Breath, Eyes, Memory

In Edwidge Danticat’s novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, a story is told of a young girl who has to deal with the past of her mothers life. Sophie Caco, who was raised in Croix-des-Rosets by her Tante Atie until her mother sent for her from New York. Sophie loved her aunt more than her own mother due to the fact that she had no recollection of her mother. As she moved to America though she would never be able to forget the past of her mother. Even at their first meeting together, Sophie’s mother, Martine asks her daughter, “You’re a good girl, aren’t you?” (60). This question leads Sophie into a constant recollection of her mothers past of testing and being raped. Purity was a very important thing for the Haiti people and was said that if the daughter was impure that it brought same upon her family.
When Sophie began to have feelings for Joseph, Martine started to test Sophie and would “double” in order to distract herself from being tested. In her later life, Sophie would double again in order to try and have sex with her husband which was painful because Sophie destroyed her body in order to have her mother stop testing her. Sophie lost her desire and feeling to really love her husband because of her mother and what she put her daughter though (123). Sophie lost her mother when Martine thought that Sophie was impure, and after that Sophie had a great obsession of purity. Learning about the honor of a husband when his bride was a virgin and how each mother obsessed with keeping their children pure until that day (154-155).
One mother and daughter had reconciled with one another, Sophie asked why Martine had tested her which Martine replied by saying, “Because my mother had done it to me. I have no greater excuse. I realize standing here that the two greatest pains of my life are very much related. The one good thing about my being raped was that it made the testing stop. The testing and the rape. I live both every day/” (170). This shows a relationship between mother and daughter because of how both of their testing were stopped. Although Martine loved her daughter she just wanted to be a good mother, as she had learned from her own mother.
Throughout the novel Sophie struggles with this constant theme of purity. The constant obsession of this makes Sophie mad in a way but lets it go in her group meetings with others who had been raped. Being freed from hating her mother for these actions allows her to give up herself. Each woman around her had been affected by testing, her grandmother, aunt, mother, and herself. She had to choose to let her past and her mothers past go in order to live a life in America with her husband.
Testing was a cultural part of Sophie’s life, and as an American she could stop this control over her own daughter. She had moved from her birthplace and had started a new independent life where she could free herself and her daughter from the family’s past.

The Joys of Motherhood

In Buchi Emecheta’s novel, The Joys of Motherhood, one of her main themes is the fate of the main character, Nnu Ego, and how she is cured by fate throughout the novel. The fate of Nnu Ego twists her life into destruction. In this fate she becomes a prisoner in her role as a mother. Although we have learned that to the society of Ibuza, the female role as a mother was highly looked upon. Becoming a mother defined a woman and gave her power in her community. Having children was an honor where in Lagos, having children was a burden. When Nnu Ego’s first marriage ended because she could not bear children, she was sent to marry Nnaife, in Lagos. Here she goes through hard times that put a strain on her life that create the downward spiral she experiences from her fate.
With her first marriage to Amatokwu, Nnu Ego became had her first major step down because she was cursed to not have children. She felt that she was failing everyone since they so highly expected for her to have a child as the first wife. Then when she married Nnaife, her first child, a son, died only four months after living and she tried to kill herself. Finally after months of mourning her chi allowed for her to have a child that would live. The curse though was seen by her husband when he stated, “ What type of chi have you got, eh? When you were desperate for children she would not give you any; now that we cannot afford them, she gives them to you” (91). Once Nnaife starts a family things go down hill and he cannot care properly for his family when his steady job comes to an end when his master moves back to England for the war.
After suffering from the poverty level they have reached, another burden comes on the family when Nnaife’s brother dies and one of his wives comes to live in Lagos. Nnu Ego and Adaku have much tension between the two of them. “On her way back to their room, it occurred to Nnu Ego that she was a prisoner, imprisoned by her love for her children, imprisoned in her role as the senior wife” (137). She realizes that she must produce a boy for her husband as she is starting to become older. Her role as as mother is taken over and she feels trapped.
Although Nnu Ego remains faithful to her husband to the bitter end to her death. I feel that her joy of being a mother took over Nnu Ego’s life to a point that it did enslave her. Even after her death people, “ said that Nnu Ego was a wicked woman even in death because, however many people appealed to her to make women fertile, she never did. Poor Nnu Ego, even in death she had no peace! Still, many agreed that she had given all to her children. The joy of being a mother was the joy of giving all to your children” (224). In these last paragraphs it sums up how much effort Nnu Ego put forth for her family. Through her trials she did everything for the benefit of her family. The love that she shared for her family and children chained her to the slavery that she became subjected to by being a mother.