Women in Society
The book Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat, tells the story of a young Haitian girl named Sophie Caco, her mother Martine, and the journey they both have as being women in their Haitian society. Being a woman in their society is especially difficult considering the poverty that they are specifically a custom to. Not only that, but considering Sophie’s mother Martine’s case, the fact that she is raped by the notorious Ton-Ton Macoute makes being a woman there very disliked. Women in the area from where Sophie and Martine were from grew up by a set of moral rules in their lives. One of the biggest examples of this is being a virgin until marriage. The symbolism with that demonstrates that the family is very loyal and responsible in the sense that they can raise a family and carry on a tradition such as this one of purity. Daticant shows many examples of how being a woman in this society works and the difficulties that come with it when it comes to things such as being a pure woman all the way to the reputation of a Haitian family. Sophie’s Aunt Atie tells her “Your mother and I, when we were children we had no control over anything. Not even this body” (20). In a way, this was Atie’s way of telling Sophie to take control of the chance in life she has unlike her mother and aunt and their life in Haiti. Especially when Sophie’s mother and aunt were young they had even less control over their life choices because of the moral laws they went by for their life as demonstrated by their ancestors. Now in Sophie’s time things have changed a little bit in the sense that she can have a better life elsewhere and not have to confine to the strict rules of that society. For a chance at a better life, Sophie is invited to stay with her mother Martine in New York. Sophie and her mother have not seen each other in quite sometime because Martine escaped Haiti after a bad experience. A notorious group in Haiti called the Ton-Ton Macoute had raped her and Sophie was the result of that incident. Martine had tried to stay away for so long because not only did she feel like she had let her family name down, but the just the sight of her own daughter made her so emotional and angry because of the trauma of being raped. Martine tells Sophie “If you make something of yourself in life, we will all succeed. You can raise our heads” (44). She tells her this, I believe, in thinking that she will in someway follow in her mother’s original footsteps in wanting to be a doctor. Sophie though totally rejects that idea of so called “higher achievement” that her mother so desperately desires for her. She tells her mother that she would rather be a secretary than a doctor. I wondered why she would just totally turn down something as great as trying to be a doctor, which would be a great and successful job. I think that Sophie just did not want to become what her mother thought she should be because of the fact that it kind of felt like she was being controlled just like as if she was back in Haiti. Going to the United States after being in a controlling place, like where Sophie was from, should be a relief and a sign to be able to do whatever your heart truly desires. Sophie sought that and proved it to her mother when she told her off about being a doctor. When it comes to even more serious life choices, as it relates to the culture that Sophie represents, the idea of being a virgin comes to be a big deal in this story. According to an article by Joan Dayan entitled Erzulie: A Women’s History of Haiti the Haitian goddess is named Erzulie and is a goddess of love and the Virgin Mary (5-6). This is very serious in the woman of this culture because they want to be very respectful of their goddess and obey their morals. In the case of Sophie in Breath, Eyes, Memory, she eventually uses a pestle to break her hymen. She says “breaking manacles, an act of freedom” (133). She says freedom seriously because she is trying to gain everyway to not be represented in that culture that she was born from. Obviously, this was not the only way she showed acts of wanting freedom. Although, all these acts she as made have had something to do with the serious nature of the moral laws she has as a woman of the Haitian culture. She has told her mom that she does not want to follow her advice and she has made it clear that leaving Haiti was what she wanted so she can have a better life with out strict cultural laws. Sophie using the pestle to break her hymen was serious because being a virgin until marriage was one of the most serious things in a Haitian woman’s life. It was already a struggle for Martine to deal with the fact that she could not control that for herself, so for Sophie to do that as a statement is dishonoring to her family in a big way. Another way that this story is related with women’s lives also has to do with the men in their lives. Haitian women have to live in a way where they have to be pure till marriage, so that also means you have to have the right guy. Both Sophie and Martine have men in their lives that are questionable to both their heritage as a Haitian woman and just as a person in general. Joseph, Sophie’s boyfriend, and Marc, Martine’s husband, are the two main male characters in the story. Both men, when it comes to both Sophie and Martine, they are someone that helps them in a sense gets them out of the situation of respecting the laws from the Haitian culture. Martine is with Marc to try to escape her past from Haiti, while Sophie is with Joseph to escape from her mother trying to control her, because her mom wants what is best for her. Martine believes Sophie is better off with living the Haitian lifestyle because she does not want her daughter to mess up her life.

The book Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Edwidge Danticat is a brilliant example of the struggles of Haitian women in Haiti. She uses the lives of Sophie and her mother Martine to show how life was for Haitian women at a time in the world. Overall, this book was not something that I honestly wanted to read. I did not get very interested in the book, but I believe and I am interested in the reality of the book. It tells an amazing story of these two women and their lives and the examples such as Martine’s rape, all the way to Sophie trying to push away from her mother to be with a guy shows great realness in the story. Haitian women in Haiti have a huge problem when it comes to their way of living. The examples in the book were real in their own way to the fact that these things actually do happen to women in Haiti. Most of this stuff is happening because of how they have a poor way of living in a society controlled like that. It is a continued struggle for women everyday and there is always hope in these women to try to get a better life.