Breath, Eyes, Memory

by Edwidge Danticat

Three words, All nouns Sequence when born, first breath, seeing, create memories. Born, experience, remember. Senses Eyes - Only physical body part Asyndeton Title Instant - All together as breathing, seeing, memory Death - No breath, no sight, no memory. Breath - Life, Passion, Purpose - Grandma who worked on cane farm Eyes - Feeling, Seeing, Knowledge - Mom who saw and moved to New York Memory - Life, Perception - Sophie who represents wisdom. Coming of Age - Title is significant Memory is essential to life as well as Breath and Eyes. Memory is a “collection of breaths” or a “collection of eyes” All are same things Theoretically - Life, Perception, and Time

Sophie (Sophia - Goddess of Wisdom) - Is she actually wise? How does it connect to what the text is actually showing?

A

At the opening - Sophie has already prepared a card. How does this opening paragraph predict the plot of the story? Will this be reflected at the ending paragraph? If yes, text comes full circle. If not, it’s a linear path forward. Sophie is different because she is telling the story from the point of view of her OLDER. There is heavy juxtaposition. Old vs Young

Atie

She has a motherly connection with her AUNT. At the time, Sophie is 12. Complex Character Three Big Problems - 1) She can’t read. 2) She cries over Monsieur Augustin. 3) Complicated relationship with her mom aka Sophie’s grandma. She has a loyalty and appreciation to her sister. Atie - Larger physically, stayed behind, more associated with motherhood. Martine - Skinnier, left Haiti, less associated with motherhood.

dried yellow leaves

she raised the piece of white cloth she was embroidering and waved it at me.

Symbol of retreat

I will never learn to read that ragged old Bible under my pillow.”

yellow like an amber roach.

she had never won at the bòlèt.

Foreshadows her winning when they’re about to leave.

She said the lottery was like love.

Foi, Hope, Faith, Espérance, Beloved, God-Given, My Joy, First Born, Last Born, Aséfi, Enough-Girls, Enough-Boys, Délivrance, Small Misery, Big Misery, No Misery. Names as bright and colorful as the giant poincianas in Madame Augustin’s garden.

Formal, Religious names but also literal names. Could reflect that most of the village is illiterate and don’t know how to read so they pick names from the Bible or name them literally.

secretly wishing that I too could swim in their sea of dry leaves.

lemon-scented perfume,

“You were always wise beyond your years, just like your mother.”

Sophie is wise. She is often deemed wise.

She took the card from my hand. The flower nearly fell off. She pressed the tape against the short stem, forced the baby daffodil back in its place, and handed the card back to me. She did not even look inside.

“Sophie, it is not mine. It is your mother’s. We must send it to your mother.”

She makes it that she knows the feeling is for her but she's not her mother.

large flower

field of wildflowers

“When I am done feeling bad, I will come in and

we will find you a very nice envelope for your card.

I plucked out the flower

rain of daffodils.

“That is why this whole thing is going to be so hard.”

Foreshadowing.

large Negro yams, which made your body itch if you touched them raw.

New York

Mom lives in New York

We are a family with dirt under our fingernails.

“That means we’ve worked the land. We’re not educated.

My father would have never dreamt that we would live in the same kind of house that people like Monsieur and Madame Augustin live in.

If we can live here, if you have this door open to you, it is because of your mother.

lemon-toned housedress.

yellow,”

“wildflower yellow, like dandelions,...

daffodils.”

Tante Atie told me that my mother loved daffodils because they grew in a place that they were not supposed to.

Croix-des-Rosets.

ORIGINAL TOWN - First Setting - Cross of Roses Cross - Pain / Torture

She told me about a group of people in Ginen who carry the sky on their heads. They are the people of Creation. Strong, tall, and mighty people who can bear anything. Their Maker, she said, gives them the sky to carry because they are strong. These people do not know who they are, but if you see a lot of trouble in your life, it is because you were chosen to carry part of the sky on your head.

“No crying,” she said. “We are going to be strong as mountains.”

saffron dress with a large white collar and baby daffodils

My mother’s face was in my dreams all night long. She was wrapped in yellow sheets and had daffodils in her hair.

I was lost in the yellow of my mother’s sheets.

My mother is a daffodil, limber and strong as one. My mother is a daffodil, but in the wind, iron strong.

Madame Augustin slipped a crisp pink handkerchief in my hand as she kissed me four times—twice on each cheek.

Kissing twice, IK is like in Europe so Madame has money and also uses that

Our faces were dry, our heads up. We were like

sunflowers,

Flowers

“My child, she cleans it,” Tante Atie said.

Motherly relationship with Sophie. First time she acknowledges it.

neighbors and the factory workers,

People dynamic

No daffodils.

Port-au-Prince.

Second Location - Port of Prince

years past.

Passage of time

They pretended to be students at one of the gentry’s universities and even went so far as describing the plush homes they said they lived in.

Dream life