Dave Badtke
English 1: Edwidge Danticat Breath, Eyes, Memory Journal Questions
English 1, Section 10033: College Composition
Spring 20109: 8:00-9:15 Tu&Th in Room 801
Office Hours & Place: 7:30-7:55 & 11:00-12:20 Tues & Thurs in Room 717
Instructor Dave Badtke
(707)334-4882
Dave@Badtke.com
Online Reference: www.Badtke.com or www.QCounty.com (follow link to Solano College classes)
Journal Study Questions for Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory:
Part 1:
Chapter 1, pages 3 to 17:
1. Breath, Eyes, Memory is a novel. Is a novel fact or fiction?
2. When the novel opens, how old is Sophie Caco?
3. Who is Atie and where is Sophie’s mother?
4. What does Sophie create for Atie?
5. Why does Atie not want Sophie to teach her to read?
6. What kind of a town is Croix-des-Rosets? Is it a real town?
7. Who’s Monsieur Augustin?
8. What’s in the package that Atie receives?
Chapter 2, pages 18 to 21
9. Why are they in Croix-des-Rosets?
10.How do they pay for the house, which is as fine as Augustin’s?
11.What is the history of daffodils in Haiti?
Chapter 3, pages 22 to 25
12.Why do Atie and Sophie travel to La Novelle Dame Marie? What kind of town is it? Is it a real town?
13.Who is Ifé? Where does she live?
14.Why does Ifé stress that “Your mother is your first friend” to Sophie?
15.Who believes that chagrin can be a disease like a broken arm? Do you believe this?
16.Where is the Guinea that Ifé talks about? What does it mean that there people carry “the sky on their
heads?”
Chapter 4, pages 26 to 31
17.Why is Atie working so hard?
18.What is the significance of the note stuck to the kettle? Can Atie read it?
19.Why does Atie say, “Crabs don’t make papayas,” when talking about Martine, Sophie’s mother?
20.Atie wins ten gourdes in the lottery. How much is this?
21.Does Sophie have really close friends? Why?
Chapter 5, pages 32 to 38
22.Why do they travel to Port-au-Prince? What kind of town is it? Is it a real town?
23.What’s happening in Port-au-Prince when they arrive? Why?
24.What does the word Caco, Sophie’s last name, mean in Creole?
25.How does Sophie get to the U.S.?
26.Why is the boy who initially sits next to her so upset and angry?
Chapter 6, pages 39 to 49
27.How does Martine’s appearance compare to Atie’s?
28.What is Martine’s economic status? How doe you know?
29.Who’s Lotus and what does she have to do with Atie?
30.Why does Martine keep a doll?
31.When Sophie looks at herself in a picture, what does she notice for the first time?
32.How did Atie explain that Sophie had no father?
Page Dave Badtke
English 1: Edwidge Danticat Breath, Eyes, Memory Journal Questions
Page Chapter 7, pages 50 to 56
33.Where is Flatbush Avenue? Is it a real street?
34.Why does Martine tell Sophie that she needs to learn English quickly?
35.What does Martine buy from Jacqueline at the Haitian beauty salon?
36.Who is Marc Chevalier? What does the designation Esquire mean?
37.They go to eat at a Haitian restaurant in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Is this a real place? How far is it from
Brooklyn?
38.What happens when they’re in the restaurant?
39.Does Marc like the food?
Chapter 8, pages 57 to 61
40.How many jobs does Martine work? What kinds of jobs are they? What does Sophie do while her mother is
working?
41.How did Martine meet Marc?
42.What does Martine ask Sophie about her relationships to boys and what does she tell her about the test Ifé
used to perform?
43.How did Martine become pregnant with Sophie?
44.How does the final sentence at the end of Part 1 on page 61 affect your reaction to the novel?
Part 2:
Chapter 9, pages 65 to 76
45.How much time has passed since the previous chapter and what is Sophie about to do?
46.What was her high school experience like?
47.Who is Joseph, what does he do, and how old is he?
48.How is the Haitian view of young adult responsibility different from the American view that Joseph
espouses?
49.What does Joseph want his relationship with Sophie to become?
Chapter 10, pages 77 to 81
50.Why can Martine not bear to stay in Haiti long?
51.What advice does Martine give Sophie when Sophie asks her about liking someone?
52.Does Sophie tell Martine about Joseph? What does she tell her?
53.What does Martine think is the difference between the values of old and new Haitians regarding money and
status?
54.What does Martine say is difference between success in Haiti and America?
55.Why does Martine have nightmares?
Chapter 11, pages 82 to 85
56.What happens between Sophie and Joseph?
57.When Sophie returns home, what does her mother tell her and do?
58.What is the meaning of the Marassa parable?
Chapter 12, pages 86 to 89
59.How does Sophie treat Joseph?
60.What is the meaning of the butterfly parable?
61.How does Sophie bring an end to her mother’s testing?
62.What does her mother do?
63.What does Sophie then do with Joseph?
Part 3:
Dave Badtke
English 1: Edwidge Danticat Breath, Eyes, Memory Journal Questions
Page Chapter 13, pages 93 to 101
64.Where is Sophie, where is she going, and why does she get to sit with the driver?
65.Why might returning Haitians claim they can’t speak Creole?
66.Why does Louise want to sell her pig? For how much?
67.What is Louise to Atie?
68.What does Sophie do in the U.S.?
69.What is Sophie’s full name? How old is she?
70.Why is it significant when Atie says that Brigitte looks more like Martine’s face than Sophie’s?
Chatper 14, pages 102 to 105
71.What has Atie learned to do in Sophie’s absence?
72.Has Martine, Sophie’s mother, met Brigitte?
73.What does Ifé mean when she says “that we can visit with all our kin, simply by looking into this face?”
Chapter 15, pages 106 to 111
74.Why does Ifé always wear black?
75.How does Ifé feel about Atie’s reading lessons?
76.What poem does Atie recite to Sophie? Why?
77.Why does Sophie wonder if Brigitte will inherit some of her problems?
Chapter 16, pages 112 to 113
78.What is the significance of Erzulie?
79.What can you discern about customs and the use of remedies?
80.What do you learn about Martine’s disease?
Chapter 17, pages 114 to 120
81.What is the maché?
82.What does Louise do?
83.What happens to Dessalines, the coal vendor?
84.What is Ifé hinting at when she talks to Sophie of Atie?
85.What is the significance of the story about the three children?
Chapter 18, pages 120 to 126
86.What does Atie have on her calf? What kind of healthcare is there in Dame Marie?
87.What does “Crabs don’t make papayas” mean?
88.What’s the significance of Krik? Krak?
89.What is the meaning of the lark story?
90.Why does Ifé tell scary stories?
Chapter 19, pages 127 to 130
91.What are Atie and Louise registering?
92.Why does Ifé object?
93.What does this suggest regarding property ownership?
94.What happened to Sophie after she decided to use the pestle to end the tests?
95.What happens to Eliab’s kite?
Chapter 20, pages 131 to 133
Dave Badtke
English 1: Edwidge Danticat Breath, Eyes, Memory Journal Questions
Page 96.What does Louise give them?
97.Who does Atie register?
98.What do Atie and Ifé learn from Martine’s cassette about Sophie and Joseph?
99.What does Atie encourage Sophie to do?
Chapter 21, pages 134 to 143
100. What does Atie write in her journal?
101. How does Atie seem? Why?
102. How does Ifé feel about Louise?
103. What happens to Dessalines?
104. According to legend, who were the Tonton Macoutes?
105. What are some of the Macoutes tactics?
106. What did Ifé do when Martine became pregnant and what did Martine try to do several times?
107. Why does Ifé tell Sophie that she needs to stay inside with Brigitte?
Chapter 22, pages 144 to 146
108. How does Atie characterize her relationship with Louise?
109. What does Ifé say about a distant light? Does this say about the relative importance of boys and girls?
Chapter 23, pages 147 to 157
110. Why does Louise take back her pig?
111. What does Louise use on her calf?
112. What do Sophie and Atie pass through on the way to the local vendor?
113. What is the meaning of Caco? How does this meaning differ from what you previously answered? See
the “Afterword” for more on this.
114. What does it mean that the men in the are insist that women are virgins and have ten fingers?
115. What is the significance of the song about a woman’s skin?
116. Why does Ifé finally compliment Atie?
117. Who is Ti Alice?
118. What is the significance of the story about the rich man and the poor girl?
119. What does the mother do while testing her daughter?
120. What is vaudou and what is doubling?
121. Why does Ifé say that mothers do the test?
122. What does Sophie do that people find odd?
Chapter 24, pages 158 to 165
123. When Martine arrives, what does Sophie notice about her skin? Why?
124. What happened to Martine when she got cancer?
125. What does tradition say a mother and daughter should do when meeting?
126. How old is Brigitte?
127. What has Martine promised to Joseph?
Chapter 25, pages 163 to 165
128. Why does Ifé not want to move from Dame Marie?
129. What are Ifé and Martine going to do? Which sister is favored by Ifé?
130. Why did Atie never marry?
Dave Badtke
English 1: Edwidge Danticat Breath, Eyes, Memory Journal Questions
Page Chapter 26, pages 166 to 171
131. How does Ifé divide the land? Why?
132. Why does Ifé believe that Atie stays in Dame Marie?
133. Is it significant that Martine says she wants to be buried in Dame Marie? Why are so many who aren’t
that old so interested in death?
134. Why does Sophie believe her mother has nightmares, especially when she sees her?
135. How does Martine explain the purity tests?
136. What kind of relationship does Martine now want to have with Sophie?
137. Where did the pig meat come from?
138. What does Louise do and what does this tell you about how some Haitians’ relationship to their country?
Chapter 27, pages 172 to 174
139. What does Atie mean when she says, “Money makes dogs dance”?
140. While William Faulkner said that the past isn’t dead, it isn’t even past, Atie says, The past is always
past.” How do you reconcile the two?
141. Why does Atie say that Sophie should treat her mother, Martine, well?
142. Where do all the women in the Caco family want to go when they die?
Part 4:
Chapter 28, pages 177 to 187
143. Given that her family is there, why does Martine only want to return to be buried?
144. Sophie says that she has bulimia, an eating disorder. What is this and what are some of the causes?
145. What is the tone of the interaction between Sophie and Martine when Martine tries to give Sophie advice
on eating?
146. When no one picks them up at the airport, Martine says, “The only person you have to count on is
yourself.” What ethical concept is Martine expressing?
147. What did Martine expect would happen when Martine told her to leave the house after Martine tested
Sophie for the last time?
148. How does Sophie explain her leaving Joseph with Brigitte?
Chapter 29, pages 188 to 193
149. The previous chapter ended with something important she told Marc. What is it?
150. Does Martine want to marry Marc? Based on her description of herself, how do you think she feels
about her self-image, her identity?
151. Is Martine seeking help?
152. What did she try to do when she was pregnant with Sophie?
153. Sophie wonders if her mother’s “anxiety was somehow hereditary.” Give what you know about child
development from Erikson, is there another explanation for what Sophie seneses?
154. What concern does Sophie express concerning Brigitte?
Chapter 30, pages 194 to 200
155. What issues are testing Sohpie’s and Joseph’s marriage?
156. Why does Sophie take Brigitte to see Karen, their pediatrician? What is she worried about?
157. What issues are raised when Sophie calls Martine?
158. How does the belief in Marassa, the person doubling affect Sophie’s ethical beliefs?
159. Even though Joseph had prepared a dinner especially for Sophie and Brigitte, what does she do as a
result?
Dave Badtke
English 1: Edwidge Danticat Breath, Eyes, Memory Journal Questions
Page Chapter 31, pages 201 to 205
160. Who is Davina and why do Sophie, Buki and Davina meet at her house?
161. What is the ethical meaning of the Reinhold Niebuhr’s serenity prayer: “God grant us the courage
to change those things we can, the serenity to accept the things we can’t, and the wisdom to know the
difference” (Danticat 202)?
162. How do these women try to deal with their past?
163. How does this approach help them forgive?
164. How does Sophie propose to keep Brigitte from having nightmares and having her named burned? What
does this mean?
165. What is the mood when Sophie calls Martine?
Chapter 32, pages 206 to 211
166. What does it mean that Rena, Sophie’s therapist, is a Santeria princess? How does this relate to her
experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic?
167. What is the historical relationship between the Dominican Republic and Haiti? Why is the official
language of Haiti French while in the Dominican Republic it’s Spanish?
168. How does Rena suggest that Sophie deal with her emotions and her past? Are Rena’s suggestions
ethical?
169. At the end of Smoke Signals, Thomas Builds-the-Fire recites a modified version of Dick Lourie’s poem
“Forgiving Our Fathers.” How might this poem help Sophie?
170. Does this poem present an ethical approach to dealing with a parent when a crime is involved?
171. When she was in Haiti, did Sophie go to the place Martine was raped? What does Rena suggest?
Chapter 33, pages 212 to 217
172. What kind of a person is Marc? What does Martine mean when she says that “Marc has a lot of the old
ways”?
173. In the exchange between Sophie, Joseph, Martine and Marc, what sense do you get of their identity and
association with place?
174. What is the significance of “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child”?
175. What does Martine tell Sophie that she’s going to do? Why?
176. What should Sophie do that she doesn’t?
Chapter 34, pages 218 to 221
177. How does Sophie use the idea of Marassa to explain the concern she has for her mother?
178. What does Rena suggest that Martine do?
179. What ethical issues are raised Rena’s suggestion that Sophie has a Madonna image of her mother?
180. What does Rena tell Sophie she should do? Does Sophie do this?
181. What is the significance of the Buki’s balloon?
Chapter 35, pages 222 to 235
182. What does Martine do?
183. How does Marc react and what does Sophie feel about him?
184. What does Sophie select for Martine’s burial?
185. What is the significance of the song being sung by the men in the cane field about a mermaid who
marries a fisherman and who becomes human?
186. What is the significance of the wake song in which they string Sophie’s wedding ring along a string?
187. While they wanted to have only the immediate family at the funeral, what happens?
188. Why does Sophie attack the cane in the cane field?
Dave Badtke
189.
190.
191.
192.
193.
English 1: Edwidge Danticat Breath, Eyes, Memory Journal Questions
What’s the significance of the call Ou libéré? and the response Ou libéré!?
What is the significance of trees that sing and of women like cardinal birds?
Why does red appear so often in this novel and how does Caco relate to this?
What is the significance of the title Breath, Eyes, Memory?
What is the significance of the burial tradition and how does it relate to Ou libéré?
Afterword
194. What does Cacos mean?
195. Why did Danticat include this Afterword?
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