Never Be Scared to Try New Things

Title:Breath, Eyes, Memory
Author:Edwidge Danticat
Date of publication:1994
Publisher:Soho Press 1994

    

      This book takes place in both New York and in Haiti. In the beginning of the book Sophie the main character lives with her aunt in Haiti. She is young and her mother lives in New York to send money to her in Haiti. It’s been awhile since they have met and her mother doesn’t want Sophie to forget who she is, so she sent an airplane ticket for her to go to New York and finally live her with. Sophie’s first reaction was if her aunt was going to go with her. Her aunt was very sad because she raised Sophie like if she was her own child, but her place in the world was to stay in Haiti and take care of her own mother. Sophie was forced to go. The story then fast forwards to when Sophie is 18 years old and lives in New York with her mother. They have a new neighbor, an old man. Her mother works at night and warns her never to trust men. Her mother always searches her to see if she is still a virgin. That traumatizes her because she feels belittled compared to what her mother can do to her if she was to find out she was no longer a virgin. Sophie didn’t leave the house often because her mother was scared that she wasn’t ready for the world. One day while her mother was at work the neighbor came over to ask for sugar. He complimented her and from then on he came often knocking on her door to talk to her. Sophie was scared to tell her mom because he was an older man, but she soon loved him with their frequent visits. After some suspicion Sophie told her mother about him and how they had sex. Her mother was shocked, but she didn’t have a big reaction. Sophie then moved with Joseph, the neighbor and left her mom.

That’s when the book jumps to the future again and Sophie has a child and is flying to Haiti. She needed a break from Joseph because she was still scared of the fact her mother tried to search her every night to see if she was a virgin or not. He didn’t understand why she did that, but she convinced him it was because of her past. While back in New York Sophie finds out her mother is pregnant. Her mother has a boyfriend named Marc. Sophie was still scared of her, but she was still worried about her mother because she continued to tell her she had night mares. One day her mother wouldn’t answer the phone. Sophie was worried until Marc called her back. Her mother had died. She killed herself because her night mares where scaring her. Sophie then realized her mother needed her even though it was suppose to be the other way around, but Sophie felt free at last. She forgot about her mother trying to check her when she was young and finally felt relaxed being an adult and a mother.

“Marc raised the olive green steel lid…”(Danticat 231) The author towards the end uses a lot of symbolizes. This sentence has a symbol because usually an olive tree represents freedom. This sentence is said after Sophie’s mother is dead. This shows Sophie was hurt by the fact her mother didn’t trust her. She didn’t like the idea of being checked on. When her mother finally died however she felt free. She felt like her mother was never going to check her again because she was no longer alive. 

Grace After Midnight

Joslin Hernandez

Period 4

11-14-11

Changes are Never Too Late: Grace After Midnight

The title of the book is Grace After Midnight. The author of the book is Felicia “Snoop” Pearson and David Ritz. The date of publication is November 2007. The publisher was also Grand Central Publishing.

This book takes place in mostly a ghetto neighborhood and a penitentiary. Felicia the main character was teased very often for being a crack baby. She was born with crossed eyes and without her parents. She lived with her foster parents. Her mother tried being a good mother, but she was too addicted to crack and finally died of an over dose. She grew up learning how to be tough and mind her own business. She was very watchful and that’s how she got her nickname, Snoop. People in her neighborhood would come up to her and say they were her family members and all they wanted was to protect her. Sometimes they would actually be family members, but other times she wasn’t sure if they were. Her foster dad died of cancer, and that’s when she realized she had no emotions because it didn’t cause her to cry or anything. She felt as tough as a rock. She goes to jail for killing a lady. She killed the lady because it was self-defense, but people around the incident blamed it all on her, so the police tracked her down and took her in.  Once in jail she keeps to herself because she thinks the ladies there are crazy. She however falls in love with a woman she calls CO. They had a good relationship until Snoop left jail. CO became jealous so they broke up. Realizing people around her were dying and she had little people who were taking care of her, she went straight to her foster mom’s house after being bailed out of jail. She applied for a job and liked her new “normal” life.      

However in every job she had they would fire her because they found out she had been to jail. She thought that was unfair because she had change in a person and that wasn’t her anymore. She had no control over their decisions and started changing her positive attitude about life into a negative one. She started selling drugs because that was the only way she had to earn money. Until one day she got a random offer to work at The Wire, which was a HBO show. She agreed and it changed her as a person. She wanted to continue with the great opportunity, so she stopped selling drugs. People started telling her how well she acted and she became proud of herself. She started seeing the light again and from then on lived a positive and clean life.

“I can’t give back lives and I can’t undo what I’ve done, but I can say that I regret it in the worst possible way” (Snopp232). Snoop says this towards the end when she becomes positive in life. She finally realizes she had done wrong in the past and wants to own up to her mistakes. This quote makes me like this book because it shows Snoop had changed from once starting to read the book till now. At first she wanted to be tough and sell drugs to earn fast money, but now she knows what’s it like to have a life and actually try to earn money.