Sunday, May 10, 2009
Francis, “‘Silences Too Horrific to Disturb’”
“I argue that reading these scenes is essential to understanding how the subjection to violence shapes these woman’s subjectivities, and how the disintegration of the body and spirit precede the dissolution of their voices.” (p. 77) From what I make of this sentence the later refers to how the “doubling” in Danticat’s novel comes before the women’s loss of voice in the novel. I don’t think that is true. Long before Sophie starts to “double” she had no voice. In the very beginning of the novel when she was a little girl she did what she was told and never spoke aloud any grievances that she had with her situation. Also the way Francis states the sentence it’s as if the “disintegration of the body and spirit” lead to the loss of voice. If I’m reading this right then again I don’t agree. Even after it seems that Sophie has mastered the art of “doubling” she finds her voice to confront those that have wronged her and to try to break all the traditions of violence toward women and silence that has haunted her family.
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I agree with the idea that Sophie's act of "doubling" is essentially her way of coping with the traditions of old and the issues of new. It was mentioned in the last class how Martine's problems have been inherited by Sophie, but because Sophie can manage them better than her mother could, it seems as if Brigitte will be barely affected, if at all by her mother's issues when she grows up. It seems as if Sophie's act of "doubling" is a way to prevent what could become a sort of psychological problem that would persist over the next few generations.
ReplyDeleteI think the point of the therapist was to help Sophie vent out her problems and find her voice. I had never noticed before that there was an emphasis placed on the origin and history of the therapist. I don't know if that makes a difference to help Sophie overcome her inherited trauma since she was asking Sophie to do things that seem like any other therapist would ask her to do, which is talk about the problem and confront it. By the end of the novel, Sophie does understand more about the testing and I have to agree with Francis that by Sophie recognizing that what happened to her family is part of something bigger. Sophie does not blame her mother was the key component in her being able to find her voice.
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