Sophie's first night with her mother in New York embedded in her mind why she had to move there rather than staying in Haiti as she desired. She seemed to understand Martine's nightmare, "screaming as though someone were trying to kill her" (48). Her nearly nonchalant reaction to the chaos occurring outside the airport gave us an understanding that it is not unusual for her to witness such activity. When she heard her mother screaming she knew how to help her, with Tante Atie's remedy consisting of tea and by climbing in bed. Most Westernized young females would not know how to react to such a horrifying reaction to a nightmare.
This small section at the end of chapter six, I believe, was included to explain to the reader that even though Sophie and Martine have escaped the turmoil in Haiti they will still always have those memories to haunt them. Martine will especially be forever haunted by her Haitian memories because, as readers find out, she was impregnated by a rapist in a cane field. Memories and trauma such as that can always stick with a person, no matter how far away they get. It also exemplifies the reason why she worked so hard to get her own child out of Haiti. There is still political turmoil occurring as Sophie is leaving which means can mean the same route as Martine unwillingly was led down.
There is a large emphasis on Sophie's sex. Her mother is trying to protect her from rape and lack of educational opportunities. What if Martine had a boy? Would she have migrated to the United States for a son?
-Chase Sheaff
It is interesting who both Sophie and her mother have nightmares about someone attacking them. For Sophie it is her mother that is causing the nightmare because she is taking her away from the only home she has known and for her mother the nightmare is because what had happened to her when she was Sophie's age.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that the cause of the nightmares for Sophie and her mother are for reasons that are so very different but also the same, if that makes sense. Sophie's is in part from leaving her beloved aunt and Haiti and her mothers is from her time in Haiti and what happened to her there. Throughout this story there seems to be many connections for different reasons. You think the connections are the same but then you can see that they are larger connections from very different experiences.
In response to the question, I do believe that Sophie's mother would have left Haiti for the United States but for different reasons. I do not feel as if the big push for moving would have been for her daughters sake but more for herself. There were very few opportunities in Haiti for Sophie's mother and by moving the United States there would be more possibilities. Her leaving Haiti would also serve as an escape from the horrors that still chase her in her nightmares. For these reasons Sophie's mother would probably still leave Haiti shortly after the birth of her child. If Sophie were a boy there probably wouldn't be such a big push for a son to leave the country at a young age as there was for Sophie as a girl. This is probably because Sophie's mother does not want Sophie to experience the same horrors that she experienced as a child.
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