Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat openly reveals the journey of Sophie Caco as she uncovers her Haitian roots. A major theme of the novel is female sexuality, which is exposed in Sophie’s character. Sophie is the daughter of rape, a past that will constantly haunt her as well as her mother. This sets the tone for the novel as Sophie seeks to understand and forgive.

At the age of twelve, Sophie moves from Haiti to New York City to meet her mother for the first time. Until this point, Sophie has only known her mother as a picture in the frame next to Taunte Atie’s bed. When arriving in New York is become evident that her mother is not the picture in the frame or the woman Sophie had imagined. It does not take long for the secrets to begin spilling out, and once revealed they cannot be forgotten. Sophie had often wondered how she was a child with only a mother; Taunte Atie had never told Sophie the real story. Martine, Sophie’s mother, soon reveals the secrets of virginity testing and the rape: “’The details are too much,’ she said. ‘But it happened like this. A man grabbed me from the side of the road, pulled me into a cane field, and put you in my body. I was still a young girl then, barely older than you… Now when I look at your face I think it is true what they say. A child out of wedlock always looks like its father’” (Danticat 61). Sophie now feels that her body is not hers and not her mothers.

The novel skips ahead to show Sophie at age eighteen. The novel appears to organize itself around the most important sexuality moments for Sophie. First the story of her mother’s rape and then the testing begins. After Sophie stays out late one night, her mother becomes furious and initiates the Caco tradition of testing. Unlike her mother and Taunte Atie who had undergone the testing before, Sophie begins to feel alone, lost and cannot withstand the testing. Sophie takes control of the situation: “My flesh ripped apart as I pressed the pestle into it. I could see the blood dripping down onto the bedsheet. It was gone, the veil that always held my mother’s finger back every time she tested me… Finally I failed the test” (88). With this act, Sophie takes her sexuality. She feels as though she is freeing herself; however, she has only started to understand her body.

These two events will shape Sophie’s perception of her body and sexuality. When Sophie marries Joesph, she is unable to be intimate with him due to the pain she inflicted on herself and because she sees her mother’s rape each time. Also she develops an eating disorder after the birth of her daughter. Sophie struggles to feel comfortable in her own skin and accept her body. She seeks therapy in hopes that she can accept her body and accept the past. Sophie realizes that: “’My mother line was always with me, I [Sophie speaking to therapist] said. ‘No matter what happens. Blood made us one’” (207).

Sophie’s body serves as the canvas for the novel. As secrets are revealed about her past, her body shows the scars. Rape and sexuality dominate her view of her body, which can never be changed. Sophie must learn to accept her past and her body.

Works Cited
Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.