American Street

by

Ibi Zoboi

Chantal is Fabiola’s cousin; she’s Matant Jo and Phillip’s oldest child and Pri and Donna’s sister. While Fabiola describes Chantal as petite and pretty, Chantal doesn’t agree—she feels ugly and ungainly. Of the three siblings, Chantal is the smart, bookish one. She was a stellar high school student and attended a fancy prep school on a scholarship, which gave Matant Jo hope that Chantal would be able to also attend a university on a scholarship. However, because Chantal is close with her family—and because, as a resident alien, she doesn’t quality for financial aid—she chooses to stay home and attend community college. She feels it’s her responsibility to take care of Matant Jo, Pri, and Donna after Matant Jo has a stroke. Fabiola finds Chantal sensible and levelheaded, so she tries to emulate Chantal when it comes to academics. As Chantal and Fabiola grow closer, Chantal reveals that she still feels very Haitian, despite having spent most of her life in Detroit. She’s studying to become a doctor, and she uses the anatomical metaphor that Haiti is her bones and muscles, while America is her skin. Because of her immigration status, Chantal often wonders if life would have been better had she grown up in Haiti, surrounded by family and Haitian culture. Chantal is the first of Fabiola’s cousins to decide that Fabiola deserves to know the truth about the family’s history. She tells Fabiola about Matant Jo’s job as a loan shark, and she encourages Fabiola to understand that everyone needs money to survive—this is why Chantal, Pri, and Donna now sell drugs. It’s silly, Chantal suggests, to look down on people for making money any specific way when money is a necessity. In this sense, Chantal becomes one of Fabiola’s most important mentors, as she introduces Fabiola to uncomfortable truths about life in Detroit and what success in the city can look like.

Chantal François Quotes in American Street

The American Street quotes below are all either spoken by Chantal François or refer to Chantal François. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Dignity and the American Dream Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

The living room of this house, my new home, is a sea of beige leather. The furniture crowds the small space as if every inch of it is meant for sitting. I’ve seen bigger salons in the mansions atop the hills of Petionville, even fancier furniture and wider flat-screen TVs. But none of that belonged to me and my mother; none of the owners were family. Here, I can sit on the leather couches for as long as I want and watch all the movies in the world as if I’m in the cinema.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Chantal François, Matant Jo François, Manman/Valerie Toussaint
Related Symbols: The House at 8800 American Street
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:
Princess’s Story Quotes

Ma named us Primadonna and Princess ‘cause she thought being born in America to a father with a good-paying job at a car factory and a house and a bright future meant that we would be royalty. But when our father got killed, that’s when shit fell apart.

Related Characters: Pri/Princess François (speaker), Fabiola Toussaint, Donna/Primadonna François, Chantal François, Matant Jo François, Phillip/Jean-Phillip François
Related Symbols: The House at 8800 American Street
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

She stares at the magic things for a while without touching them before she asks, “Does it work?”

“Well,” I say. “Has anyone ever tried to kill you?” I have to speak loudly over the music.

Pri turns around and closes the bedroom door, muting the music a bit.

“Kill me? Ain’t nobody rolling up in this house to kill anyone.”

“I know. We made it so. Me and my mother. Every day we asked the lwas to protect our family in Detroit and their house,” I say, adjusting my bra.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Pri/Princess François (speaker), Donna/Primadonna François, Chantal François, Matant Jo François, Manman/Valerie Toussaint
Related Symbols: The House at 8800 American Street
Page Number: 76
Explanation and Analysis:
Chantal’s Story Quotes

Creole and Haiti stick to my insides like glue—it’s like my bones and muscles. But America is my skin, my eyes, and my breath. According to my papers, I’m not even supposed to be here. I’m not a citizen. I’m a “resident alien.” The borders don’t care if we’re all human and my heart pumps blood the same as everyone else’s.

Related Characters: Chantal François (speaker), Fabiola Toussaint, Matant Jo François
Page Number: 116-17
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

But I don’t want to look like a church lady. I still want to look...good. So I take off my mother’s church dress and put on a plain sweatshirt that belongs to Chantal and a pair of new jeans. I wear the Air Jordans that Pri picked out for me, but I keep my hairstyle. Now I don’t look so...Haitian. So immigrant.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Pri/Princess François, Donna/Primadonna François, Chantal François, Manman/Valerie Toussaint, Ezili/Ezili-Danto
Page Number: 138
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21 Quotes

“Catholic school for all three of us out here was just pennies. But your ass over there in Haiti cost her like twenty Gs every year. Your school, money for your mom, your clothes. Hell, all this time, Ma thought y’all were building a mansion near the beach and she swore she’d go back down there to retire.

“But she’s getting sick. We don’t want her to do this loan-sharking shit anymore. Money was running out. We still gotta live, Fab. We still gotta breathe. Money’s just room to breathe, that’s all.”

Related Characters: Chantal François (speaker), Fabiola Toussaint, Matant Jo François, Manman/Valerie Toussaint
Page Number: 212
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 29 Quotes

I want to say sorry to Chantal. I want to ask her why, with all that money, they never bought a house here. I want to ask her why, with all her brains, is she selling drugs.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Kasim, Chantal François
Page Number: 295
Explanation and Analysis:
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American Street PDF

Chantal François Quotes in American Street

The American Street quotes below are all either spoken by Chantal François or refer to Chantal François. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Dignity and the American Dream Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

The living room of this house, my new home, is a sea of beige leather. The furniture crowds the small space as if every inch of it is meant for sitting. I’ve seen bigger salons in the mansions atop the hills of Petionville, even fancier furniture and wider flat-screen TVs. But none of that belonged to me and my mother; none of the owners were family. Here, I can sit on the leather couches for as long as I want and watch all the movies in the world as if I’m in the cinema.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Chantal François, Matant Jo François, Manman/Valerie Toussaint
Related Symbols: The House at 8800 American Street
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:
Princess’s Story Quotes

Ma named us Primadonna and Princess ‘cause she thought being born in America to a father with a good-paying job at a car factory and a house and a bright future meant that we would be royalty. But when our father got killed, that’s when shit fell apart.

Related Characters: Pri/Princess François (speaker), Fabiola Toussaint, Donna/Primadonna François, Chantal François, Matant Jo François, Phillip/Jean-Phillip François
Related Symbols: The House at 8800 American Street
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

She stares at the magic things for a while without touching them before she asks, “Does it work?”

“Well,” I say. “Has anyone ever tried to kill you?” I have to speak loudly over the music.

Pri turns around and closes the bedroom door, muting the music a bit.

“Kill me? Ain’t nobody rolling up in this house to kill anyone.”

“I know. We made it so. Me and my mother. Every day we asked the lwas to protect our family in Detroit and their house,” I say, adjusting my bra.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Pri/Princess François (speaker), Donna/Primadonna François, Chantal François, Matant Jo François, Manman/Valerie Toussaint
Related Symbols: The House at 8800 American Street
Page Number: 76
Explanation and Analysis:
Chantal’s Story Quotes

Creole and Haiti stick to my insides like glue—it’s like my bones and muscles. But America is my skin, my eyes, and my breath. According to my papers, I’m not even supposed to be here. I’m not a citizen. I’m a “resident alien.” The borders don’t care if we’re all human and my heart pumps blood the same as everyone else’s.

Related Characters: Chantal François (speaker), Fabiola Toussaint, Matant Jo François
Page Number: 116-17
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

But I don’t want to look like a church lady. I still want to look...good. So I take off my mother’s church dress and put on a plain sweatshirt that belongs to Chantal and a pair of new jeans. I wear the Air Jordans that Pri picked out for me, but I keep my hairstyle. Now I don’t look so...Haitian. So immigrant.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Pri/Princess François, Donna/Primadonna François, Chantal François, Manman/Valerie Toussaint, Ezili/Ezili-Danto
Page Number: 138
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21 Quotes

“Catholic school for all three of us out here was just pennies. But your ass over there in Haiti cost her like twenty Gs every year. Your school, money for your mom, your clothes. Hell, all this time, Ma thought y’all were building a mansion near the beach and she swore she’d go back down there to retire.

“But she’s getting sick. We don’t want her to do this loan-sharking shit anymore. Money was running out. We still gotta live, Fab. We still gotta breathe. Money’s just room to breathe, that’s all.”

Related Characters: Chantal François (speaker), Fabiola Toussaint, Matant Jo François, Manman/Valerie Toussaint
Page Number: 212
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 29 Quotes

I want to say sorry to Chantal. I want to ask her why, with all that money, they never bought a house here. I want to ask her why, with all her brains, is she selling drugs.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Kasim, Chantal François
Page Number: 295
Explanation and Analysis: