How breath, eyes, memory can be used to make change and move forward or stay stagnant
Introduction
When one faces a traumatic experience in life, it is up to them to decide whether to move on or stay stagnant. Such decisions are purely psychological and they can have permanent effect on one’s life depending on the decision taken. The book ‘Breath, Eyes, Memory’ by Edwidge Danticat portrays two women, mother and daughter, who face the challenges of overcoming their past. This essay is going to show how Martine let her past experiences imprison her while Sophie decided to confront her past in order to be free.
Discussion.
Martin confesses to her daughter Sophie that she was raped. She also tells her that she cannot remember the face of the rapist but she assumes that he looked like Sophie. She tells Sophie “When I first saw you in New York, I must admit, it frightened me the way you looked. But it is not something that I can help. It is not something that you can help. It is just part of our lives.” (Danticat169). Martine has mixed feelings when Sophie arrives. She is happy that she finally gets a chance to live with her daughter who stops her nightmares. However, she is tormented by her face because she assumes that she resembles her attacker since she does not look like her female relatives.
The memory of the rape torments her to the point of committing murder. Martine says, “Whenever I’m there, I feel like I sleep with ghosts. The first night I was there, I woke up pounding at my stomach.” (Danticat 189). She has never healed from the trauma of being raped and this stagnates her entire life. when she realizes she is pregnant, all Martine wants is to abort the baby because she feels like the baby talks to her in a male voice. Her nightmares return and she ends up committing suicide. Martine is unable to make changes in her life and she stagnates in her past.
Similarly, Sophie faces traumatic experiences from her past but unlike her mother, she makes an effort to free herself. She does not like moving from Haiti to New York but she does what her aunt tells her and behaves well. However, when her mother starts the virginity tests, Sophie starts getting traumatized. This affects her later in life when she gets married to Joseph because she develops phobia for sex.
Unlike her mother, Sophie decides to confront her past and visits her therapist. Her therapist tells her, “You and your mother should both go there again and see that you can walk away from it. Even if you can never face the man who is your father, there are things that you can say to the spot where it happened. I think you’ll be free once you have your confrontation. There will be no more ghosts.” (Danticat 211). This means that for one to forget the past, one must confront it and accept that it happened in order to move on.
When her mother dies, Sophie goes to the spot where her mother was raped and confronts the place just as her therapist advised her. After the seeing the place and confronting it, she feels free. Although the past had imprisoned Sophie, she made a choice to face her fears in order to move on.
Conclusion
Martine and Sophie both face the same problem but they handle it differently. Whereas Martine allows her memories to torment her to her death, Sophie decides to face her memories in order to gain the courage to move on with her life. therefore, memories can either stagnate a person or help them make a change in life and move on.