Breath, Eyes, Memory (Chpts. 28-35)

Breath, Eyes, Memory
By: Edwidge Danticat
Pages: 177-234

• Summary

Part 4
During the first chapter a lot of things are revealed about Sophie and Martine. Martine has breast cancer and Sophie developed bulimia when she got married. Sophie spends the night with her mother and their relationship seems to be more understanding. This is probably because Sophie now goes through the same things as her mother and understands her better.
Martine tells Sophie that she is pregnant. Martine doesn't want to keep the baby because it makes the nightmares worse and it feels like she's getting raped every night.
Sophie feels as if her and Martine's relationship with each other is more now and she feels like they have become twins.
In order to deal with her nightmares and hard times Sophie goes to a sexual phobia group with three other women. She also sees a therapist. During her meeting with her therapist Sophie admits that she fears abandonment from everyone in her life except from her daughter. The therapist recommends that Sophie go back with Martine to the place where she was raped so they could both confront it and leave it behind.
During a family dinner with Joseph, Sophie, Marc, and Martine,Martine tells Sophie her decision to get rid of the baby inside of her.A couple of days later Marc calls about the death of Martine. She was found lying in the bathroom surrounded by blood. She had stabbed herself in the stomach 17 times.
Sophie left her suspicions of Marc behind and went to Haiti to follow her mother's wishes of being burried in Haiti. Sophie chose to bury her mother all in bright red. During the procession Sophie ran into the cane fields. The book ends wonderfully when Sophie's grandmother comes to Sophie in the cane fields and puts her hands on her shoulder and explains how "you will hear your mother telling a story and at the end of the tale, she will ask you this question: 'Ou libere?' Are you free, my daughter?"

• Quote

"I come from a place where breath, eyes, and memory are one, a place from which you carry your past like the hair on your head. Where women return to their children as butterflies or as tears in the eyes of the statues that their daughters pray to. My mother was as brave as stars at dawn. She too was from this place. My mother was like that woman who could never bleed and then could never stop bleeding, the one who gave in to her pain, to live as a butterfly. Yes, my mother was like me" (Danticat 234).

• Reaction

This is in the last chapter when Sophie runs into the cane fields during the funeral procession of her mother's death. These are Sophie's thoughts. I think that when she runs into the cane fields it was her way of freeing herself. She came to the realization of how similar her and her mother was. They were both brave and sought to live longer than their nightmares. Though her mother didn't win the fight Sophie can use this as a time to confront all of her fears. She can confront and then leave behind all her troubles and the source of all the mishaps in her life. I really liked this quote because it included the title in it. I think the title shows how her current life, what she sees, and her pass are all one. This is the world in which Sophie and her mother came from. Their past followed them throughout their whole lives. Now with Sophie it all ends and she is finally free.

Breath, Eyes, Memory (Chpts. 21-27)

Breath, Eyes, Memory
By: Edwidge Danticat
Pages: 134-174

• Summary

In the beginning of the first chapter Tante Atie's change becomes more apparent when she starts drinking to forget her worries.
Sophie confronts her grandmother about the tests the mothers gave to their daughters. Her grandmother responds "if your child is disgraced, you are disgraced". This means that for whatever wrong doings a child has done then people will blame the parents not the child. Sophie explains her nightmares to her grandmother because she knows they will never go away. In the night both cry for each others pains.
Martine comes to Haiti to bring Sophie and Brigitte back to America. Before they leave Louise, Tante Atie's bestfriend, leave for America without telling her. Tante Atie is heartbroken and feels completely alone and betrayed.

• Quote

"The men in this area, they insist that their women are virgins and have ten fingers" (Danticat 151)."

• Reaction

This quote was said when Sophie decided to cook for her family in Haiti. She remembered something Tante Atie had said about the ten fingers. Each finger represents something: mothering, boiling, loving, baking, nursering, frying, healing, washing, ironing, and scrubbing. Also men have always wanted their women to be pure before they got married which is why mothers did the tests so their daughters would be married. I picked this quote because it was something that I thought wasn't right. Though those ten qualities are good for every one to have I don't think that they should be considered as a necessities by men.

Breath, Eyes, Memory (Chpts. 13-20)

Breath, Eyes, Memory
By: Edwidge Danticat
Pages: 93-133

• Summary

Part 3

Sophie returns to Haiti. With her is a baby girl named Brigitte. When she arrives she meets Tante Atie and goes back to her grandmother's home. Tante Atie has finally started to learn to write.

Sophie tells Tante Atie how Martine doesn't respond to any of her letters or phone calls.

In Haiti there are a lot of conflicts in Grandma Ife's home. Grandma doesn't like Tante Atie's best friend Louis. Also she doesn't like the way Atie has been acting ever since she moved to take care of her mother. Grandma feels if Atie is here to take care of her it should be because she wants to and not because Atie feels that it's her responsibility and has to do it.

Sophie talks about her marriage with her grandmother. Sophie left Providence as short vacation. She has been scared by the testings and because of it has become ashamed of her body. This causes her to not be able to perform with her husband. She has come to Haiti because she feels she should be somewhere on her own.

Grandma Ife and Atie receives a tape from Martine. The talked about the usual things, how things were going with herself. Martine then tell them about Joseph being worried about Sophie because he got home and didn't find her or Brigitte there.

• Quotation

" "I am empty, old woman," she said. "As empty as a dry calabash" (Danticat 126).

• Reaction

Tante Atie said this when Grandma Ife asked her to read something out of her notebook. I think what Atie said has a double meaning. After Sophie left her she didn't really have nothing to live for and she felt alone in the world. Because of that, she feels like her grandma's life is a burden to her because she feels forced to take care of her mother. So since Atie's feeling of having nothing to live for is the same as her being empty like she has nothing. When reading I felt bad for Sophie because she was going through a really tough time. It wis hard for her to forget what her mother did to her.

Breath, Eyes, Memory (Chpts. 7-12)

Breath, Eyes, Memory
By: Edwidge Danticat
Pages: 50-89

• Summary

Sophie's first day in New York is spent with her mother showing her a little around. Sophie gets to meet her mother's boyfriend, Marc, at dinner. Sophie's mother has to work hard to support herself and her family in Haiti. She shares her insecurities with Sophie about whether she had risen up to Sophie's expectations or not. She also shows her concern for Sophie and makes it known that it is her responsibility as her mother to make sure that Sophie stays a virgin.

During a talk between Sophie and her mother a secret is revealed. Sophie's mother had been raped in a cane field. Sophie then understands why she looks nothing like anyone in the family. Also the reasons behind her mother's nightmares is explained by this secret. Whenever Sophie's mother goes to sleep she sees his face over again and relives the frightful night.

Part 2

Years pass and Sophie and her mother moves to a house. Sophie is now 18 and is getting ready to go to college. During her years in the U.S. she did a lot of reading so she could speak without an accent.

Sophie fell in love at 18 with her neighbor. Her mother didn't approve of American boys because she thought he they were upset since they couldn't have Sophie. The person she fell in love with was much older than her and Sophie couldn't imagine her mother's approval for him. However, Sophie and Joseph got to know each other and wanted to get married. They got to spend a lot time together because Sophie's mother was always working.

Once Sophie tries telling her mother about Joseph. But Sophie ended up lying saying that she was in love with a Haitian man and was in Haiti. Sophie's mother used the last name Sophie gave her to find information on him. When her mother did Sophie began to panic.

One night Sophie went out with Joseph and when she came back home she didn't expect her mother to be there early and got caught. Sophie's mother was really worried and immediately guessed that she was with a guy. In order to see if Sophie was still a virgin her mother tested her which she passed. Testing is when the mother "would put her finger in our very private parts and see if it would go inside" (Danticat 60). After that experience Sophie understood why Tante Atie screamed when her mother had tested her as a child.

Sophie did not tell Joseph what happened. After the testings began, she and her mother rarely spoke to each other and Sophie felt all alone. So she used a pestle to stop the testings. The next time Martine, Sophie's mother, tested her Sophie failed and her mother got angry. Sophie left her home and went to Joseph before he left for Providence (since he was a musician he traveled a lot) and agreed to marry him.

• Quotation

"It took me two years to piece together my mother's entire story. By then, it was already too late" (Danticat 61).

• Reaction

This quote was said after Sophie found out that Martine was rapped which led to her pregnancy of Sophie. I think that later on Sophie is going to have a hard time understanding her mother. However, according to the quote she does figure things out later on. Maybe by the time Sophie figure things out something bad happens to her mother. I was very surprised to learn about the testing part. Maybe that was something a long time ago. I found it funny at one part of the book I've read so far. Marc, Martine , and Sophie were at a Haitian restaurant and an argument started. I thought it was funny because a typical Haitian restaurant you'd find a group of Haitian's arguing about the things that are happening in Haiti.