Breath, Eyes, Memory

Imagine being a young girl living in Haiti, enjoying your day and suddenly you are being raped. What if every night your mother tested you, against your will, to see if you were still ‘whole’. In the book Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat, characters experience a lot of trauma and they react to it in many ways. The main character Sophie and her mother, Martine, both internalize their trauma at the beginning of the book, but throughout the course of the book Sophie learns that it is okay to

In the book Breath Eyes Memory by Edwin Dedicat, Sophie lived in a time and place where there were significant societal issues. As pertains to Haiti, genders are not seen as equal with women put under pressure to conform to the masculine idea of what a female should look and act like. In the book, a woman’s fingers symbolize her purpose in life, with each of her ten fingers representing a different role, such as loving and washing. Sophie’s aunt, Tante Atie, reflects on this stating, “The men in

Every fault you see in them touches a denied weakness in yourself.”(Deepka Chopra). In Breath, Eyes, Memory, Martine and Sophie both had many struggles that were caused or involved by one another. Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Edwidge Danticat, is an intriguing story about an impoverished, close knit family that experiences many challenges through another due to their many differences. Throughout Breath, Eyes, Memory, Danticat uses hyperbole, imagery, and symbolism to develop that struggle within a person

First quote “Some of the students fell and rolled down the hill. They screamed at the soldiers that they were once again betraying the people. One girl rushed down the hill and grabbed one of the soldiers by the arm. He raised his pistol and pounded it on top of her head. She fell to the ground, her face covered with her own blood” (pg.34) The passage, with all the descriptive words, had shown the unstable situation, political violence in Haiti. By this passage, readers can see the life in Haiti

The novel, Breath Eyes Memory by Edwidge Danticat, was one of strength, sadness, understanding, struggles, and healing. While this goes for almost every character in the story, these trials and tribulations were endured by the main Character Sophie. Sophie who lived in Haiti as a young child, was a quiet and respectful child. The way we can tell that she was is because it is noted that good children cleaned the yards of the parents or caretakers. Good children did not interfere in adult conversations

Especially for adults and adolescents confessing when a mistake is made is nearly impossible. Yet everyone male, female, young and old make mistakes. It is natural for a person to make multitudinous mistakes throughout their lifetime. In the book Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat the main character, Sophie Caco, has a laborious time confessing to her selfish mistakes leading to her being torn between her self love and love with her husband.. For someone to admit to his or her mistakes to themselves

In Breath, Eyes, Memory, Edwidge Danticat explores the conflict that exist between Sophie and her mother, Martine. Sophie states, “There’s a difference between what a person wants and what’s good for them” (Danticat 72) because what Sophie wants for herself is different than what her mother believes is good for her. Martine’s belief of what is good for her daughter are based on her own life experiences and what she has learned from them. Danticat makes it clear in the text that Martine believes Sophie

In 1492, Christopher Columbus founded an island in the western Atlantic Ocean and he named it Hispaniola. Hispaniola was inhabited by the Arawaks, and they were the ones responsible for later giving Haiti its name. Haiti soon became one of France’s most prosperous colonies in the America’s, and it also became one of the world’s leading chief coffee and sugar producers. Around the 18th century settlement began to expand here, and Haiti was settled by Creoles, slaves, Frenchmen, and freed blacks

Memories can in a way define who we are and how we progress through life. Memories can be a pathway to either follow the straight and narrow or to have us decide which fork of the road to take. Past memories can help to identify a person and can effect the future that follows. Through the journy of self discovery, Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow and Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory suggest one must relive past and present memories to find their true identity in the future. Avey Johnson

Symbolism in The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat       Edwidge Danticat's novel, The Farming of Bones is an epic portrayal of the relationship between Haitians and Dominicans under the rule of Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo leading up to the Slaughter of 1937. The novel revolves around a few main concepts, these being birth, death, identity, and place and displacement. Each of the aspects is represented by an inanimate object. Water, dreams, twins, and masks make up these representations