Breath, eyes, memory

Breath, eyes, memory is a novel written by Edwidge Danticat. It is about the life of a girl named Sophie. Sophie grows up in Haiti with her Aunt, while her mother is in America. Eventually her mother sends for Sophie and she is torn away from her Aunt. Sophie lives with her mother and learns much about her past and what causes the nightmares she has each night. Sophie's' mother was raped at the age of sixteen, producing Sophie. This rape is how her mother got out of the embarrassing testing that is done to daughters. Sophie can see how affected her mother still is about being raped. It is not until a few years later when Sophie and her mother move to a new house, that Sophie is introduced to the testing. Her mother works all the time so Sophie becomes friends with the neighbor Joesph, and begins to have feelings for him. Coming home late one night, Sophie is required to be tested. This continues often after the first time. It is so devastating to Sophie that she actually mutilates herself to cause her to fail the test. She is then kicked out of her mothers home and marries Joseph. Sophie went through all that pain just to keep her mother from testing her.
This novel shows how traditions have changed from the past. In Sophie's mothers time, purity was the most important thing. It was still important for Sophie also, but moving into another culture was a chance for Sophie's mother to change things. If her mother had only realized the connection between her own testing and her rape and the effect in had on her life, she could have saved Sophie from also going through it. Sophie did take an alternate route rather than committing suicide like her mother, by getting treatment from a sexual therapist. I thought this novel was very disturbing at times. It is hard to read of painful things that happen to people because of their culture.

The Joys of Motherhood

The novel, The Joys of Motherhood I thought was great. I really enjoyed reading this novel. The novel is of the life of Nnu Ego. It explains the rewards and the downfalls of motherhood. With her first husband she could not have children, so the husband found no use for her. With her second husband she had a total of nine children, with seven living. Times seemed to get very hard for Nnu Ego and her children. Especially when her husband was at war and she was left to care for them all. It seemed like everytime something bad happened Nnu Ego had something that she was waiting for to make things better. In the begininng having children would make her life better, and then when Naife returned from the war everything would be fine. At the end Nnu Ego seemed to be waiting for her oldest son to finish with college and take good care of her like the sons' of other women she was acuainted with. That did not happen and she ended up dying sad and lonely. I did not like the ending. She worked her whole life to raise her children, doing everything she could for them. I thought that it showed how women are thought of in society today, all around the world. Some places worse than others, but it is always expected that women should have children, and it is always expected that the women will take care of them. If you have children your life is no longer just yours, it has to change in whatever way needed for your children, no mattter if you wanted it a different way.