Breath, Eyes, Memory
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
Breath, Eyes, Memory, Edwidge Danticat’s first novel is about her childhood in Haiti and her move as a young girl to New York City. The novel is written in a first person narrative. The narrator, Sophie Caco, relates her direct experiences and impressions from age 12 until she is in her twenties. In this book she talks about her struggles with her mom’s depression and detail into their relationship, the violence going on in Haiti and her family back in Haiti like Atie, and Martine’s mother; and troubles finding herself and her freedom. In this novel there are also a lot of colliding, with culture, religion.. etc. For examples how different the schools were compared to Haiti and how different the U.S is compared to Haiti.
In this novel there was a collision with the way school was suppose to be run, there was confusion. “I do not want a pack of children teaching me how to read. The young should learn from the old. Not the other way” (Danticat 4). This was said because in Haiti and most highly cultural places, the young young from the old. Whether in school during a math class or when a young one loses their way and want to gain knowledge from an elder. It’s how it is, so for it to be the other way round, it jumbled minds. It showed how Sophie was still stuck in Haiti mentally, and she stayed there.
The minds of non-immigrants can be very ignorant, and thats exactly what the kids that called Sophie and her fellow haitians ‘boat people’ were. “Students from the public school across the street called us ‘boat people’ and ‘stinking Haitians’” (Danticat 66). A collision between race and culture clashed. The different foods they ate clashed, the way they talked clashed. It was as if Sophie wasn’t civilized. She was, but like stated earlier. They were ignorant. Sophie wondered why she was going to be in a place that didn’t make her feel at home. Maybe she should go back to Haiti because staying here with
Breath, Eyes, Memory, Edwidge Danticat’s first novel is about her childhood in Haiti and her move as a young girl to New York City. The novel is written in a first person narrative. The narrator, Sophie Caco, relates her direct experiences and impressions from age 12 until she is in her twenties. In this book she talks about her struggles with her mom’s depression and detail into their relationship, the violence going on in Haiti and her family back in Haiti like Atie, and Martine’s mother; and troubles finding herself and her freedom. In this novel there are also a lot of colliding, with culture, religion.. etc. For examples how different the schools were compared to Haiti and how different the U.S is compared to Haiti.
In this novel there was a collision with the way school was suppose to be run, there was confusion. “I do not want a pack of children teaching me how to read. The young should learn from the old. Not the other way” (Danticat 4). This was said because in Haiti and most highly cultural places, the young young from the old. Whether in school during a math class or when a young one loses their way and want to gain knowledge from an elder. It’s how it is, so for it to be the other way round, it jumbled minds. It showed how Sophie was still stuck in Haiti mentally, and she stayed there.
The minds of non-immigrants can be very ignorant, and thats exactly what the kids that called Sophie and her fellow haitians ‘boat people’ were. “Students from the public school across the street called us ‘boat people’ and ‘stinking Haitians’” (Danticat 66). A collision between race and culture clashed. The different foods they ate clashed, the way they talked clashed. It was as if Sophie wasn’t civilized. She was, but like stated earlier. They were ignorant. Sophie wondered why she was going to be in a place that didn’t make her feel at home. Maybe she should go back to Haiti because staying here with