Connection to Edwidge Danticat's "Children of the Sea" and "Between the Pool and Gardinias"

     When reading both of these short stories I found a common link to both these stories that I would like to share.  First is the use of the color red in all the stories in "Children of the Sea"  The male character mentions:  "White sheets with bright spots float as our sail.  When I got on board I thought I could still smell the semen and the innocence lost to those sheets."  Also, in "Between the Pool and Gardinias" the dead child's name is Rose.  I think the color red symbolizes a loss of innocence.  Whether it be whoever's virginity was lost to those sheets or the poor innocent baby who lost its life by being abandoned.
     Second, the use of butterflies in these two stories symbolizes death.  At the end of "Children and the Sea" the female character is mentioning being surrounded by butterflies at the news of a ship her lover might have been on sinking.  This could be symbolizing her lover's death.  In "Between the Pool and Gardinias"  it has a line that says:  "The child was wearing an embroidered little blue dress with the letters R-O-S-E on a butterfly collar."  This could be symbolizing that the child that this women found is indeed a dead child.
     One of the big connections that I picked up in these stories is the connection between Celianne's baby in "Children of the Sea" and the dead baby found in "Between the Pool and Gardinias."  Celianne at the end of "Children and the Sea"  throws her dead baby out of the ship.  In "Between the Pool and Gardinias" the baby is found dead near a sewer opening and the main character describes:  "She was like baby moses in the Bible stories they read to us at Baptist Literary Class.  Or Baby Jesus,..."  The author I believe is making a connection between both babies one being lost to the water and one being found in it.  Also the main  character in "Between the Pool and Gardinias"  mentions wanting to name the baby and then lists a whole bunch of names one being Celianne the mother of the baby lost in "Children of the Sea."
    I believe both stories are stories of not only the loss of innocence but also hope and looking for companionship.  The female character in "Children of the Sea" is longing for the companion ship with the male character if they ever see each other again.  In "Between the Pool and Gardinias"  the main character who didn't have a great marriage longs for that husband and wife companionship and she longs for a mother daughter companion ship.  I found this theme to be very strong in both of the stories.