March Book Club - Library book kit: Breath, Eyes, Memory
Host: Sherrie
Date: Thursday March 7th, 7:30 pm
Discussion Questions:
1.
Did you enjoy the book? Why or why not?
2. Edwidge
Danticat has said that in Haiti, "Everything is a story. Everything is a
metaphor or a proverb." How does the character of grandmother personify
this tendency? How do some of the proverbs and tales she tells Sophie relate to
the events and themes of the novel?
3. As a young girl, Martine's
favorite color was daffodil yellow; in middle age she is obsessed with the
color red. What significance and associations do these colors have for her? In
what way does the change from yellow to red symbolize the change in Martine's
own character? Does Danticat use color symbolically elsewhere in the story?
4. Martine once hoped to be a doctor;
later, she transfers her ambitions to Sophie. "If you make something of
yourself in life, " she says to her daughter, "we will all succeed.
You can raise our heads" (p. 44). Why does Sophie consciously reject her
mother's ideal of high achievement? Why does she choose to become a secretary
rather than, for instance, a doctor?
5. The character of Atie is
perhaps the most complex and mysterious in the novel. Why is Atie so changed
when Sophie returns to Haiti? Why does she so resolutely stick to her idea of
staying with her mother and doing her "duty, " even though Ifé; says,
"Atie, she should go. She cannot stay out of duty. The things one does,
one should do out of love" (p. 119)?
6. Atie says to Sophie, "Your mother and I, when we were
children we had no control over anything. Not even this body" (p. 20). How
does this knowledge help Sophie shape her life? In what ways does Sophie take control
of her own life as her mother and aunt never were able to?
7. In the graveyard, Atie reminds Sophie to walk straight,
since she is in the presence of family. Grandmother Ifé plans carefully for her
death, which she thinks of as a "journey" (p. 195). How does Sophie's
grandmother's attitude toward death and the dead, as illustrated in this novel,
compare with American ones? How does each culture attempt to foster a sense of
wholeness, of continuity, between the generations?
8. Sophie feels that Haitians in America have a bad image as
"boat people." Are her efforts to assimilate, to become
"American, " in any way related to her physical self-loathing
("I hate my body. I am ashamed to show it to anybody, including
my husband" [p. 123])? How does her bulimia express such self-loathing?
9.
Breath, Eyes, Memory is primarily a story of the relationships between
women: mothers, daughters, grandmothers, sisters. But there are two significant
male characters in the novel, Joseph and Marc. Does Danticat depict Joseph and
Marc as full, rounded-out characters, or do we see them only through Sophie's
slanted point of view? How does Sophie express her ambivalent feelings about
both of them? Why is she so angry with Marc after her mother's death? Do you
feel that her anger is justified? Is it possible that Sophie's aloofness from
both these men stems from her upbringing in an almost exclusively female world,
where "men were as mysterious to me as white people" (p. 67)?
10. Martine's rape by an unknown man, possibly a
Macoute, is the defining event in her life, bringing with it overpowering
feelings of fear and self-loathing which she passes on to her daughter.
Sophie's therapist even suggests that Martine undergo an exorcism. How does
Sophie in her own way succeed in "exorcising" the evil events of the
past? "It was up to me to avoid my turn in the fire" (p. 203), she
says; how does she achieve this?
12. When Sophie breaks her maidenhead with the pestle,
she likens it to "breaking manacles, an act of freedom" (p. 130).
What exactly does "freedom" mean to Sophie? Which of her other
actions represent bids for freedom and autonomy? What does she accomplish when,
at the end of the novel, she beats the stalks of sugar cane? Do you feel that
Martine in some manner "liberated" herself by committing suicide? Or
was her act one of submission?
13. Would you recommend this book? Why or why not?
Menu:
Starter:
Haitian patties
Main:
Haitian chicken in sauce
Side: Baked
plantains
Yellow rice
Dessert: Rice
pudding
I'll bring chicken in sauce!
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping to come... and I'll make a Haitian butter cake for dessert instead!
ReplyDelete