Quiz

The musical has taken many elements from its original backstory that make it similar to the novel. The first point that they make that is similar is the dreams that she has and her longing to be free. In the book, Desiree (Ti Moune) has these papillons that she places these vague wishes upopn that basically all add up to being free. In the musical, there are no papillons, her prayers and wishes are put into a very heartfelt and emotional song called "Waiting for Life" which is begging the gods to let her be free as Daniel passes by in his car going somewhere and she wants to be able to be free and do what she wants but she is stuck in the fields doing work while he is out exploring the world and experiencing the freedom that she desires. So in this way, in the musical, this song is the way that Ti Moune reflects her wishes and is similar in the way she wishes upon the papillons in the book. In the musical, Ti Moune prays to the gods, "Oh Gods, Oh Gods, let me fly", she is praying for them to let her be free from the labor that she is forced to do and let her experience real life, in the book she wishes upon the papillons, it says "many of the papillons she had captured had a vague wish attached: one day...one day". This is the depiction of the song in the book in my opinion because it explains her longing for something which seems to be freedom because from reading, the papillons seem to represent hope for her, so she would be wishing for them to one day let her be free and she has that sense of hope that one day she will be free becaus she can rely on the papillons to listen to her. 

In the play she acts similarly but also different, in the book as we said, she has hopes, but instead of being passionate about them, she keeps them to herself and does what she is told but in the back of her mind she has this wanting to be free, this yearning for freedom. In the musical, she is way more passionate because its like she is singing to the world whereas in the book she is only talking to the papillons and the gods, in the musical she sings her song to the world, her song of hope and wanting. She talks about "the stranger" whereas in the book, she doesn't hear about the "stranger" until he crashes, he doesn't drive by fast, he doesn't drive by at all, she only wishes to the papillons to be free. But in the play she has a way louder voice than in the book, she makes it known that she wants freedom, she lets the world know that she wants it, but in the book it is between her, the butterflies and the gods. 

Both in the play and in the book does she despise living on the farm and working in the fields, in the play she shows more of a voice than all of ther other villagers but in the book she is more silent, the silent one on the farm who is often preoccupied doing other things. In the musical she voices her opinions on her parents when she says "mama's contented and tonton accepts what he gets". In the book you don't see this because she does not voice her opinions in the book as much although in the book she is rebellious, she goes down to the stream and soaks herself in the water which in a way is her quiet way of voicing her opinion and saying "I can be free, I can do what I want sometimes, I can be myself". Doing this is her way of kind of saying that she is sick and tired of being restrained to the fields and that she wants to have time to herself and connect with her inner self and to the gods to see if they understand or have even listened to any of her prayers. When she goes under water, she connects with Agwe, the god of water for obvious reasons, although it does not say what she thought or what happened, later in the book she talks about connecting with Agwe, which takes us back to that scene. In the book she is quieter than she is in the play but is still rebellious and shows the world in both depictions that she will not be confined to the quarters of the fields.

These 3 reasons are how the musical has represented certain aspects of the book in similar ways. It has taken similar ideas and put them differently, such as the part about being rebellious and having a voice. I feel like voice is bigger in the play than it is in the novel just because you want to show the audience that there is some voice in Ti Moune but she only shows it when others aren't around which is kind of how it is in the book,  although she only wishes upon the papillons, so the play depicts how she does have a voice but only when others aren't around. The play and the book are indeed very similar in their elements and cores.