Summary
Part III: Chapter 19
The next morning, Atie is very cheerful. She is wearing her I LOVE NEW YORK shirt that Sophie had hurriedly bought her, and tells Sophie she and Louise are going to the city to put their names in the archive for having lived in this valley. Grandmè scoffs that Louise is leaving soon so she doesn’t need to do this.
Louise arrives and Atie rushes out to her. Louise says hello to Brigitte. Grandmè grumbles that people who want to be remembered do not have to cast their names in stone.
That afternoon Sophie takes her camera out and takes a few pictures. Grandmè is skeptical about souls getting trapped. Sophie looks through some of the photos in her wallet and finds one of her and Joseph’s wedding. She remembers having stitches between her legs and how Joseph could not understand why she did this; for her, though, it was freedom. When they finally had sex a few weeks later it was extremely painful. Joseph did not want to force her but she thought it was her duty as a wife. It was that awful time that gave them Brigitte.
Chapter 20
Louise joins the family for dinner that night. She brings them a pig as a gift. She also explains Atie listed herself and Grandmè.
Atie pulls out a cassette from Martine that she’d gotten in town. Martine’s voice fills the room and she goes through a few pleasantries but then mentions she had a call from Joseph who did not know where Sophie was.
Grandmè listen carefully. When the tape ends she gets up and starts cooking. The pig squeals obnoxiously. Atie suggests it is time for Sophie and Joseph to reconcile.
Chapter 21
Atie reads a poem she’d written in her notebook. Sophie compliments her as being a poet. After the reading, Louise and Atie walk off into the night.
Grandmè takes the cassette and listens to the rest of the message. Martine says she still has the bad dreams. She thought they’d ended but they are back again.
Later that evening, Sophie joins Atie on the porch. Sophie says she wants to name the pig but Atie is skeptical. Sophie asks if she is in a sour mood and Atie replies that her life is nothing and that while Croix-des-Rosets was painful, here there is nothing at all. Sophie wishes she had never left Atie but Atie tells her she cannot go back and rearrange her life. Sophie asks if she wants to return to Croix-des-Rosets but Atie simply replies she is the eldest and her place is here. She has to lead Grandmè’s funeral procession. However, she adds, she is tired.
After a pause, she says that they teach you to find a husband, poke your panties, see if you pee too loudly because it means you have big spaces between your legs, and you burn your fingers learning to cook. Then you still have nothing. Atie tells Sophie to take the baby inside.
The pig oinks and makes Grandmè irritable and annoyed with Louise. Atie warns her not to cross her tonight.
In the morning, Louise runs up to the house, soaked in sweat and tears. She cries that the macoutes killed Dessalines. She buries her head in Atie’s shoulder and moans that she needs to leave. Grandmè snaps that she is being selfish. She then tells Sophie to keep Brigitte inside until the restless spirit is in the ground.
The tonton macoute is a bogeyman in the fairy tales, a “scarecrow with human flesh” (138) who eats children. In real life, they roam the streets with their Uzi machine guns. While ordinary criminals hide, they do not. They do what they want.
Sophie thinks her father was probably a macoute. He had told Martine not to raise her head from the dirt or he’d kill her. Martine had always been afraid he would come to kill her in her sleep or tear the child out. Grandmè sent her to a rich mulatto family where she worked. She came back to Dame Marie after Sophie was born. She’d tried to kill herself several times when she was a baby because of the nightmares. It took almost four years for her to recover some sanity and then left for New York. Atie took Sophie so she could go to school.
Dessalines’s death brings back all these memories for Sophie. In the evening, she can hear Louise and Atie talking on the porch. Atie is sobbing that looking at Sophie makes her cry for Martine. When Atie goes inside, Grandmè criticizes her for being outside. Atie replies that a good death might help her and Grandmè slaps her.
When Atie goes back to the porch, Sophie joins her. Atie tells her that Grandmè will tell Martine where Sophie is. Sophie does not think her mother will care because she’d never been interested in Brigitte when she was born. Atie replies that she will come because she always promised to.
The next morning, Sophie hears Grandmè recording a cassette for Martine. She mentions Dessalines’s death, how sad Atie is, and suggests Sophie is on a vacation somewhere. Grandmè calls to Sophie to ask if she wants to say something and Sophie yells no.
The bells in the distance signal Dessalines’s funeral. Atie stumbles in, drunk and exhausted. She falls asleep and does not wake until noon. When she does, she asks where her notebook is. She then stumbles out the door.
Atie returns in the early morning hours. Louise asks her if she can watch her enter, and that she has to go rest her calf. Atie sighs that people do not die from aching calves and she is not an old woman. Louise sternly says that she needs to be pleasant.
Chapter 22
Grandmè’s face is powdered with ashes and she lowers a black veil over her face; she is leaving to pay her last respects to Dessalines. Sophie asks Atie if she and Louise are very close, and Atie replies that when Louise leaves “I will miss her like my own skin” (145).
Grandmè returns and Eliab is with her. She chops a green coconut in half and shares with Sophie, Eliab, Brigitte, and the pig.
Atie does not come home for supper. Grandmè points out a light in the darkness moving between two points and asks if Sophie knows what it is. Sophie does not, so Grandmè explains that a baby is being born. If it is a boy a lantern will be put outside and the father will stay awake all night with it. If it is a girl, the midwife will cut the umbilical cord and leave. The mother will be alone with her child in the darkness, and there will be no light.
They wait. The light goes out in the house. Another little girl has been born.
Chapter 23
Atie did not come home the night before. Grandmè prepares herself for bad news. Finally, after a stream of vendors, Louise and Atie arrive. Louise walks over to the pig and takes it and leaves. Sophie is confused but Atie says that Grandmè said she would kill the pig if she did not take it away. Sophie offers to buy it but Atie hurriedly says no because Louise would use that money for her boat trip.
Atie puts leeches on her calf. Sophie feels nauseous but Atie says it is only bad blood.
Sophie asks Grandmè if she can cook dinner for them—rice, black beans, and herring sauce. Grandmè notes that this was Martine’s favorite meal. Sophie says they had it a lot.
Atie takes her to a private vendor to buy supplies. They pass the cemetery and Atie instructs her to walk straight because she is in the presence of family. She calls out the names on the plots and speaks of the name Caco, which is a scarlet bird. It is so red that it puts red flowers and flames to shame. When it dies a rush of blood to the head and wings makes it look like it is on fire.
In the cane fields on the way home, Sophie hears the men singing a song about a woman who flew without her skin at night and when she came home found her skin peppered and impossible to put back on; her husband had done it to teach her a lesson, and she died.
Sophie is surprised how quickly cooking comes back to her. She remembers a truism: “Haitian men, they insist that their women are virgins and have their ten fingers” (151) and that Atie told her the ten fingers were mothering, loving, boiling, baking, nursing, frying, healing, washing, ironing, scrubbing. The ten fingers were named before she was even born, and sometimes Atie wished she had six fingers on each hand so she had two for her own.
Atie and Grandmè praise the dinner and have many helpings. Thunder grumbles in the starless sky. Grandmè tells Atie that she taught Sophie well. Atie is surprised at this compliment, and kisses Sophie’s head. She then leaves for Louise’s, and Grandmè groans in disapproval.
Grandmè pulls out her tobacco. It is a quiet evening but she asks Sophie if she hears anything. Sophie strains her ears but cannot. Grandmè explains that there are often women walking at night to save the car fare to Port-au-Prince. Sophie cannot see anything in the gloomy shadows.
Grandmè continues. There is a girl going home and she is far away; they cannot see her. If Grandmè hears a faraway girl something calls to her soul. It is a younger woman. When Sophie asks if she is in danger, Grandmè says that is why you listen. Sophie hears nothing. Grandmè says when it is dark all men are black and you cannot see anything or know anything so you have to use your ears. Someone crying can keep you awake. A whisper is like a roar, and your ears make you privy to things you do not want to know. She tells Sophie to listen to the swish of the girl’s feet.
Sophie hears nothing. Grandmè closes her eyes and announces that it is Ti Alice. She is the young girl in the bushes and someone is in there with her. She squeezes her eyelids tighter. She says Ti Alice is rushing back to her mother because she was with a boy, a friend. Sophie thinks she hears something now. Grandmè rocks and cradles herself. She says Ti Alice’s mother is waiting to test her. That words chills Sophie to her marrow.
Sophie has heard testing be compared to a virginity cult because mothers obsess about keeping their daughters pure and clean. Virgins never did splits or rode horses, never ever parted with their panties.
There is a story about a very rich man who married a poor, beautiful girl. He chose her because she was untouched and prepared for their wedding night by buying the whitest sheets and nightgowns he could find. That night the girl does not bleed and he knows that he has to defend his honor and reputation. He tries to make her bleed but she does not, so finally he cuts her between her legs. He gets an impressive amount for the sheets but she does not stop bleeding. Finally she dies, but he parades the sheets in the street.
Sophie thinks of her mother putting her pinky into the void. Martine had told her stories while she was doing it, and Sophie learned to “double” while being tested. She thought of all the pleasant things she’d ever known. Doubling was common in their history, especially in the vaudou tradition. Sophie doubled every time she had sex with Joseph.
Sophie asks Grandmè why mothers test. Grandmè replies that if your child is disgraced, you are disgraced. Sophie is curious if Grandmè’s own mother did it but she does not answer and simply says that the mother is responsible for the daughter’s purity until she hands her to her husband.
Sophie inquires whether or not Grandmè could tell that Martine and Atie hated it and Grandmè responds that she had to keep them clean until they had husbands. Confused, Sophie says they don’t have husbands. Grandmè replies that the burden was not hers alone. Sophie states firmly that it was the most horrible thing that ever happened to her and when she is with her husband now she has nightmares. Grandmè thinks it will go away, but Sophie says it will not.
Grandmè suddenly says Ti Alice has passed her test. Lighting flashes in the sky. Grandmè tells Sophie that everything a mother does is for her child’s own good; she cannot carry the pain and must liberate herself. Sophie says she will go back to her husband soon. Grandmè presses a statue of Erzulie into Sophie’s hands and tells her that her heart weeps like a river for the pain they’ve caused her.
Sophie cries all night, holding the statue.
The next morning, Sophie goes jogging through town. People stare at her confusedly, and she thinks they must assume that when their girls leave this place they “become such frightened creatures that they run from the wind, from nothing at all” (157).
Chapter 24
Three days later, Martine arrives. Eliab rushes up to Grandmè and pulls her towards the road, where Martine waits with a red umbrella. Grandmè screams her daughter’s name and Atie gets up quickly.
In the road, vendors say hello. Grandmè rushes to her and Atie looks as if she knew this would happen. Martine kisses her mother and Atie kisses her cheeks but does not look excited. She returns to cooking.
Sophie clings to the porch railing like it is an anchor; it has been two years since they have seen each other. Her mother’s face is unusually light. When Grandmè asks about this, Martine looks a little embarrassed and says the cold turns people into ghosts.
Martine explains she is not staying long but has come to see Sophie and take care of her mother’s affairs. This is circumstance, not the visit she owes her mother.
Grandmè tells Sophie to walk to her mother but she will not. Brigitte twists in her arms. Grandmè repeats this and grows angry, but Martine says it is okay and she will walk to her. Martine kisses Sophie’s cheek and asks how old Brigitte is. Sophie asks why she said nothing about the pictures she’d sent her, and Martine replies that she could not find the words. She holds Brigitte and tickles her.
Martine explains that Grandmè asked her to come because it is not right for a mother and daughter to have this bad relationship; it may curse the family. Also, she adds, Joseph came to see her. She told him they’d be back in three days.
Martine looks at her daughter and says that they started off wrong. Sophie is her own woman with her own house, and they can start again.
Chapter 25
Sophie unpacks the things Joseph sent her. Martine changes clothes and Sophie can see how black her skin is and how light her face truly is. Martine tells Grandmè that she ought to live in the city and have electricity, but Grandmè replies that she likes herself here. She is glad all her children are here now.
Atie writes in her notebook but snaps it shut when Martine looks. Grandmè says to them all that they will see the notary about the land papers tomorrow; she wants “to make the paper show all the people it belongs to” (164).
Atie stays at home that evening. Martine joins her from the porch and asks her sister if she remembers Grandmè's stories of the stars. They ruminate on these and how Atie never married.
Chapter 26
In the morning, Grandmè and Martine go to the notary. Eliab plays with brown paper to make fake cigars and asks if the new lady belongs to Sophie. She says sometimes she claims her and sometimes she does not.
When Grandmè and Martine return, Grandmè glows that they are now landowners. Martine shows the deed and says the land is divided between Martine, Atie, Sophie, and Brigitte.
That evening at dinner, Atie is restless. Grandmè talks about Mass on Sunday and how she likes the young priest named Lavalas. Atie goes to her room. Grandmè sighs that “her mood changes more than the colors in the sky” (168).
Grandmè and Martine sit outside and Sophie can hear them talking. Martine is saying she just wants to be buried the day after she dies and wants no frills. Grandmè says Sophie will carry out her wishes.
Later, Martine comes into Sophie’s room. Sophie pretends to be asleep and Martine stands above her, crying.
In the morning, Sophie tries to be polite and asks her mother if she still has the nightmares. She feels like her sympathy is coming back. Martine nods. Sophie tells her she thought it was her face that had brought them on, but Martine says while she was surprised at first, it is not something that can be helped. Now her face is different because she is grown.
Suddenly, Sophie bursts out with the question of why her mother tested her. Martine sighs that if she answers then Sophie must never ask again. Sophie feels like she has a right to ask as much as she wants, but isn’t angry and simply needs to understand so she does accept this.
Martine explains that she has no real excuse; she did it because her mother did it to her. Her two pains in life are related: the testing and the rape. She lives with them both every day.
Grandmè says it is time to go from the doorway. Martine looks at Sophie and says in English that she wants to be her friend, especially because Sophie saved her life many times when she woke her up from her nightmares.
That night, Atie sits as if stunned. Louise had left with her pig, the money, and not a single word to Atie.
Chapter 27
Sophie and Brigitte sleep in Atie’s room on their last night. Sophie tries to console Atie by saying she would have found her money somehow and was not going to let anything stop her. Atie cries that she was a fool to think Louise was her friend.
The next day, Martine, Sophie, and Brigitte prepare to leave. Grandmè and Martine cling to each other tightly. Atie tells Sophie to treat her mother well because she will not have her forever.
The driver turns the van away and Sophie looks back at her aunt under the red tree. Everything in Dame Marie becomes a blur, even the hill in the distance that Atie calls Guinea—“a place where all the women in my family hoped to eventually meet one another, at the very end of each of our journeys” (174).
Analysis
Sophie is faced with her past, present, and future in this particularly rich section of the book. In terms of the past, she reflects on her father’s putative identity, her struggles with what she did to her body to stop the testing, and her time with her mother. In terms of the present, she considers what the female experience is in Haiti, as well as what is happening to her aunt. Finally, when Martine arrives Sophie starts to look ahead to the future—going back to America, reconciling with her mother, dealing with her marriage. She is contemplative as she always is, but begins to demonstrate more boldness in her efforts to understand herself. She demands an answer to the testing from her grandmother and her mother, makes the choice to let her mother back into her life, and engages with family tradition through cooking for her grandmother and aunt. When she returns to New York, she will make greater efforts to take care of herself, but for now these are important steps.
These chapters contain several comments on the reality of Haitian women’s lives, work, and worth. Atie details what the ten fingers are, how they “had been named for her before she was born” and that “she even wished she had six fingers on each hand so she could have two left for herself” (151). The names of the fingers all indicate that what women do is always for others. She is a mother, a wife, a cook, a maid, and a nurse; she has nothing left for herself. Another telling moment is when Grandmè explains what is happening up on the hill with the baby being born. If it is a boy there is celebration and the father remains joyously present; if there is a girl “only the mother will be left in the darkness to hold her child. There will be no lamps, no candles, no more light” (146). Literally from the moment a baby girl is born, the value of her life is diminished. Finally, when Grandmè and Sophie sit up in the evening and Grandmè narrates the hauntingly beautiful story of Ti Alice walking home in the evening, it is clear that young women’s lives are beset by troubles of all kinds. There is the long walk to work, the sense of danger in being out at night, and the testing that results from the rigid, cruel standards placed upon girls and their purity.
The back and forth from Haiti to New York brings up one of the novel’s major themes: the connection between exile and trauma. As critic Jennifer Rossi explains, “separation from one’s past self (resulting from physical trauma or maturation), or one’s birth country (through immigration or exile), causes memories to become fragmented and suppressed, disrupting the continuity of one’s self-identity.” Sophie has to deal with her journey to womanhood as well as her geographic journey. She was exiled from her birth mother, then reunited, then subjected to purity testing, not to mention privy to her mother’s intense suffering from her own rape. Sophie has to navigate these memories as she develops emotionally and physically, but it is exceedingly difficult because her identity is fragmented for so long.
Martine’s self-identity is also fragmented because of her trauma. She is forced to leave her mother while pregnant, give birth to a child whose face reminds her of her rapist, and leave the country to go to another country where she is marginalized. She ends up testing her own daughter because she is so obsessed with purity and its putative concomitant happy life and marriage. Martine’s testing of Sophie makes Sophie pull away from her, and as Rossi says, “Silences cased by secrets and suppressed memories alienate mother and daughter from each other, and fragment mothers’ and daughters’ identities.” This is exile on the most intimate, painful scale.
The main ways that Sophie seeks to unify her self is through memory and storytelling. She has to “develop an internal narrative, by recovering memories of her abuse; then she must tell a public narrative, testifying about her abuse, in order to heal from trauma and end the cycle of secrecy.” Sophie learns to see the similarities between herself and her mother, to understand why her grandmother and mother tested her, and what she wants for her own daughter.
