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.

Tante Atie reads poems to Sophie and they speak openly about the struggles she faced growing up as a woman. She explains that their parents poked at their panties, they listen to them pee and if they pee too loud it means they had large spaces between their legs, this would provoke a test.

Sophie also declares that she wish she never left Haiti, she wished she never left Tante Atie. Tante Atie explained that she really never had a real life, she did all that was asked of her burned her hands learning to cook, endured the pains of the tastings and all was done for nothing. Women were ment only for domestic use, this seem very painful to Tante Atie.

It appears that women were held in low esteem in Haiti, this was evident when the baby was born, the light went out. This meant that the mother was left in the darkness with her girl baby to wallow in the sadness of not having a boy. This was very surprising to me I know this usually happen in places like China and India but never in the West Indies. This also shows why Tante Atie and her sister weren’t able to fulfil their true potentials.

Sophie is now a wife (married to Joseph) and mother, her daughter’s name is Brigitte five months old, Sophie and Brigitte are in Haiti and are en route to her Tante Atie and Gran Ife home in La Nouvelle Damn Marie. On her way the cab driver is flirting with her and is trying to get to see her naked, she tries to brush him off, showing him her wedding ring but he persists. She met an acquaintance name Louis who filled her in with what she missed over the years.

She is reunited with Tantie Atie and Gram Ife, Tante Atie is now more confident in herself because she can read. The relationship between Tante Atie and Gram Ife isn’t what it was, her mother thinks she is disrespecting herself and is less of decent woman, drinking and staying out late. She even scolded her one night because she thought she wasn’t showing Sophie a good example. Sophie explains to her Grandmother about the testing and how humiliating it was and how the experience ruined her life and relationship with her mother it also put a strain on her esteem and marriage.

Sophie is now 18yrs, she and he mom moves to a new neighborhood, she decorated the house in red, and plants hibiscus in the back yard which are usually red, I think this signals a turn for the worst in their lives. Sophie is now that age where she is having different feelings, college is around the corner and her mother would love for her to focus on her education.

One day on her way home she sees a guy and suddenly feels this connection, he reciprocates, secret glances and slight winks they are building a relationship even though its non-verbal at this point, she fantasizes about him. Eventually he finds a way to talk to Sophie, he asked to borrow her phone and he seizes the opportunity to introduce himself officially as Joseph a musician form Louisiana , a courtship ensues.

She tested the waters by letting her mom know that she had a love interest but this doesn’t go over well. Unknowingly to her mom, she would go out at nights with Joseph to restaurants and sometimes on gigs. She finally got caught by her mom and the testing begins. It was humiliating to her and after a few times she decided to free herself by breaking her hymen with a pestle. When she fails the test her mother chases her out the house to meet Joseph.

Taunt Atie and Sophie embarked for the city of Port-a-Prince for the airport, she was leaving Haiti for the United Stated to be re-united with her mother. On the way they encountered a riot in progress between government soldiers and some students, they witnessed the students being beaten. There was a fire that impeded the traffic and as a result they were late catching the flight. At the airport the farewell between Tante Atie and Sophie was rushed and abrupt because of their lateness, this compounded the heartbreak and devastation of their separation.

When Sophie arrives in New York she is greeted by her mother, they hug and kissed. After this brief reunion her mom took her to her new home on Flatbush Avenue. On the way there Sophie noticed her mother was very haggard and unhealthy looking, an appearance far removed from the pics Tante Atie had of her back in Haiti. She also realizes that her mom holds the same ideas about education as Tante Atie. That she needed to get a good education to elevate herself out of poverty and make them proud. Her success was going to be their success.

She is introduce to Mark, her mother’s boyfriend. Them her mom gave her the history of her existence and the fact that she was conceived through the terrible act of a violent rape.

Sophie a little Haitian girl is living a happy existence with her Tanta (Aunt) Atie in a small village, with New York money and a job as a home maker with a white family Sophie’s takes good care of her. She pushes Sophie in school because she lost her childhood working in the sugarcane fields with her parents, and never learned to read. This deeply hurts her, she owns a Bible that she keeps under her pillow and wishes she could one day unlocks its wisdoms. Even though she desires to learn to read, she refuses to have kids teach her, so she measures her educational success through that of Sophie’s.

She receives a package and it includes a plane ticket for Sophie to join her mother in New York. Sophie’s Tante Atie is devastated because she is going to lose the child she raised from birth. She is waiting for the right moment to announce this trip to Sophie, she seeks the advice of Mr. Augustin who tells his wife and she spills the beans to Sophie. This breaks Sophie’s heart because she has no desire to leave Haiti or her Tante Atie, but the choice wasn’t hers’ to make. The preparation starts and she is now making the rounds to say her goodbyes.

Tituba finds out she is pregnant, she is happy but the experience is bitter sweet because the father Christopher a maroon doesn’t care about her. Tituba keeps finding these men who shows her no love. She extends a helping hand to a rebellious slave Iphigene, who was whipped to the brink of death, she nurtures him back to health and even though she is old enough to be his mother, she felt the need to have sex with him. Mama yaya and Abena always warn Tituba about the destruction men would bring her but she never listened. Iphigene encourages Tituba to orchestrate a rebellion against the slave owners. This would turn out to be the ultimate mistake Tituba makes. This decision resulted in her death. Seen by others as a person of tremendous value due to her gift and craft, Tituba never seem to see the real value in herself, always needing a man to validate here existence and to love her. This ended up to be her greatest downfall.

Tituba has the fortune of being bought by an old wealthy Jew. Lucky for her she soon finds out he has the means to possibly get her back to Barbados. She is bought to care for his kids due to the death of his wife, she soon finds herself dull circle  back into needing the affections of a man after the horrid experience she had with John Indian, who by the way has moved on with a white woman to another city. After having the affair with her master his house burns and his kids die. He attributes this to the fact that he refuses to give tituba her freedom. He gives tituba her freedom but for a moment tituba hesitates, she weighs her freedom against, love, lust and sex once again. If it wasn’t for her master insisting in her taking her freedom she would have remained in Salem. She eventually finds her way back to Barbados where trouble is starting to greet her again.

The reading that is most interesting now is we are finally seeing the true side of John Indian, he is now in full blown survival mode, and acting very selfish all he has on his mind is self-preservation. John Indian is now acting as if he is being tormented by spirits and is calling the names of others including his wife Tituba and finally she is seeing the words of Abena and Mama Yaya coming true. They told her he would bring her trouble, now she realizes that Hester was correct about him too. After she spoke to him in the barn where she was shackled up and he realize tituba feelings for him has started to change she never saw him again. Also tituba found out that Hester hanged herself. This was a devastating blow to tituba’s heart, she lost the last person she could have absolutely confided in.

Tituba life is now in disarray all the good she did for the Parris family is being undone. After she saved the life of Mrs. Parris and Betset the Pastor Mr. Parris found out that his wife was helped by tituba and he considered it to be the work of Satan. The children are now in a state of some sort of demonic possession or are influenced to behave as such and all eyes are now being placed on tituba as the person responsible. Mr. Parris told her if the doctor sees signers of Satan in the kids, he would have her hanged like a fruit on a tree by the neck. The community is slowly figuring out the crisis in the Parris family household and the wife and the husband are in damage control mode, because they don’t want the community to know. This is now a problem because Abigail took her actions into the church and it’s now has been exposed to the public. She  was just the first, it will get worst to the point where the entire community started to be affected in the same manner.