Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat pages 201-236

In the last pages that I read, Sophie flew back to New York from Haiti with her daughter. When she got back she wanted to know what was going on with her mother. Plus she wanted to resolve her issues with her. When she went to visit her, Sophie noticed that her mother was carrying a child of her own. But there was only one problem. The baby reminded the mother of all the pains that she went through when she was carrying Sophie. It wasn't long that Sophie realized that her mother was suffering from all the pain that the baby brought her. The mother wanted an abortion, and she wanted fast. As Sophie was explaining to her friend what was happening she told the friend that her mother told her that the baby was talking to her. The friend tried to convinced Sophie to have the mother see a psychiatrist to help her mother with her problems but Sophie knew that her mother wasn't going to go. As her and her friend were talking Sophie knew that at the moment her mother was going to have an abortion. When Sophie went home she got a phone call from Marc telling her that her mother had killed herself and the baby. Sophie wanted to see her mother but she was too late, the already send the body to Haiti without her knowledge. Her. Mother had stabbed herself seventeen times in her stomach. Sophie didn't know how she was going to tell her grand mother and her aunt, little did she know they already knew. Her mother was buried in the backyard of her grand mother's house.
"I come from a place where breath, eyes, and memory are one, a place from which you carry your past like the hair on your head. Where women return to their children as butterflies or as tears in the eyes of the statues that their daughters pray to. (Danticat 234)
The reason why I chose this quote is because you can see where she got the title of the book. Not only that you can feel the emotions that she feels when she's saying those words.

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat pages 158-200

After having the baby Sophie went back to Haiti to visit her grandma and her aunty. She was very excited to see tante Atie and also her grandmother. When she arrived in Haiti a lot changed, the people changed the community change and whole bunch of stuff. Soldiers were killing Innocent people, not because they disobeyed the law but it was because they wanted too. She was scared not for her but for little Brigitte. She wanted to get out of there. When tante Atie finally came to get her, she gave Sophie a big hugged and realized that she was suffocating the baby. Both of them looked at each other and started laughing. They were catching up on everything they missed .When they arrived to her grandmother’s everything was different. Her aunty wasn’t really getting along with Sophie’s grandmother. Since tante Atie started taking reading lesson her mother didn’t really like the fact that she was coming back to the house so late, tante Atie also started drinking and her mother didn’t really like that. A lot of things Sophie’s baby was doing reminded her of how tante Atie took care of her.After days of staying in Haiti Sophie's mother send tante Atie a Cassette. And that Cassette basacally said how Sophie's Husband been calling her and asking for Sophie and other details about her own life in New York. Apparently there was some secret that Sophie was Hidding from her aunt and grandmother.
"i am not having the short breath anymore, but every so often i do find myself dreaming the bad dreams. i thought it would end , but lately it seems to be beginning all over again" (Danticat 160)
the reason i do think the mother is continuing to have bad dreams is beacuse she druin her realationship with her daughter again and also the fact that she was molested at a young age. So when her daughter was living with her she had someone to talk with but since her daughter left her the nightmares came back

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat pages 102-158

Sophie finally turned eighteen years old. She went to a school that spoke French but at the same time they had class that teaches her how to speak English. She didn’t like the school because she thought that the school was just like Haiti’s school. She always said if it was for that school she would not have been speaking English. For the pass six years her mother had thought her how to say the words in English. After Sophie was done with high school her mother wanted her to go to college and be a doctor but Sophie wanted to learn something, she wanted to be a secretary. During the summer everything changed for Sophie. Her mother and she moved to a better area, next to her mother’s boyfriend. She was able to have a boyfriend now since she was eighteen. There was a neighbor of hers that always use to look at her every time he saw her. She was falling for all the attention that the boy was giving her but little did she know he wasn’t a boy he was a man that was the same age as her mother. She started hanging out with him every time her mother left the house. One night Sophie finally got caught by her mother.Her mother wanted her to stay a virgin till she got married. When she got caught her mom sends her to her room and tested to see if she was a virgin or not. Her mother tested her probably every day until one day she decided to take her own virginity, when her mom found out she wasn’t a virgin she kick her out of the house. Since than Sophie went to her boyfriend’s house got married and had baby months later.

"There are secrets that you cannot keep"(Danticat 149)
i like this quote because it reminds me very much of my family. in fact those pages reminds me of my family and specialy my mother. Sophie's mother of my mother becauuse certain things that she would tell Sophie my mother would tell me. For example this quote would be something that my mother would say if she thinks that im lying about a question that she would ask me.

Breath,Eyes,Memory by Edwidge Danticat pages 50-102

Further more in the book Sophie was taken by a lady in the airport and was forced to leave her aunty behind. When she got on the plane she was amazed, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing but it didn’t take her long for her to fall a sleep. When she finally got to New York she was looking for her mother, when she finally saw her she didn’t know how to react because it was her first time seeing her mother after years. But on the other hand her mother took her in and hugged her as it was the last time she was going to see her, she didn’t want to let her go. When her mother brought Sophie to her new house Sophie wanted to fly back to Haiti because it was so different. There was no flowers no where or no one to play with, she just wanted tante Atie. Every day Sophie had to go to her mother’s work because she didn’t have the age to stay by herself in the house. One of those nights her mother decided to tell Sophie that it wasn’t her fault that she got pregnant with her at such young age, but it was until Sophie turned Eighteen years old she understood that her mother got raped.
"Love is like rain. it comes in a drizzle sometimes. then it starts pouring and if you're not careful it will drown you(Danticat 67)

i like this quote because itnot only it's a good advice for everyone but it also expresses a lot of feelings that certain people really feels. i feel like this is good advice for the people that has trouble finding love or people that don't believ in true love.

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat pages 1-50

So far Breath, Eyes, Memory is about this girl name Sophie that came from a small village in Haiti called Croix des Rosets, where she grew up and was raised by her aunt Atie. She was always interested in School but never was able to get helped from her aunt because she was not able to read or write. When she would try to help her aunt to read her aunty would put her guard down and ask her to stop making fun of her. Sophie really liked the way she was being raised but little did she know her life was going to change in couple of days. Because her aunt’s inability of reading and writing Sophie’s mother would send money to her with a cassette tape in the envelope so that she could understand what the money was for. In one of those envelope there was a plane ticket and a cassette tape that explain how much she misses her daughter and how she wanted aunt Atie to send Sophie to New York. Mother’s day was coming up and Sophie wanted to do something for her aunt to show her appreciation for all those stuff that she’ve done for her. But aunt Atie was going to accept it like she usually do she wanted Sophie to save it for her real mother. As the time passed aunt Atie didn’t know how to tell Sophie that in less than two days she was flying to New York to her mother. As she told Sophie that, she couldn’t believe that aunt Atie was going to let her leave her. Finally the day came Sophie was happy to go to the city because she never seen it but as she going to the airport she found stuff very different from the village.

"the rope slipped out of her hands the bucket crashing with an echoing splash. I leaped into her arms, nearly knocking her down." (Danticat 23)
I like this quote because i love how the author gave every little details in this sentence during this moment. She described how the bucket fell on the floor and how she let the rope go out of her hand and all the sound effects.

Sweet Summer by Bebe Campbell pages 235-255

In the rest of the book Bebe would spend time writing to her father, whishing that she could spend the summer vacation with him and also asking him advice. After summer vacation Bebe went back to school. It was 5th years in the school. Although she didn’t like it she knew that she had to make mother happy, but every school year the white students would annoy her even more. There was always competition with whites and blacks in how they did in school, competing against each other, and either trying to be as good, or better than them, “What the white children learned, that’s what her child had to learn.”(Campbell.228). Bebe’s mother put many ideas into her head, about why proper English was the right thing to do, “Speaking impeccably proper English was a strategy in the overall battle for civil rights. Bebe, we have got to be prepared.” Bebe’s mother wanted her to change herself and to be something that she was not. she knew that the only person he could talk to was her father. Bebe always had her mother and aunt hovering over her, and making her speak proper English, but to Bebe, she considered it “acting white” and felt that in order to be considered black she had to act like herself.

"You can have all the marching you want. what it gets down to is economics." (Campbell.254)
as Bebe was listening to her mother she was thinking of what her father would say. As she was thinking she realizes how much he misses her father. also her father was the completeely opposite of her mother because her mother would force her to do something but her father would give her the best advice that he could to make her feel better about being an African American girl.

Sweet Summer pages 199-233

After Bebe wrote to her father she wanted an immediate response. She imagined her dad asking her how she was, how she got bigger than how he knew her before and all those questions he usually asked. But after reading the next chapter I realized that Bebe wasn’t only writing to herself but she was also going to a crisis of not having her father around her. Days passed and she was still thinking about her father. One week after her uncle Sammy came to visit her with out her knowing. That got her very exited because she misses having a father figure around her. Since her father died it’s been her and mother struggling with all those challenges that life has been giving them. One thing that her uncle had in common with her father was all the questions he started asking Bebe. After her uncle left her grandmother started having problems with her teeth. that was another struggle that the family had. at first the grandmmother didn't believe her dentist so she went to another one, he told her the same thing. the grandmother had to take all her teeth out one by one and put the fake teeth in. At first no one was really comfortable with it but as the days pass everyone started getting use to it.
"how are you doing in school" asked uncle sammy (Campbell 215)

i felt the same way as Bebe felt when her uncle asked her this question because her thought about this question was that all grown ups wanted to know the answer of that question evrytime they see you.

Sweet Summer pages 131-198

After having to go to a school the Bebe wasn’t comfortable with she learned how to deal with it for couple more years. But this time she made sure to listen to her mother and her grandmother’s advice to keep herself out of trouble. When Bebe begin her fourth grade year she saw how different her personality and her way of learning were improving. Her family was still on her about the opportunity that she has going to that school. She wanted to prove to them that she was finally doing her work. So when the teacher gave her three poems to memorize she found it as an opportunity to show to her mother and grandmother how well she was doing in school. When she told her mother about the poem project she had the mother made sure that she was doing what she was suppose to do. Later on Bebe went to her room and memorize two poems and left the other one. When her mother ask her to recited the poem for she notice that Bebe only knew the two shortest poem she asked her to go learn the other. Bebe knew that no matter what she did the mother always had a second opinion. However she made sure that she knew her words and study over and over again. When Bebe went to her room she started writing to her father about how she can’t wait about summer to come and tried to tell him everything that been happening.

“Girl you’re getting big. Now you better watch out for these little hardheads, hear me?” (Campbell 135)

In the beginning of the book she talked about her father’s death and all of sudden she started talking about her wanting to go to her father during the summer. That got me really confuse because now I’m wondering is the father dead or she just writing her own letter to herself and writing back to herself.

Sweet Summer (51-129)

In the few chapters in Sweet summer Bebe move to another city to have a better education. Her mother and her grandmother wanted her and her cousin name Michael to go to a white school to receive a better education that she had from a previous school. Although the school was mixed Bebe’s grandmother wanted her to be in her very best behavior. The grandmother knew what the white people expected of the black people. After the first two days of school Bebe was proud of herself for not disappoint her mother and her grandmother. A few days later while she was in class the teacher asked the class to make a sentence with the word birthday and everyone in the class had there hands up except Bebe. One of her classmate name Sandra made a sentence that involved her father and Bebe flipped out. However Bebe made a comment about wanting to stab Sandra with a knife. When Mrs. Bradley find out Bebe was sent to the principal’s office. Although they called her parents she didn’t know what was going to happen to her when she gets home. Although she didn’t get beaten she still got yelled out by her grandmother and her mother and from her opinion it was worse than a beaten.

"my made me a beautiful dollhouse for my birthday" (Campbell 66)
i think Bebe got mad because Sandra was talking about what her father gave her and i think Bbe flipped out because she didn't have a father anymore she was still dealling with his death.

sweet summer by Bebe Moore (pages 1-50)

In sweet summer Bebe demonstrated her life as African American girl. Ever since her father died from a car accident she's been living with her mother. The mother was really hard on her because after all the discrimination they used to say about black people, she was not going to let her daughter act certain ways. She wanted daughter to have the same education that the white kids had. Bebe couldn't even talk without using proper words because her mom would look at her like she crazy. However she was really comfortable with her mother. They use to talk about having a boyfriend and being sexually active. Bebe also a loving grandmother who gave advice when ever she wasn't feeling good about something. Bebe also looked up to her grandma. Although she didn't want to be alive at seventy nine she looked forward to have her strong will and to act just like her. As she was describing what her grandma does she realized that her father was the same exact way. As she kept on thinking about her father she figured that she was missing him the more she talked about him.

Favorite quote so far: "That'sa Negro colloquialism. Totally incorrect. They'll think you're dumb if you talk like that " (Cambell 2)