Breath, Eyes, and Memory is about the story of a young girl, Sophie, who reunites with a mother she hardly knows. As the years go by, Sophie learns of the horrifying past of her mother. Consequently, she inherits this past and experiences her own pain and suffering. It is through this that makes Sophie and her mother closer to one another.
In reading this story, it was hard for me to understand why the rape of Sophie’s mother would continue to consume her entire life. I know that it was a very traumatic event, but I would imagine that she would have gotten over it as she was more removed from it, in both time and place. She moved from Haiti to the United States to get away from this, but wherever she was it would still haunt her. As she got older, it seemed to get worse and worse. But it was towards the end of the story, where we are given a clue as to why Sophie’s mother lived in this constant state of fear. Sophie’s therapist tells her that her mother never gave him a face and that’s why he’s a shadow and that’s why he controls her (209). Without a face, it could be any man that could have raped her. Thus, it seems to make sense as to why she would be consumed by this rape. For Sophie’s mother to move past this, she would have to confront her fear and give this man a face. However, it was too late for her. She let the man who raped her get the best of her.
1 comment:
Sometimes there are moments in ones life that they will never forget. I know of a couple of people who have been raped who deal with that event every day. Not to the extent of Sophie's mother with her dreams, but it affects their relationships with men daily. I think that it is just hard for us to understand the severity of the event because we have never lived in Sophie's mother's shoes. You never really can tell how a person feels until you have experienced the same thing. You have to just realize that people cannot always let go of the past and especially since Martine's life was so hard from moving away from her family that probably made matters worse. She might have been trying to move away to forget the rapist but it might have made things worse because she didnt have a support system.
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