Breath, Eyes, Memory

The next morning, the tension between Sophie and her aunt continues, as she still feels bitter that she must go to New York and does not understand why her aunt cannot come with her. Tante Atie explains that her duty was to care for Sophie only for the time being, and that she rightfully belongs with her mother. Once Sophie is gone, she, too, will return her mother. She also explains that everything they have—their large home, food, Sophie’s ability to attend school—comes from their mother. When Sophie’s aunt and mother were children, they were just poor peasants. Despite this, Sophie’s mother chose not to “abandon” her child, as was common, and instead made every effort to give her the best life she could.

Sophie finally concedes, assuring Tante Atie that she will not resist or fight with her mother. Her aunt is glad, as Sophie and her mother have many things in common, including their love for daffodils.

Once Sophie is gone, Tante Atie plans to return to her mother, Sophie’s grandmother, Ifé, to care for her.

Grandma Ifé lives in La Nouvelle Dame Marie, a five-hour journey over old roads by van and by foot. Sophie and Atie take a visit to see her before Sophie leaves for New York.

As they travel, Sophie notes the men at work in the cane fields and the women working at home in their thatched huts. By contrast, Sophie’s grandmother’s home is made of brick with a shingled roof, thanks to money sent back from New York by Martine.

Ifé reaffirms Atie’s belief that Sophie should be in New York, telling her that she belongs with her mother who is “your first friend” (24). Despite this, Sophie dreads sleep, sure that she will suffer from a nightmare where her mother finally succeeds in taking her.

When Tante Atie and Sophie leave the next day, Grandmè Ifé notes that their short visit will make sure that she does not suffer from “chagrin.” Sophie notes how her grandmother thinks of chagrin as a “genuine physical disease” (24), and questions Tante Atie on the journey home as to how it can be avoided. Atie recounts to her a Guinean Creation Myth, wherein the Maker gives only the strongest people the duty of carrying the sky on their heads because they can bear it. She tells Sophie that trouble is part of life, and extra is given to those who are the strongest for they have the strength to carry part of the sky.

The week before Sophie leaves for New York, Tante Atie works extra to buy her gifts before she goes. One is a saffron dress with daffodils embroidered on it. That night, Sophie once again dreams of her mother in yellow sheets. As she reaches for Sophie with hooked hands and snags her by the dress, Sophie is “lost” in the yellow sheets as she calls to Atie for help.

In preparation for Sophie’s departure, Tante Atie serves her breakfast using her finest plateware, including a tea kettle given to her by Monsieur Augustin. She gives Sophie back the Mother’s Day card. Despite her protests, Sophie reads her the poem inside anyway, which compares her mother to a daffodil. Atie informs her again that the card is for her mother, whom she should now call Manman, and reassures her that she will be fine in New York.

As they leave, the taxi driver compliments their clean yard, which Tante Atie boasts was cleaned by her “child.” Sophie notes the dust, lack of children, and the fact that there are “no daffodils” as their taxi pulls away (31).

Tante Atie and Sophie take a taxi into Port-au-Prince for her flight. While there, Sophie remembers her aunt’s stories about going into the city with Martine on Christmas Eve to see the lights, attend church, and flirt with the tourists. This day, however, there is smoke, violence, and army vans as they are changing the name of the airport from François Duvalier (Haiti’s former dictator) back to Maïs Gaté as it was before his rule. Sophie watches as student protesters are violently held off by soldiers, and her aunt notes how good it is that Sophie is leaving. Because of the protests and their delay in getting to the airport, Sophie and her aunt are forced to quickly say goodbye.

A woman who has made arrangements with Martine in New York puts Sophie onto a plane, and a hysterical boy is soon put next to her. When Sophie tries to comfort him, he bites her in protest, before the woman comes back to console him. Sophie learns that his father was a corrupt government official, part of the Duvalier regime, and was killed in the protests outside. The boy is being taken to New York to live with his aunt. Sophie falls asleep as the plane takes off for New York.

In New York, Sophie meets her mother in the airport. Martine greets her and kisses her, urging Sophie to speak to her, but she does not. Sophie instead looks at her mother who is so different from the picture on her nightstand: she is thin, tired looking, wrinkled, and has scarred and sunburned fingers. Sophie considers how it looks “as though she had never stopped working in the cane fields after all” (42).

Sophie finally speaks when her mother asks about Tante Atie. She tells Sophie that her aunt had dreamed of becoming a doctor or an engineer, and is upset to learn that Atie never started night school, insisting that the “fight” she once had is gone.

Once they are in the city, Sophie notes all the issues she sees around her. The city seems “dim” and “hazy,” there are trash bags blowing around, men stand on the corners and throw cans at passing cars, and they pass over an unhoused man sleeping under newspapers to enter her mother’s building. Even Martine’s building is dirty, covered in graffiti, and smells musty.

Martine stresses to Sophie that her education and now her presence in New York are going to give her opportunity and earn her respect. She tells her that unlike her aunt or herself, Sophie will make something of herself and thus “we will all succeed” and “can raise our heads” (44).

In her room, Martine gives Sophie a doll which had given her comfort in Sophie’s absence. Sophie sees a picture of herself as a baby, noting for the first time in her life that she looks like neither her aunt nor her mom. As Martine tries to engage Sophie in conversation and comfort her, Sophie remains distant, giving short answers and only giving her the Mother’s Day card when her mom finds it in her dress. Martine is touched, saying how much she loves daffodils but noting that she has not looked for them once in New York.

That night, Sophie is unable to sleep and remembers when Tante Atie used to talk to her when she had trouble sleeping. She had once asked Atie why she had no father, to which she replied with her own Creation Myth: Sophie was born from rose petals, stream water, and a piece of the sky. Lying in bed, Sophie hears her mother begin to scream and finds her thrashing with nightmares. Martine brings Sophie into her bed, assuming that she too was afraid and could not sleep. Sophie stays up the rest of the night listening to her mother sleep, ultimately deciding that she is ready to take on the challenge of her life in New York and make something of herself.

Sophie’s mother takes her to the boutique to get her ready for school. She warns Sophie that she needs to learn English as quickly as she can to fit in, and that she would be mistreated in school just because she is Haitian. She tells her that Americans accuse Haitians of having bad body odor and even that they all have AIDS. Sophie tells her mother that she would rather not go to school and thinks about how afraid she is, but her mother insists it is the only way to be successful.

Sophie and Martine travel down Flatbush Avenue, where Sophie is overwhelmed by the sights. She sees at once both things from home—people speaking Creole, the lemon perfume her aunt uses, and statues of Haitian loas—and things that are jarringly new, like speeding cars and outdoor subways.

Martine takes Sophie to meet her boyfriend, Marc Jolibois Francis Legrand Moravien Chevalier, a Haitian lawyer. He later takes them out to dinner at a Haitian restaurant where the patrons argue about American involvement in Haiti. Marc begins to argue with one of the women, but stops when Martine does not come to his defense. Throughout dinner, Sophie feels as though there are things Marc and Martine “couldn’t say because of [her] presence” (56).

For the two months leading up to school, Martine takes Sophie with her to work. During the day she works at a nursing home, cleaning up after its occupants, and at night she works as a home health aide to a woman who has had a stroke.

One night when the woman is asleep, Sophie and her mother sit and talk in the other room. Martine explains that she is with Marc because he comes from a good family and is kind, and he never demands anything of her that she cannot do.

Martine then begins questioning Sophie on her own life, specifically asking her if she has ever been with a boy. She explains to Sophie that when she was younger, her mother used to test using her finger to see if she and Atie were still virgins. While it upset Atie, it did not seem to bother Martine, and her mother stopped when she became pregnant with Sophie. Martine also reveals that when she was slightly older than Sophie, she was raped by a man in a sugar cane field. She did not see his face and did not know him, but states that he must have looked like Sophie because “a child out of wedlock always looks like its father” (61).