Wednesday, November 28, 2007
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?
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I also did not understand why Sophie did not tell her mother what she had done to herself. I think someone said in class that maybe she didn't want to feel guilty about wilingly leaving her mother, so she made herself seem "unpure" so that her mother would want her gone and she would not have to carry that guilt. I feel as if Sophie knew what it was like to be abandoning someone, like the situation with her aunt, so she did not want to cause even more hurt with her leaving her mother. But, I did not really understand why Sophie would not tell her mother the truth in the end when they had a good relationship again. It was a huge event in Sophie's life, and I think it would have been best if she just told her mother the truth. Maybe if she had told her mother, it would have helped her negative feelings towards sexuality diminish.
I mentioned how her mother would view her differently for what she had done. It was a major event in her life and she felt guilt regarding it. She lost her purity and a part of who she was. Losing her sexuality made her a new person and she viewed herself in the different. She did not want her mother to have negative feelings towards her for something she had done. I think it is odd how somebody can fear telling their mother something like that. I understand it would be awkward, however, in their culture, it always seems like they have an open relationship between mother and daughter.
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