Within this section of the reading the part that stood out to me was on page 149 where Sophie offered to cook and when she was asked what she is going to cook, she said her mothers favorite meal. I felt like this stood out to me because it showed the effect her mom still had on her, which is shown more when her mother does come back to haiti to get her. this part showed that even though she was upset with her mother for the thngs she put her through she still lived for her mother to make her proud and help her even when shes not there. when I was growing up and i first learned to make my mothers favorite dish, which was baked ziti, whenever i made it my motives was to make her feel proud of me, to show her i can do what she does and im not a kid anymore, and to be able to help her when she cant make it. Another part that stood out to me was the arrival of her mother. this stood out to me because as she saw her mother the tension within herself buillt up, and as her mother approached her there was obvious tension between them to the point where the grandmother started to become angry because she wouldn’t go to her mother. It stood out to me because it shows the complexity of a mother daughter relationship in the caribean. that no matter what youre parents do to you to upset you or do wrong by you, if you do not greet your parent when they enter your presence it will seem as if your’e being disrespectful. I do feel that at times caribbean parents and even grandparents don’t understand that as the child we do get hurt and feel emotions. And at this moment i felt that the grandmother was ignoring how sophie felt and her emotions but her mother understood and took the step to bettering their relationship.

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.

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.