Breath, Eyes, Memory

In “Breath, Eyes, Memory” Edwidge Danticat gives the reader a glimpse into the horrors that have been happening in Haiti for over 200 years. After a slave rebellion in 1804, Haiti became the first independent state in Latin America. But independence did not lead to better times for the Haitian people. Haiti suffered under a wide range of violent dictators, enduring poverty, coups, and random acts of violence. In the book, there are a few scenes in which Danticat illustrates the fear and horror of life in Haiti.
On the day that Sophie is supposed to fly to America, there is a riot going on near the airport. Students were throwing rocks at soldiers, and “They scurried to avoid the tear gas and the round of bullets that the soldiers shot back at them. (34)” One of the students ran down the hill and grabbed a soldier, he “raised his pistol and pounded it on top of her head. She fell to the ground, her face covered in her own blood. (34)” This awful scene, witnessed by young Sophie, was not uncommon for Haiti. They have been through over 30 government coups, and some of the most brutal dictatorships in history. This violence against civilians, and the rioting of the students were spurned by the government instability, and the dire economic status of the country.
When Sophie goes back to Haiti to visit her grandmother, she accompanies her to the market. Here, they encounter Tonton-Macoutes, or national security volunteers, a semi militia set up by Francis Duvalier to protect himself from a military overthrow. These Macoutes carried weapons and would inflict violence on innocent people for any reason. In the market, one macoute yells to a vendor, “My foot, you see, you stepped on it! (118)” He then “rammed the back of his machine gun into the coal vendor’s ribs. (118)” Eventually the coal vendor was killed when more macoutes joined in. This passage is an example of the constant fear the people lived in of being killed or injured for any reason, or no reason at all.
One of the worst problems brought on by the political turmoil and the creation of the Tonton-Macoutes was the random rapes of women. Sophie tells the reader that regular criminals disguise themselves in the night, “But the macoutes, they did not hide. When they entered a house, they asked to be fed, demanded the woman of the house, and forced her into her own bedroom. (139)” Sophie and her family were directly affected by this, as her own mother was raped, most likely by a macoute. The rape shattered her mother. She attempted to kill herself multiple times during pregnancy and right after, and eventually leading to her suicide later in life.
In “Breath, Eyes, Memory,” Danticat doesn’t focus the main story on the horrors of living in Haiti, yet all of her characters are definitely scarred and affected for their entire lives. Today, there is still conflict going on in Haiti, and many Haitians come to the U.S. just as Sophie and her mother did, to escape all of the violence, poverty, and uncertainty of living in an unstable country.
Sources:
“Haiti.” Flashpoints: Guide to World Conflict.

Rourke, John T. “Continued Violence and Conflict in Haiti: The link between poverty and security” McGraw-Hill Higher Education. 2005.
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