Breath, Eyes, Memory

The novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Edwidge Danticat depicts the importance of a woman's sexuality. Sexuality both confines and frees the women in this novel. It is very evident that Sophie's mother was a prisoner to her sexuality as a result of being raped when she was young. This instance forever affected her. It was interesting to note that the grandmother stopped "testing" her after this instant becuase it was obvious she was no longer considered "pure" in the virginal sense. I believe that failing this "test" helped Sophie's mother be ashamed of her sexuality. It did not help to mend the wounds from the rape. These instances gave Sophie's mother a negative view of sexuality which she unconciously passed on to Sophie. Sophie was unable to see her mother as a sexual human being, even after her mother got pregnant. The book states, "Too sexual to be linked with your mother? I think you have a Madonna image of your mother. Part of you feels that this child is a testimonial of her true sexuality. It's a child she concieved willingly. Maybe she is not able to face that" (220). Sophie's therapist sees that through what Sophie says her mother is unable to face her sexulaity and embrace it. Instead she is constantly confined and enslaved by it and all the negative feelings that come along with it that have forever been instilled. I believe that this enslavement is what eventually caused her to kill herself. There was no way to free herself from these negative feelings. Sophie was similarily enslaved by the negativity associated with her sexuality. The "testing" experience as a child was obviously very traumatizing, but also forced Sophie to see that expressing her sexuality in any way was not appropriate and considered a bad thing. This played out in her in married life when she was unable to have relations with her husband. She felt these things as more of a duty, than acts of love and affection. I do not know if Sophie's self mutalation actuality gave her a sense a freedom. The book states, "I was bound to be happy in a place called Providence. A place that destiny was calling me to. Fate! A town named after the Creator, the Almighty. Who would not want to live there?" (89). It seems that it did because she left and got married and went to a place where she thought she would be happy, but the affects of it afterword seem to only negatively affect her sexuality. It is interesting to consider both Sophie and her mother at this point. Her mother would have rather been "tested" than raped, and when the "testing" stopped it had a more negative affect on her allowing her to relive the rape and further instilling in her that she was unpure. Sophie, on the other hand would do anything to stop the testing, and went so far to mutalate herself so that her mother would think she was unpure. Why was purity so much more important for her mother, and why did not Sophie EVER tell her mother what happened? Another thing to consider, why did not Tante Atie or her grandmother ever "test" Sophie?

The joys of motherhood correction

The correct page number for the second quote is 205 not 25. Thanks.

The JOYS of Motherhood

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. Buchi Emechta does a great job of describing both the joys and hardships of motherhood, especially for Nigerian women in particular. By the end of the novel,
I felt horrible for Nnu Ego and her husband, Nnaife. The end of the novel was very ironic. In their culture nothing was held at a higher standard than becoming a mother, and it was an even higher honor if those children were sons. The importance of children can be demonstrated in the novel when Nnu Ego's first husband is glad she is leaving. He says, "Let her go," he consoled himself, "she is as barren as a desert" (39). A wife was not worth much if she did not have children to carry the family name on. After Nnu Ego leaves and marries Nnaife she does become pregnant and throughout the novel nine children with seven that survive. However, even with all these children, she does not feel honorable most of the time, and ironically, her husband does not feel lucky at all by the end of the novel. The children have not been a blessing, they have broken him and he feels that they will kill him before he is ready. It is interesting to think if it would have been drastically different had the family moved back to Ibuza, where things were much simplier. Nnaife was a "modern" man when compared to the men of Ibuza, but when his family matured, he retreated back to his traditional Ibuza values. I feel that this was the beginning of his downfall. He had worked so hard his entire life, and had pressured his oldest son Oshia to be the best man that he could be, yet by the end of the novel he was blaming Oshia for killing him and not taking care of him. The son, though, felt that the best way he could take care of his parents was by studying hard and going to school so that the could eventually make all the money in the world. He had developed this idea from both his parents, yet he was scolded for it when acting that way himself. Both he and Nnu Ego had raised these children in a modern, urban like setting. The children had not been exposed to the traditional values of Ibuza, which both their parents held inside them. When the children matured and got older it seemed like they disappointed their parents more often than not. This was because they did not understand the importance of taking care of your parents in old age, and marrying within your tribe; they did not understand the importance of traditional Ibuza values that their parents had because they had not been broughout up that way for most of their life. Nnanife thoughts about his matured children are expressed when the novel states, "Why, he had thought the woman's children were a blessing to him. Now he was beginning to see that they were a curse" (25). It would be interesting to see how much joy the children would have brought had they been raised with the traditional Ibuza values.