Breath, Eyes,

Memory
PART 1:
Going to
NY
Key Takeaways: Chapter 4

• Auntie Atie bought a suitcase and some gifts for Sophie. She made tea from the silver teapot she only displayed.
• Sophie saw a note that said, “I love you so much”. It was from Augustine.
• Sophie’s nightmares continue with her mother trying to keep her with her as she cried out for Atie’s help.
• Atie continues to be extra generous. Gifting a beautiful dress to Sophie, handing her a new white towel to dry herself and
serving food in new china.

• Atie again refuses to have Sophie read her the Mother’s Day card and gives the card to Sophie to give to her real mother.
• Chabin shows up to pay Atie. 31 played,
Key Takeaways: Chapter 4

• The entire neighborhood peeped out to see the taxi that came for Atie and Sophie.
• The Augustins approached them to say goodbye and gave Sophie a pink handkerchief.
• Everyone waved goodbye to Sophie as they drove off.
• Sophie didn’t want to go and saw her life being left in the distance; in the dust as the car moved.
Key Themes: Chapter 4

• Migration: Sophie is about to leave behind the only life she has ever known. Now there will be no children playing, no
leaves flying and no daffodils.
Key Takeaways: Chapter 5

• Atie and Martine grew poor but they saved all year to go to the city and watch the toys in the stores and take pictures with
other white tourists who flirted with them and eat ice cream.

• They are met with a protest/ riot before they arrive at the airport. They are changing the name of the Airport.
• The army gets violent with the people.
• Sophie and Atie make it in the airport and her travel assistant takes her to get checked. They have a heartfelt goodbye.
• In the plane another kid is sat next to Sophie. He is devastated. His father, a corrupt government official has been killed in
the riot.

• The kid is a contrast of Sophie. Leaving Haiti to go to his aunt and Sophie leaving his aunt to go to her mother.
Key Themes in Chapter 5:

• Migration: Sophie and the boy going to a strange land.

• Loss of Innocence: Both see the hardships that Haiti is going through. The little boy even lost his father.
• Civil unrest. The military are causing chaos. One soldier butted a girl with his gun who tried to grab him. This foreshadows
the chaos that Sophie will endure in New York and the brutality she will come back to.
 Key Takeaways: Chapter 6

• They arrive in New York and the little boy’s aunt arrives to take him.
• Martine arrives as well and pays off the flight attendant for taking care of her child. They go to the car.
• Sophie is surprised. The windshield is cracked, paint is peeling off, couches are dirty and springs are protruding. It barely started.
• Martine looks nothing like the picture she had of her in the frame.
• Sophie is having a hard time making conversation with her mother.
• She mentions that Atie and herself wanted to be important people like doctors and engineers when they were small but soon
realized they “had limits”. Poverty of course.

• They arrive in a poor neighborhood. Poverty in New York?

 Key Takeaways: Chapter 6

• Atie was supposed to marry Donald but he left her for Madame Lotus.
• Martine reiterates the importance of education to succeed in life. She lives in an old apartment and wants Sophie to be better.
• Sophie sees a picture of Martine and Atie holding a baby Sophie. She soon realizes that she looks nothing like anyone in her family.
• Martine has kept, changed and combed a doll all this time she was away from Sophie and now passes it on to her.
• .Martine sleeps in a foldable bed couch. Sophie and the doll barely have space in the bed. Small bed.
• Sophie reveals Atie hid the fact that Sophie had no father and lied to her about her origins. She does not know this is a lie yet.
• Sophie hears her mother shouting in her sleep. She too has nightmares.
• The wake up the next morning and Sophie feels like a huge challenge in New York is upon her. She will not back down.
Key Themes and Symbols: Chapter 6

• Poverty: New York has poor spots where Martine lives. Even her car is old and dirty.
• Importance of Education: “Only your education will make people respect you.”
• Appearance vs. Reality: Do people in the United States (New York) really live better. Is it really the land of opportunity?
• Parenthood: The doll symbolizes the responsibilities of being a mother. Possibly foreshadowing Sophie’s transition into it.
• Innocence: she believed that she was born without a father. Like the petals of a flower.
• Doll: Parenthood responsibilities.
• Daffodils: Her people in Haiti still fighting and thriving despite hardships.
Key Takeaways: Chapter 7

• Martine and Sophie go to the mail where Martine had sent all her packages all along. It was managed my Haitians.
• Sophie wished she could mail herself back to Haiti.
• They later go to a salon, also Haitian. Then to a boutique, probably Haitian.
• Martine then tells Sophie that she needs to learn English quick so as to not be bullied at school. Other moms at Martine’s
job had said that their children were bullied too because of their nationality and odor.

• They walked around their troublesome neighborhood and soon arrived in a more peaceful one where they met Marc,
Martine’s romantic interest.

• Marc takes them to a Haitian restaurant in an ally beside a motel for Haitian food. There he engages in political arguing.
Key Takeaways: Chapter 7

• Marc complained about the food. They are eating at a secluded restaurant with fellow Haitians and still he complains that
the service isn’t great. The money has gone to his head.

• Sophie reveals she wants to be a secretary and Marc tells her to reconsider. She will have a lot of opportunities there.
• Martine adds that she will become a doctor. Trying to make her fulfill where she failed.
• Marc also asks if she has a boyfriend.
• Martine adds that she will wait until she is 18.
Key Themes and Symbols: Chapter 7

• Discrimination. Americans saw Haitians as carriers of Aids and stinkers. HBO: Haitian Body Odor; Television had also told
these kids that the 4 H’s carry aids. Heroin addicts, Hemophiliacs, Homosexuals and Haitians.

• Refusal to leave home/ Roots: Even though Martine is in a new land, she socializes mostly with other fellow Haitians; even
her romantic interest is Haitian.

• La Mulatresse statue: Enslaved woman, historical figure who helped in the fight against slavery. Symbol of freedom.
• Erzulie statue: goddess of femininity. Feminine bodies and fertility.