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?”

This reading continued with Sophie in Haiti, along with Tante Atie, (who is starting to act different) and with Grandmother Ifé. The reading picks up when Martine says she doesn’t know where Sophie is, and has been contacted by Joseph that he doesn’t know where she is either, meaning, Sophie has told no one that she was going to Haiti. A question that is raised is ‘Why would Sophie leave without telling Joseph?’. When Martine arrives in Haiti, Sophie is tense and does not want to approach her, and Martine tells her family that she will only be in Haiti for 3 days. Something that stuck out to me during this reading were 3 things. 1 was describing what would happen if a male child, or a female child was born. If a male child was born, then there would be a light on, however, if a female was born, the mother would have to walk in darkness. Light can be used as a symbol for freedom, and hope, meaning that females are born with no freedom and no hope. Another thing that stuck out was the story where the man had cut open the female because he wanted her to bleed during her first time, but she didn’t. It shows that a man would kill a woman, to prove to others that she is pure, for his own sake. The last thing that stuck out to me was when Martine was telling Sophie why she had tested her. What stuck out to me was when Martine said that when she was raped, she was happy the testing stopped. This only proves how much torture being tested was to these women. If you would gladly get your “freedom” through rape, what kind of torture were you enduring before. This can be seen from both the eyes of Martine, and Sophie.

In this part of the story, we see that Sophie returns to Haiti with her newborn daughter, Bridgette, to visit Tante Atie, and her Grandmother Ifé (who we see that Sophie names her daughter after her grandmother). As Sophie returns, we learn that Tante Atie and her grandmother have not been getting along as they used to. We also see some foreshadowing about Sophie’s child Bridgette. They make some subtleties that this child looks very similar to her mother, and that the childs face looks like they can see the entire family. The part of the reading that stuck out the most to me while reading was when Ifé was giving the story about the bird and the little girl. It showed that the girl would have to give her heart up if she followed the bird, and how the little girl tricked the bird by telling it that she left her heart home. In a sense, the bird would be Joseph, and Sophie, the little girl, except in this case, the bird had captured the girl. This is probably something Sophie realized, but never fully accepted.

In chapter 9, Sophie, who is now attending college, meets Joseph. Joseph, who is a musician who is 2 months younger than Sophies mother, starts to fall in love with Sophie, and vice versa. The mood throughout this chapter is relaxing and gentle, and you start to see Sophie start to “rebel”.  In the chapter, Sophie quotes something Tante Atie had said about love being a rain, and that you could drown in it. At the end of the chapter, Sophie says that the music she was hearing were like raindrops and torrents. Sophie even realizes that she is feeling something, she know she shouldn’t be feeling. This leads to a foreshadowing of things that may happen later. She starts off with a “gentle rain”, but she may end up drowning. She Later on in the reading, starts to get tested by her mother since her mother is now aware of Joseph. We find that she uses a pestle to make it seem that she has lost her virginity, which has her mother fooled. She then goes to Joseph and tells him that she wants to get married. While giving the story of the woman who was constantly bleeding, she says that the woman wants to become a butterfly. Her doing this act, means that she wants to be like a butterfly. She was “held captive” by her mother and wants to be “free”, not realizing that she is already a captive to Joseph.

This reading was disturbing at the beginning, and at the end. At the beginning of the reading in chapter 5, we see that a young boys’ father dies in a fire, and he is sent to live with his relatives. This is disturbing since the boy lost the only person he probably had an intimate relationship with, and is being sent to live with essential “strangers”. In chapter 8, we learn that Sophie is a result of a rape from her mother. This reminded me of Tituba, in the fact that Tituba was also a result of rape, however, unlike Tituba, Martine doesn’t really have a hate for Sophie like  Abeena had for Tituba. Martine just see’s it as “it happened and there’s nothing you could do about it” (Hakuna Mattata).

In these chapters, we see Tituba has met Benjamin d’Azevedo, and she begins to fall in love with him, and he falls in love with her despite her being black. He says “God sees no color”. This to me was very interesting. Benjamin could actually mean this and possibly believes this unlike a lot of the other people we have seen in the novel so far, who would refer to Tituba as a negress rather than another person. Benjamin seems to be the only person that sees her as a person rather than a color. If Benjamin means what he says, this would make all of these people who claim they love God, look like hypocrites. This is a point that stood out to me while reading these chapters.

In this reading, what stood out to me, started from the very beginning of chapter 2. Hester talks to Tituba about being accused of being a witch. Tituba responds by saying that “witches” help a lot more than they help. Hester responds by saying that witches do things that are evil and strange, and that true miracles comes only through the lord. This shows that society only keeps what they approve and deem to be right as a standard that should be followed, and if you were to deviate from that standard, it shows that you can, or will be, ostracized, and probably even killed. Hester, who was in the cell for committing adultery, eventually hangs herself, probably because she is no longer able to endure this torment anymore. When she hangs herself, Tituba is deeply grieved since hangings have scarred her from an early age. These scenes were the ones that stuck out to me the most during these readings