Breath, Eyes, Memory

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1994

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Yellow, Red, and Green

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of rape and sexual abuse.

Throughout the text, colors are used as recurring motifs to symbolize attributes of various characters.

The color yellow is largely applied to Sophie. It symbolizes strength and resilience throughout. When Sophie leaves for New York, she is wearing a yellow dress embroidered with daffodils. She also describes the daffodil as a flower that was not supposed to grow in Haiti but was brought there anyway and was forced to adapt to survive in the heat. Similarly, Sophie initially feels as though she does not belong in Haiti, but must grow and adapt to survive there. When Sophie makes a Mother’s Day card, she writes a poem about her mother being “iron strong” and places a dried daffodil inside—intending to give it to her aunt. However, when Atie refuses the card, Sophie angrily takes out the daffodil and crushes it in the dust—implying that yellow and daffodils apply only to her and Atie, and not her mother. This motif is reinforced when Sophie arrives in New York and her mother says that she “used to” love daffodils, eventually replacing all the yellow things in their house, opting for predominantly red décor. Yellow and daffodils do, however, apply to Atie, as she recites the poem to Sophie years later when she visits Haiti. This shows that Atie, in first staying in Haiti and caring for Sophie then her mother, does have the strength and resilience that is associated with Sophie and the color yellow.

Conversely, red becomes the predominant color for Martine’s home and her clothing, and she is even buried in a shockingly red dress. Red in the text symbolizes violence and is the color of blood, as Sophie largely associates her mother with trauma and violence through the virginity “testing” throughout the text. Additionally, Sophie looks back at her aunt as she leaves Haiti, noting that “a red dust rose between me and the only life that I had ever known” and that there were “no daffodils” (31). Like the red of her mother, the red she sees as she leaves Haiti represents her anger and pain at leaving her home.

Also present in the text at multiple points is the color green, which represents the idea of a healthier life and growth. First, when Sophie leaves to go back to Haiti, her mother sends a cassette to Ifé telling her that she has lit candles for Sophie, “green for life” (133). Then, when Sophie attends a group session to deal with her past sexual trauma, they sit on green pillows and release a green balloon, which “stood for life and growth” (202). Green is the color of plant life and of growth in spring, and in the novel represents the idea that growth and life are possible, even after trauma.

Dreams

Dreams are a motif present throughout the text, showing the trauma and hidden pain that the characters are suffering. These dreams make clear that one cannot escape trauma by ignoring it, highlighting The Importance of Confronting Trauma. The motif begins in the text with Sophie, who regularly has dreams of her mother coming to get her or trying to force her to live in the picture frame with her. Just before she leaves for New York, she dreams that her mother has finally succeeded in capturing her and buries her beneath her yellow sheets where Atie cannot find her as she screams for help. Additionally, when she returns to Haiti, she admits that her mother’s nightmares have “become [her] own,” and that she fears passing them on to Brigitte (196). Similarly, Martine suffers from nightmares of her rape throughout the text. Her dreams often turn violent, as she tears her sheets and even attacks Marc during one. Similarly, Sophie hears her grandmother muttering in her sleep in response to dreams of her past. These characters are all suffering from trauma or situations that are seemingly beyond their control. As a result, they repress their suffering in the waking hours, only for them to come through in their unconscious while dreaming.

Sophie’s Birth and Life

Sophie, as a child of rape, symbolizes the nation of Haiti itself. Sophie was born from the violent rape of her mother at the hands of a Tonton Macoute, who then left her mother in a sugar cane field and was never a part of Sophie’s life. As a result, Sophie struggles with being raised first by her aunt, then by her single mother who inflicts further trauma and hardship upon her.

Similarly, the nation of Haiti was born as the result of blood and violence when it gained its independence in 1804 after a successful slave revolt. Newly freed and with a history marked by violence and slavery, Haiti attempted to establish its own national identity by separating itself from France and creating its own culture and history. However, as the world’s first Black-led republic and the only nation established by a successful slave revolt, Haiti was intensely threatening to the European colonialists who continued to hold power throughout much of the world. Haiti was thus largely blocked from participation in global markets and forced to develop in isolation. At the same time, France demanded that the fledgling nation pay restitution for the loss of what they saw as their property—including the formerly enslaved people themselves. The resulting immense debt crippled Haiti’s burgeoning economy. Haiti’s history of violent dictatorships—such as both Duvaliers—and torture at the hands of the Tonton Macoutes must be considered in the context of this systematic deprivation.

Both Sophie and the nation of Haiti have their mothers (Sophie’s is Martine, while Haiti’s is the mother country of France) but have troubled and traumatic histories with them, and instead of being nurtured and cared for, are abandoned, as Sophie is when she is forced out of her home at the age of 18. Now, after lives of violence, abandonment, and trauma, both Sophie and the nation of Haiti are attempting to rebuild their own identities and heal from their trauma in order to move forward.