Trauma in Breath, Eyes Memory Psychological trauma is one way a distressing event can affect someone, and can lead to long-term post-traumatic stress disorders. The novel Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat follows the life of a young girl, Sophie, who leaves her home in Haiti to live with her mother in New York. Her mother, Martine, is a survivor of rape and “testing”, a method used by mothers to determine whether their daughters are still virgins. Sophie is “tested” by Martine during her teenage years, and is also subject to emotional abuse by her. Throughout the novel, both Martine and Sophie’s struggles are depicted as they contend with their burdens. Danticat uses characterization and plot structure to illustrate the significant, …show more content…
Through her use of plot, Danticat shows how deeply and strongly trauma can affect a person. One way the plot supports this theme is through conflict. After a while of living with Sophie, Martine begins to suspect her of having a boyfriend. She then begins to “test” Sophie, as well as emotionally neglecting her. This affects Sophie deeply, enough to drive her to a drastic act of self-harm: she breaks her own hymen with a pestle. Sophie describes the deed: “My flesh ripped apart as I pressed the pestle into it. I could see the blood dripping down onto the bed sheet. I took the pestle and bloody sheet and stuffed them into a bag. It was gone, the veil that always held my mother’s finger back every time she tested me”(88). This illustrates the lengths Sophie would go to in order to escape her mother’s abuse, as well as the strength of her resolve. She completed her act with the resolution of carrying a scar forever. From this quote, it can be inferred that Sophie felt so cornered she felt injuring herself was her only way out. As the book progresses, Sophie must face her own feelings about her mother, who has sexually and emotionally abused her. Her conflict is focused on her struggle to figuring out how to interact with her mother,
The characters’ struggles, dreams,
Using his primary expressive purpose, Danticat talks about his memories from his time living in Westbury Court. Much if not all of these happen to be rather violent memories, such as whenever his father's camera being stolen, or when a cabdriver was shot in front of the apartments. However the only memory he remembers most fondly
Characters of literature embody their unique personal qualities from elements of their lives. A merging of expectations and their environment, though neither in perfect balance, molds the two Wes Moore’s, Telemachus, and Elie Weisel, and determines their overall identity. Influencing expectations include those others form of them, or those they form for themselves. Living space, living place, stresses of life, and the people they live with are all factors of environment. Through these specific aspects of life, characters become further developed.
Katie Nolan, Francie’s mother, is the main reason that Francie is able to survive her arduous childhood and succeed in life. Food, heat and protection are always available to the Nolan children even if it means that Katie has to work multiple jobs or even sacrifice some of her own needs. Katie gives all she can to provide for her children and Francie truly values her mother’s hard work. Francie appreciates her mother’s thougtful acts, but still, Francie develops
She uses her final art piece to display her mental state and bring awareness to what she went
The book follows Carolyn, the only uninjured survivor, as she recounts her traumatic experience. During this, Carolyn tells of her friend Sara the only other survivor who suffered blindness because of the bombing. By Carolyn sharing her story it allows people who have been through trauma of their own to feel understood and not alone. On the other hand, readers didn’t have to experience trauma to relate. Common emotions of grief and anger were shown throughout the book, which most people can relate to.
The maturation and growth of each character is displayed with the imagery of each transition. Cecelia recognizes the shift in Briony’s expression of frustration with her, as she “smoothed the jagged triangle of paper and thought how her little sister was changing... addressing Briony’s problems
Another example from the novel that shows the difficulties people
Although Martin’s family faces dilemmas, the love in the family remains evident. Initially, the devotion that Martin shows towards his children illustrates his good nature. Martin views his children’s faces as “radiant as flower petals, equally loved” (103). Moreover illustrating his love for his children, Martin “kissed the tiny hand that lay palm-upward” (103). Furthermore, Martin’s hope to hold his family together exhibits his affection for his family. Martin constantly attempts to calm his wife in order to avoid displays of anger(101). “Please go upstairs,”(101) Martin begs of his wife so the children do not get upset seeing their mother frustrated. Lastly, the physical and emotional desire for Emily that Martin has, further shows how he cares for his family. Comforting his wife, Martin exhibits his love for her(104). Martin watched Emily as she slept and his “old anger vanished”(104).
The author uses descriptive language to provide the reader with an insight into Martins journey. For example, Martin is aware that his Mother and Old Ted have a difficult relationship, she says “he is an impossible man, as mad as an axe” (pg 4). Another
The theme of this book is that the human capacity to adapt to and find happiness in the most difficult circumstances. Each character in the novel shows this in their way. For instance, their family is randomly taken from their home and forced to
1. Throughout the story suspense is aroused and maintained excellently. This is achieved by the character the author creates. Mr. Martin is characterized as a neat and cautious man, who never took a smoke or a drink in his life. Our suspense is aroused when the author states that it has been “a week to the day since Mr. Martin had decided to rub out Mrs. Ulgine Barrows”. This arouses our suspense because we are told Mr. Martin is planning to murder this woman. The suspense is maintained with Mr. Martin’s thoughts. We as an audience are given his thoughts through the use of the 3rd person omniscient point of view. His thoughts are mostly on the issue on his dislike of Mrs. Barrows. Because of this, he
If we had an option to wipe out our memory, would we choose to forget about the events that involved actual or threatened death, serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of ourselves or others? For soldiers, it may be losing a close comrade in a war. For me or any other ordinary individuals, they may be natural or human-made disasters, violent personal attack, torture or even sexually abuse(Parekh). The truth is, we don’t want to be reminded of any of these terrible events that took away a small portion of our lives.
At the beginning, it is seen that a 19-year-old girl, who works as a waitress at the Five and Ten restaurant named Florentine is the main focus, but the novel revolves around Florentine’s mother, Rose-Anna. Rose-Anna represents many themes throughout the story such as, personal loss, struggle and solitude, which presents her as a round character. Firstly, Rose-Anna experiences loss when she loses three of her eleven children at a young age, she lost her son Daniel who died from Leukemia, her son Eugène and her husband Azarius to the war and Florentine to marriage. Her loss is only a part of her struggles, Rose-Anna and her family struggle through life because they live in poverty. Rose-Anna represents struggle because she must take care of eleven children as well as another one coming on the way. While, Florentine and Eugène are forced to work for a living to earn money for rent and food, instead of going to school. This demonstrates Rose-Anna as a round character because she always blamed Azarius for their poverty, but by the end, she realized that “she always held [Azarius] responsible for their poverty, but now it seemed to her he had done his part” (Roy 372). The last theme that
From the very first part, the reader is introduced to literary work of the thirteen year-old Briony, and through it, the reader can see how she tends to use literature to affect others’ lives. She believes that the fictive world of literature can affect the real world. Also, Briony views people around her as characters. As she imagines her brother’s reaction to the play she wrote for him. She imagines: