New York Day Women Summary

A young professional American woman of Haitian descent is the narrator of the piece. She works at an advertising firm in Manhattan and she commutes from Brooklyn, where she still lives with her mother. Her mother is called a "day woman," which is roughly akin to a housewife, a woman who stays at home and who does not have a job per se.

On her lunch break, this young woman happens to see her mother on the street in Manhattan. This surprises her greatly, because she thinks of her mother as never leaving Brooklyn, never leaving her small "comfort zone." Intrigued, the young woman follows her mother, unnoticed.

The mother does some window-shopping at the expensive stores on Madison Avenue. She walks with a cheerful gait, not seeming to be intimidated by the hustle and bustle of...