Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat

1. Sophie Caco

   Annotations:

   • She is 12 years old, from Hati. "'After I got married, I found out that I had something called bulimia." -179
   1. Relationship with Martine

      Annotations:

      • Chapter 1: very negative "I sometimes say my other i my dreams. She would chase me through a field of wild flowers as tall as they sky. When she caught me, she would try to squeeze me into the small frame so I could be in the picture with her. I would scream and scream until my voice gave out then Tante Atie would come and save me from her grasp." - 8 "'It is not for me to hear, my angel. It is for your mother.' I put the card back in my pocket, lucked out the flower, and dropped it under my shoes." - 9 Chapter 2: very negative "My mother's face was in my dreams all night long. She was wrapped in yellow sheets and had daffodils in her hair. She opened her arms like two long hooks and kept shouting my name. Catching me by the hem of my dress, she wrestled me to the floor. I called for Tante Atie as loud as I could. Tante Atie was leaning over us, but she could not see me. I was lost in the yellow of my mother's sheets." - 28 Chapter 8: used to be good "As a child, the mother I had imagined for myself was like Erzulie, the lavish Virgin Mother. She was the healer of all women and the desire of all men. She had gorgeous dresses in satin, silk, and lace, necklaces, pendants, earrings, bracelets, anklets, and lots and lots of French perfume. She never had to work for anything because the rainbow and the stars did her work for her. Even though she was far away, she was always with me. I could always count on her, like one counts on the sun coming out at dawn." -59 Content "'Was I the mother you imagined? You don't have to answer me,' she said. After you've seen me, I know the answer.' 'For now I couldn't ask for better,' I said." - 59
      • Chapter 9 "My mother, always the pessimist." -66
      • Chapter 14: not existent "'She[Martine] never answers my letters. When I called her, she slammed the phone down on me. She has not seen my daughter. We have not spoken since I left home.'
   2. Relationship with Tante Atie

      Annotations:

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      • "My mother is a daffodil." - 29
2. Tante Atie

   Annotations:

   • He aunt of Sophie and sister to her mother. Raised Sophie in Hati since she was 12. She was suppose to marry Donald but he left her for his wife.
3. Grandma Ife

   Annotations:

   • N/a
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   • Chapter 19 "'If a woman is worth remembering, there is no need to have her name carved in letters.'" -128
   1. Relationship with Tante Atie

      Annotations:

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      • Chapter 17: disappointed "'I don't like the way your Tante Atie has been since she came back from Croix-des-Rosets. Ever since she has comeback, she and I, was are like milk and lemon, oil and water. She grieves; she drinks tafia. I would not be surprised if she started wearing black for her father again.'" -118, 119
4. Martine Caco
5. Marc Jolibois Francis Legrand Moravian Chevalier
6. Joseph Woods

   Annotations:

   • Same age as Martine
7. Brigitte Ife Woods
8. Louise
9. Eliab

1. Flowers
   1. Daffodils
      1. Part 1

         Annotations:

         • "A flattened and drying daffodil was dangling off the little card that I had made my aunt Atie for Mother's Day. - 3 "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."- 8
         • "'Your mother, she loved daffodils.' Tante Atie told me that my mother loved daffodils because they grew in a place that they were not supposed to. They were really European flowers, French buds and stems, meant for colder climates. A long time ago, a French woman had brought them to Croix-des-Rosets and planted them there. A strain of daffodils had grown that could withstand the heat, but they were the color of pumpkins and golden summer squash, as though they had acquired a bronze tinge from the skin of the natives who had adopted them. Tante Atie took the card from under her pillow and put it on the night table, next to the plane ticker. She said that it would be nice for me to give the card to my mother personally, even though the daffodil was gone." - 21
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         • "Before she could stop me, I began to read her the words. My mother[Tante Atie] is a daffodil, limber and strong as one. My mother is a daffodil, but in the wind, iron strong." - 29 "There were no children plying, no leaves flying about. No daffodils." -31
      2. Part 2

         Annotations:

         • Chapter 9 "In the new place, my mother had a patch of land in the back where she started growing hibiscus. She had grown tired of daffodils." -65
   2. Sunflowers

      Annotations:

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      1. Part 1

         Annotations:

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         • "I held Tante Atie's hand as we climbed into the back seat. Out faces were dry, our heads up. We were like sunflowers, staring directly at the sun." - 30
   3. Part 1

      Annotations:

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      • "'Did Atie tell you how you were born?' From the sadness in her voice, I knew that her story was sadder than the chunk of the sky and flower petals story that Tante Atie liked to tell.'" -61
   4. Hibiscus
      1. Part 3

         Annotations:

         • Na
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         • Chapter 15 "They put me in my mother's room. It had the same fourposter bed and the same mahogany wardrobe with giant hibiscus carved all over it." -109
   5. Part 3

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      • Chapter 16 "They were a potpourri of flesh healers: catnip, senna, sarsaparilla,corrosion, the petals of blood red hibiscus, forget-me-nots, and daffodils." -112
2. Age/Growth
   1. Part 1

      Annotations:

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      • "A new face all together. Someone who had aged in one day, as though she had been though a time machine, rather than an airplane. Welcome to New York, this face seemed to be saying. Accept your new life. I greeted the challenge, like one guess a new day. As my mother's daughter and Tante Atie's child.
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      • "My mother took me to work with her every day. The agency she worked for did not like it, but she had no choice but to take me with her. After all, she could not very well leave me home alone.
   2. Part 2

      Annotations:

      • Chapter 9: "'You're such a beautiful woman,' he[joseph] said. 'You think I am a woman? You're the first person who has called me that.' 'In that sad case, everyone else is blind.'" -75
   3. Part 3

      Annotations:

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      • Chapter 14 "She[Brigitte] is a true Caco woman; she is very strong." -102
      • Chapter 15 "'Sophie is not a child anymore, old woman. I[Atie]do not have to be a Saint for her.'" -111
3. Color
   1. Yellow
      1. Part 1

         Annotations:

         • "He was tall and yellow like an amber roach." - 5
         • "'Everything you own is yellow,' she[Tante Atie] said, 'wildflower yellow, like dandelions, sunflowers.' 'And daffodils,' I added" - 21
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         • "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." - 28
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         • "She stopped in front of a pale yellow car with a long crack across the windshield glass. The paint was peeling off the side door that she opened for me." -41
      2. Part 3

         Annotations:

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         • Chapter 16 "Her face[Eruzulie] was the color of corn." -113
   2. Red
      1. Part 2

         Annotations:

         • Chapter 9 "We decorated our new living room in red, everything from the carpet to the plastic roses on the coffee table." -65
      2. Part 3

         Annotations:

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         • Chapter 16 "I looked for the infant thermometer that I had brought with me. I found it, broken in this case, the mercury scattered in the container." -113
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         • Chapter 21 "After the meal, we sat on the back porch and listened as Atie read from her notebook. She speaks in silent voices, my love. Like the cardinal bird, kissing its own image." -134
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         • Chapter 23 "'Our family name, Caco,it is the name of a scarlet bird. A bird so crimson, it makes the reddest hibiscus or the brightest flame trees seem white. The Caco bird, when it dies, there is always a rush of blood that rises to its neck and the wings, they look so bright, you would think them on fire.'" -150 "'Ti Alice, she has passed her examination.' The sky reddened with a sudden flash of lightning." -156
         • Chapter 24 "My mother was shielding her face from us, hiding behind a red umbrella." -158 "The mid-morning sky looked like an old quilt, with long bands of red and indigo stretching their way past drifting clouds." -162
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         • Chapter 27 "Tante Atie was standing under the red flamboyant tree, clinging to a low ranch as the ban pulled away." -173 "Slowly, everything in Dame Marie because a blur. My grandmother and the vendors. Tante Atie at the flaming red tree." -174
      3. Part 4

         Annotations:

         • Chapter 28 "We took a cab back to Nostrand Avenue. I looked around the living room while she listened to the messages on her answering machine. There was still red everywhere, even the new sofa and love seat were a dark red velvet." -180
4. Birds, Butterflies, and Flight
   1. Part 3

      Annotations:

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      • Chapter 23 "The men were singing about a woman who flew without her skin at night." -150
      • Chapter 24 "She skipped though the dust and rushed across the year. Eliab circled around her like a wingless butterfly." -159
5. Light, Stars, and Sun
   1. Part 3

      Annotations:

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      • Chapter 24 "My mother walked over and kissed my grandmother. Tante Atie moved slowly towards her, not particularly excited. My mother was glowing." -159,167
      • Chapter 25 "My mother changed into a sundress to parcel out what she had brought." -163 "Tante Atie did not go to Louise's house, but spent the evening in the yard, staring at the sky. My mother could not sleep. She went outside and sat with Tante Atie. They looked up for a long time without saying a word. Finally my mother said, "Do you remember all the unpleasant stories Manman used to tell us about the stars in the sky?'" -164 "'I liked what Papa said better. He thought, Papa,that the stars were brave men.'" -164
      • Chapter 26 "I have never seen my grandmother so happy. My mother was glowing." -159, 167 "Tante Atie kept her eyes on the lantern on the hills as we ate dinner that night. She was squinting as though she wanted to see with her ears, like my grandmother." -167
      • Chapter 27 'We heard my mother pacing the front room's floor, back and forth waiting for the sun to rise." -172 "The sun was shining in Tante Atie's eyes as she carried my daughter for me." -173
   2. Part 4

      Annotations:

      • Chapter 28 "We ate at the kitchen table, watching thought he low windows as a little girl skipped rope under a hanging light in a neighbor's yard." -182 "'Of course he[Marc] wants to marry me[Martine], but look at me. I am a fat woman trying to pas for thin. A dark woman trying to pass for light.'" -189
      • Chapter 29 "'Of course he[Marc] wants to marry me[Martine], but look at me. I am a fat woman trying to pas for thin. A dark woman trying to pass for light.'" -189

1. Similes
   1. Part 1

      Annotations:

      • He was tall and yellow like an amber roach. - 5
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      • "She [Martine] opened her arms like two long hooks and kept shouting my name." - 28
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      • "I could always count on her[her mother], like one counts on the sun coming out at dawn."
   2. Part 2

      Annotations:

      • Chapter 9 "Tante Atie said that love is like rain. It comes in a drizzle sometimes. Then it starts pouring and if you're not careful it will drown you." -67 "Then one day, like rain, he[Joseph] came to my front door." -68
   3. Part 3

      Annotations:

      • Na
      • Na
      • Chapter 15 "The light on a distant hill glowed like a candle light vigil." -106 "She[Ife] mumbled in her sleep, like an old warrior in the midst of a battle." -109 army/war
      • Chapter 16 "A few small lizards darted through the dew-laden grass, their gizzards bloated like bubblegum." -112
      • Chapter 17 "My grandmother shopped like an army general on rounds." -116 army/war
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      • Chapter 19 "Her[Atie] hair was brushed back and tied in a tiny bun, resting like a porcupine on the back of her neck." -127 "Louise hollered Tante Atie's name from the road' 'That child has lungs like mountain echoes,' said my grandmother." -128 "Another kite swooped down like a vulture." -130
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      • Chapter 21 "After the meal, we sat on the back porch and listened as Atie read from her notebook. She speaks in silent voices, my love. Like the cardinal bird, kissing its own image." -134 "After the reading, she and Louise strolled into the night, like silhouettes on a picture postcard."-135

Annotations:

• 1.1 we meet Sophie and her aunt Tante Atie in Hati. Mother's Day is coming up, but Tante Atie wants to give Sophie's present to her to her mother in New York. Sophie finds out she is going to New York. 1.2 tante Atie tells Sophie not to gift with her mom, to know they have lot in common, and the benefits of her mom leaving. 1.3 Sophie and Tante Atie go to see Grandma Ife before Sophie leaves 4 Sophie leaves for the airport. Tante Atie wins the lottery for the first time. 5 Sophie leaves for New York. They are delayed by violent protests against the government. A little boy is sent to New York too because his father was a government official and killed in the protests. 6 Sophie arrives in New York and meets her mother Martine. She treats her like a child despite being 12, Martine has a nightmare. 7 They went to the post office, the beauty shop, they meet Marc, they go to the Haitian restaurant. 8 Sophie talks about going to work with her mom. They lay together and talk about Marc and boys and education. Martine tell Sophie about being raped which resulted in Sophie. Part 1: Introducing Sophie at age 12 and her move to New York with Martine.
• 1-9: She is now 18 and preparing for college. She learned how to speak/read English. She meets Joseph and they fall in love despite a drastic age difference. 2-10: Sophie tells her mom she likes someone,but makes up a guy named henry. Martine' nightmares continue. 3-11: She goes out with Joseph. He asks her to marry him then leaves. Her mother finds out about him and tests Sophie for the first time. 4-12: She ignores Joseph. Her mother begins testing her weekly. She uses a pestle to fail the test and her mom kicks her out of the house thinking she lose her virginity. She goes to Joseph and agrees to marry him. Part 2: Sophie is growing up. Obedience and her virginity is becoming an issue.
• 1-13: Sophie goes back to visit Tante Atie. She is married and now has a newborn named Brigitte. 2-14 Sophie and Atie go visit Grandma Ife. Sophie reveals she hasn't talked to Martine since she left home. 3-15: They eat and go to sleep. Sophie sleeps in her mom's old room and thinks about Joseph. Atie drinks and gets a little drunk. 4-16: Everyone, except Atie bathes. 5-17: Ife and Sohpie go to the store. The Macoutes kill someone. Ife says Tante Atie has changed and should go to New York. 6-18: Atie goes to the store by herself despite. Ife's warnings. Sophie reveals she left Joseph temporarily because sex was painful for her. Ife tells some kids a story about a little girl who bested a lark in order to protect her heart. Atie returns from the store and refuses reading a story to Ife. 7-19: Atie and Louise go to register their names for living in the village. Sophie takes pictures of Ife and Brigitte, which creeps Ife out. Sophie reveals more about her "wedding" and that night when she lost her virginity. Eliab lost his kite and cried. 8-20: Martine sends a cassette wonderingaboutSophiebecause she didnt tell JosephsheleftforHaitiandtey both are worried. Atie suggests Sophie should fix her relationship, but which one? 9-21: Atie reads a poem to everyone. She reveals her depressive state. The Macoutes kill someone. Sophie talks about Tonton Macoute and her father and reveals more of Martine' rape. Atie mentions suicide so Ife slaps her. Ife makes a cassette for Martine and Atie gets drunk. 10-22: Ife pays her respects to Dessaline, who the Macoutes killed. Ife, Sohpie, and Eliab eat coconuts. 11-23: Atie gets leeches to suck the blood from a lump on her leg. Sophie cooks a Haitian meal. Sophie and Ife listen to the night to the night to hear Ti Alice hanging out with a guy friend then being tested by her mom. Sophie and Ife talk about testing. 12-24: Martine comes to Hati. 13-25: Martine gives gifts to everyone. 14-26: All the girls now own part of the land they live on. Ife thinks Atie stays with her out of duty not love. Martine cries while watching Brigitte and Sophie sleep, which kinda triggers Sophie, reminding her of the tests. Martine tells her she tested Sophie because her mom did. Louise left without saying anything to Atie. 15-27: Atie is upset about Louise leaving. Martine and Sophie return to New York. Part 3: Sophie and later Martine's return to Haiti.
• 1-28: They got to the airport. Sophie reveals she has bulimia from after she got married. Sophie sleeps over at Martine's. Martine burnt all of Sophie's stuff when she left. Joseph and Sophie talk. 2-29: Marine reveals she is pregnant, but doesn't really want the baby. Sophie leaves for home. Sophie reveals she has suicidal thoughts after getting married. 3-30: Joseph is a bit salty at Sophie for leaving. She calls Haiti home for the first time. Joesph doesn't really understand Sophie and her mental issues, but he thinks he does. She tells him Martine is pregnant. Sophie and Brigitte go to the doctor and Brigitte is okay after going to Haiti. Sophie and Joe have sex, but Sophie distracts herself from it, then binges and purges afterward.

1. US/Hati Relationship

   Annotations:

   • Na
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   • "My mother bought some face cream that promised to make skin lighter." -51 US>Hati
   1. Part 1

      Annotations:

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      • "A lot of other mothers from the nursing home where she worked had told her that their children were getting into fights in school because they were accused of having HBO-- Haitian Body Odor. Many of the American kids even accused Haitians of having AIDS because they had heard on television that only the "Four Hs" got AIDS--Heroin addicts, Hemophiliacs, Homosexuals, and Haitians." -51 US>Hati "My mother bought some face cream that promised to make skin lighter." -51 US>Hati "Marc is one of those men who will never recover from not earring his manman's cooking," -53 US=Hati
      • "'In Haiti, it would not be possible for someone like Marc to love someone like me. He is from a very upstanding family. His grandfather was a French man.'" - 59
   2. Part 2

      Annotations:

      • Chapter 9 "My mother's room was even bigger,with a closet that you could have entertained some friends in. In some places in Haiti, her closet would have been a room on its own, and the clothes would not have bothered the fortunate child who would sleep in it." -65 US.Haiti
2. Secrets and Truth
   1. Part 3

      Annotations:

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      • Chapter 18 "'Secret remain secret only if we keep our silence,'" she[Ife] said." -123 "'I[Atie] am empty, old woman,' she said. 'As empty as a dry calabash.'" -126
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3. Modesty and Virginity
   1. Part 3

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      • Chapter 18 "'He is a very good man, but I have no desire. I feel like it is an evil thing to do.' 'Your mother? Did she every test you?' 'You can call it that.' 'That is what we have always called it.' 'I[Sophie] call it humiliation,' I said. 'I hate my body. I am ashamed to show it to anybody, including my husband. Sometimes I feel like I should be off somewhere by myself. That is why I am here.'" -123
4. Religion, Mythology, and Stories
   1. Part 3

      Annotations:

      • Na
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      • Chapter 15 "'Sophie is not a child anymore, old woman. I[Atie]do not have to be a Saint for her.'" -111
      • Chapter 16 "On an old dresser was a statue of Erzulie, out goddess of love who doubled for us as the Virgin Mother." -in Ife's room
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      • Chapter 23 "The men were singing about a woman who flew without her skin at night, and when she came back home, she found her skin peppered and could not put it back on. Her husband had done it to teach her a lesson. He ended up killing her." -150 Female power being destroyed by men
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      • Chapter 25 "Finally my mother said, "Do you remember all the unpleasant stories Manman used to tell us about the stars in the sky?' 'My favorite,' said Tante Atie, 'was the one about their who wished she could marry a star and then went up there and, as real as her eyes were black, the man she wished for was a monster.'' -164
5. Dreams and Nightmares
   1. Part 3

      Annotations:

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      • Chapter 17 "I turned back for one last look. The coal vendor was curled in a fetal position on the ground. He was spitting blood. The other Macoutes joined in, pounding their boots on the coal seller's head. Every one watched in shocked silence, but no one said anything. My grandmother came back for me. She grabbed my hand so hard my fingers hurt. 'You want to live your nightmares too?' She hollered." -118
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      • Chapter 21 "'I am not having the short breath anymore, but every so often, I do find myself dreaming the bad dreams. I thought it would end, but lately it seems to be beginning all over again. -Martine'" -135 "At night, she[Martine] tore her sheets and bit off pieces of her own flesh when she had nightmares [as a child]." -139
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      • Chapter 23 "'I [Sophie] hated the test,' I said, 'It is the most horrible thing that ever happened to me. When my husband is with me now, it gives me such nightmares that I have to bite my tongue to do it again.'" -156
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      • Chapter 26 "'Are you having nightmares?' 'More than ever,' she[Martine] said. "My old sympathy was coming back. I remembered the nightmares. Sometimes, I even had some myself. I was feeling sorry for her." -169
   2. Part 4

      Annotations:

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      • Chapter 29 "'It's my decision. Supremely, it's mine. I am very scare. I don't know. The nightmares, they're coming back.'" -189 "Her nightmares had somehow become my own, so much so that I would wake up some mornings wondering if we hadn't both spent the night dreaming about the same thing: a man with no face, pounding a life into a helpless young girl." -193