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.