night.

-In this story it's obvious that the mother has a love for her son and that she feels obligated to provide for him by any means possible, which is why she depends on prostitution. This story makes the reader feel sympathy for the characters. First, for the mother. Never do I see lying to someone you love as something that's particularly good, but in this case the mother has no choice but to in order to protect her son from the truth that could and most likely would completely alter the boys perception of his mother no matter what age he is. She, a young and single mother hates her job, but knows it's something she must do. Second, the reader is also forced to feel bad for the son who believes his mother when she says that she is waiting for an angel to come in the night. Also, the boy is growing up with no father which is something no child should have to endure.

In this story, just as the other stories in "krik?krak!", we see a tendency to see the women struggle. In "children of the sea", Celianne is raped and must deal with her child being born dead. Because of her pain, she drowns herself in the ocean. In "Nineteen Thirty-Seven", Josephine must deal with her mother being imprisoned as a witch. Josephine never understands why her mother in the way she was until her mother's passing. In "A wall of fire rising", Lili is the mother who is proud of her son and her husband but must deal with the families financial struggles. However, Lili still finds ways to persevere and to find happiness no matter how bad the families struggles are, until Guy's death. Now in this story we have the mother struggling to provide for her son without prostitution. It is becoming a theme in "krik!krak?" that we see women struggling...