what really interest me about this section is the fact that martine got pregnant for mac, i don’t believe the pregnancy was more important than the sexual act itself to get pregnant, i say this because i believe that martine only had sex with marc because she believes that her pain from the rape will go away due to simple fact that she has feeling for marc, but she soon realized that every guy she see it only reminds he off the rape and by having this babe with marc will only bring pain and suffering to the child and will create problems within her life and enhance her problems and in some cases i feel like martine blames herself for all that sophie is going through because the problems is within martine and then sophie comes along and inherited martine issues and sophie, briggete, and joseph struggles to live as a happy family

As I come closer to the end of the book I begin to like Sophie’s character a little more. Even though Sophie and her mother had many problem in the past (mostly because of the test) I like the fact that they were both able to overcome their problems, so they can maintain a healthy mother-daughter relationship. I also like the fact that Sophie started to go to a sexual phobia group (therapy), I feel that it was well need for her.  For Sophie to be around people that have a type similar story to why they are having problems with sex and how that problem has affected their lives is good, I feel that these group meetings is helping Sophie to get over her problems with sex and the “Test”. Lastly Sophie’s mother passing, I really wasn’t surprised that Sophie’s mother took her own life. Often in the book Sophie’s mother nightmares got even worst because of the pregnancy, she even stated that everywhere she looked she saw the face of the man who raped her. I believe that the pregnancy made Martine go insane, she truly believed that her baby was a boy and that he was tormenting her. The reason I wasn’t surprised Marine took her own life was because of the gathering she had at her house (with Marc, Joseph and Sophie). At this gathering Joseph was singing Martine’s favorite spiritual “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child”,she then stated that “ I want that sung at my funeral”. I don’t know why but when Sophie’s family mentions something about funerals they tend to believe that their time has come.  

Sophie and her mother returns to New York from Haiti after they made peace with each other, Martine also settles some business with her mother’s and sister Tante Atie, she says to Sophie that the next time she comes to Haiti is to be buried. This statement turns out to be very true. On their return Martine discloses to Sophie that she is pregnant, but the pregnancy isn’t welcomed. The pregnancy has heightened her pains from the past, her mental health is also spiraling out of control.

Martine is displaying symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia, she tells Sophie that the baby is calling her names, it calls her a filthy whore and she needs it out of her, Sophie suggests she seeks medical help but she refuses to face her demons. The dreams are more frequent and vivid and she is experiencing the rape over and over every night. Martine needs to relieve herself of her pregnancy and quiet the voices in her head, the pain is now unbearable. The madness drove her to stab her stomach seventeen times ultimately killing herself and the baby inside her.

I love how the beginning of this last reading starts. If anyone ever traveled to a third world country, or somewhere not as developed as New York. The first thing you notice as soon as you get here is all the traffic and all the bright lights and big stores. I notice it everytime when i comeback from the Dominican Republic. When i am over there i enjoy the peace of the country side no lights at night nor traffic. But as soon as i get here and see all that, that is when i know im back home. Another part that stuck out to me in the final part was when Sophie looks at her daughter and sees how peacefully she sleeps. She has peace in mind knowing that the reason her daughter can sleep is because she doesnt have nightmares like her and her mother. It shows you how innocent children are and as we grow up so do our fears and nightmares.

I kind of found humor in the story of the rich man and the poor girl. Even though it was a sad ending what made it humorous was that he was so concerned with what people thought of him that he seeked for a woman that was untouched and then improvised when he found out she wasnt. His self centeredness and ego led to the death of his wife just because of his desire to have her blood. Thinking about it, its just nasty and gross the extent at which he went to just to show off that he was the first one. I guess he got what he deserved and thats what i find funny that she didnt give him what he wanted but sad that her death had to occur because of it.

With the end of the book, we reach an unexpected end that would probably shake the core of whoever was deeply reading this novel. We see Martin commit suicide in an attempt to abort her child. But with this, we can argue that, she didn’t just do this to abort the child, but to kill herself so she could be free. This could be related to when Sophie had broken her hymen so she could escape the constant tests of her mother. In a like manner, Martin was suffering from the horrors of the rape she had suffered, so she could escape the nightmares and unrest that she was going through. During Martin’s  funeral, Ifé even asked Sophie if she knows freedom. The main point in the novel seems to be “How far are you willing to go to be free?”

While reading this portion of the book, I gained a lot of clarity on many issues regarding the “caco” women; more generally women living painful lives which spurs from a troubled past. In the earlier portions of the book I sympathized only with Sophie and slightly despised her mother as I thought ; how could she have gone through such a horrible experience herself and still turned around and put her own daughter through the same thing, but while reading this section I realized that Martine was probably suffering the most of all the caco women, so much so that her past became such an heavy burden that it consumed her and resulted in her death. Although Sophie had her own struggles with her past she was lucky to  be educated more than the rest of the other women, and was making improvements in therapy and her sexual phobia group. Although it’s sad that Martine got consumed by the pain of her past and ended up killing herself and her unborn Child, the repetition of freedom was the thing that stood out to me the most from this section, which made me to think that her death signified a lot of freedom for her, so in a sense she is better off than the rest of the other women.

While reading this section of the book, this book took my emotions on a rollercoaster. For some reason I just felt that this book was going to get really sad throughout the ending. Its almost as if they were dropping hints , because as sophie spoke to her mother and finding out that shes pregnant, she began to ask her about her nightmares and hows she’s feeling and what she was going to do with the baby and she kept saying she is too old to have a baby and shes too old to marry marc. I just had a feeling that this book wasnt going to have a nice ending. The part that stood out to me was the meeting  of Joseph and her mother. I feel that the only reason the meeting went well is because her mother became more understanding and instead of being the strict mother she was throughout the book she became more of a friend to sophie. also the part that stood out was the negro spiritual that she sang for them. My friend sang this song when we were younger in a play, although it was just for a play this song really affected her because a couple years back she lost her mother to cancer  and as she sang the song i watched as the song overtook her emotionally that as she exited the stage she was still crying because of the truth to the song. Another part that stood out to me was the death of her mother. this part stood out to me because as she began to blame Marc and ask him why did he give her a child? and did he not know about her nightmares he told her she knew more about them but where was she? I felt that this part made her mothers death worse for her because not only did she lose her mother but she now feels at fault for abandoning her mother to go live her life. At first I did feel like Marc did it  he seemed suspicious because he was able to sleep after she died and then he cleaned up everything spotless except for the sheets in the bathroom. but he showed that he was affected by her death by expressing how badly he wanted her to have his child, then as they went to haiti and attended her funeral his emotions was shown.