Keeping previous blog posts in mind that question the time jump in between sections as well as our discussion on certain experiences that escape the confines of language I began questioning as we did in Anzaldua's case, Danticat's motives behind how she structured the novel. Why is that in chapter 8 we witness the first honest and maternal conversation Martine has with her daughter only to find that in chapter 9 time has fast forwarded to Sophie at age 18? More importantly and perhaps more frustrating is the fact that we are forced to experience Martine's "testing" of Sophie's hymen being intact as well as Sophie's emotional decision to "devirginize" herself, only to discover that in the next chapters time has again fast forwarded. What make's these lapses of time so confusing and interesting is the fact that they occur after single highly charged life changing events occur. Usually I find that in epic novels where authors don't want to lose readers interest they will modify time and skip unnecessary years where nothing of substantial importance happens, but in this case I found myself holding my breath hoping to find out what was to become of Sophie once she was kicked out of her house for not being a "good girl" only to discover that it was left out. Is Sophie's journey not as important as where she ends up? Or is this disconnect between memories and Sophie meant to speak of something more. Is this what we were hoping to find in our discussion about experiences and emotions unable to be explained through language? Are the blank pages between each section Sophie's way of expressing that. As much as students of English would like to stress that there is nothing that can't be explained or transcribed with words, consider what Sophie has gone through. More importantly consider who Sophie is written to be. Tante Atie, Martine, even her grandmother have all been made to be extremely vocal characters who let emotions escape them easily and have no problem identifying whether it be privately or publicly, how they feel. Sophie, however, from the very beginning isn't given this same opportunity. Ironically the same girl who is meant to be the most educated and most literate of her family is also the least able to explain in words how she feels. If we take this entire piece to be a construction of Sophie's and not Danticat's then the blank pages and the time jumps as well as the disconnected thoughts of masectomies and violation might be Sophie's way of using her knowledge of language to explain how she feels.
By giving images of her daughter directly after images of her taking her own virginity, I was convinced that Sophie might want us to believe her daughter to be the product of some sort of immaculate birth. Yes there is Joseph and yes she doesn't hide the fact that it is his child but because she doesn't give us details about their life together or even the first night they have when she finally runs away from home, it becomes apparent that Sophie finds a link between those two events. Not only is she proclaiming quite flamboyantly that her daughter was not the product of rape as she was but she is also stressing that the birth of her child had no trace of a man's touch. It might be a stretch but I began to wonder whether Sophie wished that she could birth a child without anyone else's touch as a way of distinguishing herself from her mother and truly live out the story of the "Marassas" (the two inseparable lovers) who were mere extensions of each other.
Throughout the beginning sections of this novel I began to wonder if perhaps Sophie is "purposefully" forgetting and that maybe this action is not simply linked to the idea of nationhood but to the idea of moving forward. Maybe the blank pages between each painful memory must be there because without forgetting Sophie would be unable to move forward and endure whatever else "the sky" wishes to rest on her head. When Sophie arrives in Haiti and proclaims to Louise that she is back because she needs to "remember" it made me rethink our idea of purposefully forgetting. Perhaps Sophie began her quest to forget as an attempt to remain whole and grow but upon realizing the emptiness of the blank pages realizes she must once again try to remember or else the uniqueness of her identity as well as the possibility to share stories with her own daughter, as Tante Atie did with her, will disappear.
If anyone is interested in Danticat's personal life story and her relationship to Haiti now, they had an interview with her on NPR radio.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14721447
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The question of why there is a time gap is interesting and confusing. When Sophie leaves the house after "deflowering" herself, and the scene jumps to her on the bus, I was confused at first at what was going on. I had to keep reading in order to realize the time lapse and that she was back in Haiti visiting. Maybe that's Daniticat's method in keeping the reader reading.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that she still has a stable and loving relationship with Joseph. If I remember correctly, she is in Haiti with her daughter and is waiting to be reunited with Joseph.
You bring up a good point when suggesting that there is a time gap because Sophie is forgetting or trying to forget her past. If that is the case, then maybe we'll find out in the end what happened during those gaps.
On the syllabus, the section for 'Breath, Eyes, Memory' is titled Trauma: Unspeakable, Unconscious Memory. Perhaps what Danticat is showing by cutting out chunks of time and experience is that eventually these traumas take over our minds and become our only memory. When Sophie says "I need to remember", I think she wants to remember an innocent time, her childhood in Haiti before the book opened and introduced us to the traumatic experiences in her life. Her mind, much like the book, can only focus on these daunting events. People are often so consumed by their traumas, that it becomes their only identity. Maybe Sophie cannot recall any calm, normal experiences in her life, because the traumas have not left any room for them.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read this novel, about 4 or 5 years ago, I was very shock to see how Sophie had to go to extreme measures just to stop her mother from what I believe to be a form of violation. But what was more suprising to me was when I shared the story with my older sister, she did not share my emotion. My sister went on to tell me that for many years, my aunt had been "testing" my older cousins for years while they were teenagers. I was floored! Apparently, this is not a new story in my culture, haitian parents, for generations have gone through many measures to keep their daughters from having premarital sex, and Danticat is just given a voice to the act.
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