Breath, Eyes, Memory

Martine, Sophie’s mother, is living in New York at the start of the text when Sophie joins her. She works two jobs in New York and is still living in a low-end apartment when Sophie arrives. She sends most of her money back to her mother, sister, and daughter in Haiti to improve their lives. Throughout the novel, she has a relationship with a lawyer named Marc, who eventually impregnates her. Unable to deal with the trauma of her own past rape at the hands of Sophie’s father, she takes her own life in an attempt to kill the baby growing inside of her.

Martine is the antagonist in the text, as her confrontations with Sophie elicit Sophie’s major internal change. Although Martine is combative with Sophie from the start, insisting that she uproot her life and join her in New York, the situation comes to a head when Martine forces her daughter to undergo virginity “testing.” Martine has a strong distrust of men because of her past sexual assault, while also greatly fearing that she will lose Sophie, the one person she thought would never abandon her. However, in her efforts to keep Sophie safe and away from men, she achieves the opposite result, as her anger at finding Sophie’s virginity gone drives Sophie from her home and to Joseph. Ultimately, it is Martine’s anger over her own past and the trauma she causes Sophie that allow Sophie to come to an understanding of who she is. She causes Sophie to change, allowing her to fully accept all facets of her past and to move forward with a better understanding of who she is and how she wants to raise her own daughter.

Unlike Sophie, who confronts her own trauma and attempts to deal with it through talking and with professional help, Martine shuts down and refuses to acknowledge what she went through. She suffers violent nightmares throughout her life and cannot bear the thought of having another child for fear it would remind her too much of her own rape. She expresses her fear that talking about her trauma will make it too real, and instead suffers in silence until her death by suicide.

Atie is Sophie’s aunt and her caretaker throughout the first 12 years of her life in Haiti. When Martine gives birth and leaves for New York, Atie moves with Sophie to Croix-des-Rosets to allow Sophie to attend school. She cares for Sophie while also insisting that Sophie belongs with her mother, ultimately giving her up so that she can be with Martine in New York.

Throughout the text, Atie is weighed down by the duty that she feels she needs to fulfill. First, she feels as though it is her duty to care for Sophie when Martine leaves. She uproots her life in Dame Marie and leaves her own mother behind to move to Croix-des-Rosets for Sophie to attend school. Then, after caring for Sophie for 12 years, she gives her up, acknowledging that a child belongs with her mother despite how it hurts her to lose Sophie. Finally, she returns to Dame Marie to care for her aging mother. She explains to Sophie that duty—first to Sophie, then to her mother—has prevented her from ever having a husband or child of her own. Her mother, Ifé, acknowledges that Atie is not caring for her out of love, but out of the duty she feels she has as the first-born child.

Like Martine, Atie also fails to deal with her problems head on, and as a result leads a life that is difficult and full of misery. Instead of leaving to start her own life or marry, she remains in Dame Marie caring for her mother and grows angry as a result. She begins drinking regularly and stays out almost every night with Louise. Although it is never made clear whether she has a sexual relationship with Louise or just a friendship, she is nonetheless devastated when Louise leaves for New York. Instead of acknowledging her trauma and facing it head on, she drinks and is dismissive of her mother, living a life of anger and bitterness.