"I am a fat woman trying to pass for thin. A dark woman trying to pass for light. And I have no breasts. I don't know when this cancer will come back. I am not the ideal mother." - Martine, Chapter 29 (p.189)
The quote above is said by Martine (in Chapter 29) while she is discussing her feelings toward her pregnancy. These words caught me off guard because I was not sure how to interpret Martine's "ideal mother." Did she mean that the ideal mother was thin, light skinned, with breasts (which I would assume represents her ability to nurture a child)? Or, did Martine mean that she would not be the ideal mother because she is in a state of confusion and uncertainty?
Right after this passage (on p.190) when Martine tells Sophie that she tried to abort her own pregnancy by consuming herbal "baby poison" and beating her stomach, I was caught off guard again. Why does Danticat include these details? Are they significant in defining Martine's character or Sophie's character? Again, I'm not too sure, but I think that these words help to define both characters. If Martine wanted to destroy Sophie at one point, when did she start loving her as a mother? How did this impact Sophie? We obviously see her experiencing reoccurring nightmares from the testing that her mother subjected her to, but what about confessions such as this one (from Martine)? Does this effect Sophie more than what we see? It almost seems like there is no reaction from Sophie at all.
Lastly, after the talk about pregnancy occurs, Sophie asks her mother why she just won't marry Marc. Her response is "because you don't marry someone to escape something that's inside your head" (p.192). Now, considering Sophie's situation, I can't help but wonder if Sophie really married Joseph out of love or in attempt to escape. From what we see of her marriage, Sophie does not seem happy. She has an eating disorder, she has to "double" when having sexual intercourse with her husband, and she also has nightmares like her mother. If Sophie could go back and undo her own actions, would she still marry Joseph? Would she still deceive her mother into thinking she had pre-marital sex?
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The quote that you cited definitely raised some concerns as I was reading as well. Not only does it make me wonder what constitutes an "ideal mother" in the eyes of Martine it also made me question her maturity. I couldn't help but feel that Martine was in a state of arrested development as she was complaining of her appearance. Why is it that this woman who has been through so much seems to have the emotional capacity of a little girl? I am beginning to consider the possibility that the idea of this "double" which Sophie suggests is in fact a reality. Sophie too is evolving into a character who feels uncomfortable in her own skin and often time struggles with her own doubt on whether she is an "ideal mother."
ReplyDeleteThis "ideal mother" passage as well as the details of Martine trying to self abort, I believe points out more then just the female oppression women face but it reveals Martines' stunted emotional growth. We finally are able to see just how scarred Martine is from her rape. She has not grown since that day in the cane fields and forever remains a 15 year old girl trying to disguise herself as an adult.
I agree - I half of Martine is a scared 15 year old girl, and half of Martine is the mother of Sophie... which makes her "double" all of the time. There may even be more than two sides to her...
ReplyDeleteAs I read the quote mentioned above, I took it a bit differently. For me, it was Martines admission to a life obsessed with appearances. From wanting her child to be a doctor, to telling the grandmother and Tante Atie to move into a better house, lightening her skin, and even testing Sophie to make sure she kept up the appearance of a pure woman.
ReplyDeleteMore so than that, I don't think she equates those things to being an ideal mother, but rather states it as an excuse to why she has failed as a mother. Appearances came first, being a mother came second. From the time Sophie was born, Martine decided she wasn't fit to be a mother and from there on fell back on that excuse. She gave up the mother role early on and threw herself into this obsession with appearances. It's at this point that she realizes her flawed ways, but still chooses to fall back into that comfortable mentality of being an unfit mother. In her mind, that is one appearance she can never fake, so why try?
Martine does not know how to be a mother. She is scared and confused because Sophie came into her life when she was already 12 years old and already raised. She is now pregnant and having a baby that is going to be the aunt or uncle of a baby that is older than he or she. She is insecure about her physical appearance because she is insecure about being with Marc. When Sophie asks if she will marry Marc, she says she believes she will marry him but associates it with insecurites about her body. Martine includes these vivid details because she is being honest with her daughter. She had Sophie as a result of rape and does not hide the fact that she was an accident and Martine did not plan her birth. She tells Sophie this her whole life to avoid Sophie going through the same horrible experiences. She tells Sophie this later in her life when she already knows and cares for her mother, but it must be hard knowing that her mother didn't want her. I think Martine is mentally scarred from being rape and does not want to marry any man because of it and feels very insecure about herself, and even about Sophie.
ReplyDeleteI think we are being really hard on Martine. She is after all a victim of rape from a very young age, and never really received any treatment for this horrific nightmare she had to go through at such an early age. I think Martine is a very scared and hurt woman who one day had to deal with a very adult situation. How does someone evolve in this situation? I am not promoting suicide, but I am very surprise that Martine did not try more than once to hurt herself? And we as readers should not quickly judge her for wanting to escape the hurt she'd had to live with half of her life. My only hope is that Sophie realizes that her mother was a woman in pain, and made a lot of mistakes in life, and should not hold any grudges towards her mother. Whatever pain Martine caused Sophie I believe was not done out of malice, but out of a hurt and mental instability.
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