The moment from reading this portion of the text that I thought was significant is when Martine commits suicide by stabbing herself in the stomach to get rid of the unwanted pregnancy. She kept mentioning to Sophie that she was going to get rid of it and that she had a plan, personally I am not one for abortion and for her to go about it the way she did was way too extreme.  But we saw a woman who had suffered all her life and wasn’t able to fight anymore and to add to all that mentally she was losing her mind. I felt as though she could have gotten better or improved had she went to see a psychiatrist, but the fear of confronting the past was too much for her to bear and she felt as though she had no way out. I believe that Sophie had the confrontation for herself when she broke away from her mother’s burial and ran to the cane fields, if shows us that Sophie was an even greater fighter than her mother was and that she desired to be free

Sophie did not have the physical presence of her mother for several years of her life although her mother provided for her, Tante Atie and Grandmother Ifé during that time.

As Sophie and her mother started to overcome their differences and started to develop a good relationship, Sophie was informed that her mother was pregnant (pp.189-1). The pregnancy brought Sophie and her mother (Martine) even closer because Sophie became a support system for her mother who had started to depend on her a great deal.

The pregnancy brought Martine to a psychotic state while she recalls the rape that traumatized her all her life; she is traumatized, this time more than ever although the sex was conscientious. I felt really sad that Martine committed suicide leaving her family and loved ones in grief. Perhaps, memories of the rape brought her pain that was too much for her to bear.

Martine made great effort to reunite with Sophie while she was spending time with Grandmother Ife and Tante Atie in Haiti. I found the moment strange after Martine avoided communication with her daughter for a long time. Sophie’s mother used the opportunity to make arrangements to fulfill Grandma Ife’s wish upon her death. Also to take care of other family legal matters, to make up with her daughter, and to meet her granddaughter all in one trip.

Sophie had the opportunity to ask her mother why did she have tested her the ways she did. Her mother did not have quite a good answer but told Sophie that she had to go through it as well when she was a child. Sophie’s mother told her that she had to live with the memories of both testing she received and the rape she endure (pg.170)

As you keep reading you see more problems rising. Sophie left Joseph and he has no clue where she is. Neither does her mom for all her mother knows Sophie is dead. When Sophie’s grandmother hears this message you can tell she’s someone surprised and fed up with the fact that Sophie and her mom still don’t communicate. Later on another part stood out to me the most was when auti and Sophie were siting talking about society and men in general. It sounds auti is tired of the traditional role of a female in society . She just thinks all they are good for is to cook clean and please men because that’s what society sees. I feel like this is why she left her husband she was sick of playing this traditional role so she went to a place where she didn’t have too. She went home so she can be herself.

Previously, the book portrayed Martine as cold and distant from Sophie. What I liked about this part of the reading was the change in her character.

When Martine walked towards Sophie instead it seemed like a humble act to me. After two years of ignoring her daughter, probably being face to face with her made her finally cave. She finally met her granddaughter who she seemed to love ever before meeting her – after all she did keep every picture Sophie sent.

“You and I, we started wrong, you are now a woman, with your own house. We are allowed to start again.”  Even though Martine didn’t say ‘sorry’ outright, I think she really did regret everything that happened between herself and Sophie and wanted to be a part of her daughter’s life again.

In this section of reading, we get to see Martine’s side to why she tested Sophie in New York. She states that she only did it because her mother did it to her. In my opinion, that is not a good enough reason. She claims that raped stopped her from getting tested, so it should of been obvious that Sophie would of seeked out a way to stop it also. It saddens me that she makes it seem like it’s a tradition to do that, especially when she knows it caused a great deal of pain in her life… To know that it has been haunting her her entire life. Sophie had to suffer her purity just to leave it all, and unlike her, she did not have control over what made the testing stop. For a mother, she should of been more responsible to keep her protected. Yes, in the outside view of it all, testing would of been a way for her to stay safe, but that’s the wrong way of going about the situation even if that’s all you knew in your life. Maybe it’s because we are in the 21st century, but the pain she dealt with should of been enough reason to stop that “tradition.”

In this section of the novel (20-27) sophie was still in haiti when i started reading again. She is still with Tante Atie and her grandmother too. They recive a casset player which is from Sophies mother and she is concerned on where sophie is and also lets her know that joseph is looking for her too. Sophie and atie reflect and think about the time they lost together. I was shocked to read the part about sophies mothers past, and it was more shocking to read that she tried to kill herself. At one point in the story, Sophie was talking with her family members about the tests women go through. Atie said each finger had a purpose and as she was naming off the purposes it started to remind me of the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, based off the way that story was told and the way atie was speaking which was a nice connection.