As the book draws closer to the conclusion we can see some parallelism between mother and daughter. Sophie and Martine both wake up at night because of nightmares and similarly, hide it from their men. Martine is also pregnant but isn’t sure whether to keep the baby. In the end, Martine commits suicide and although this is very tragic this may have set Sophie free from her demons. During the funeral Sophie takes off her shoes and beats the cane possibly suggesting that Sophie has come to terms with the suffering since ultimately her mother is the root of her pain. It appears that although the suffering has been passed down from grandmother to mother to Sophie, Sophie will be the one to break the vicious cycle. In other words, Sophie will not be testing her daughter Brigitte.