Motif: Nightmares
A recurrent motif in the novel is the nightmares that both Sophie and Martine have. In Sophie’s nightmares, she is chased by Martine and runs towards Atie for safety. It is mentioned that Sophie had the same recurring nightmare long before she found out that she must go to live with her mother. Martine has recurrent nightmares too but she dreams about events that happened in her past. Sophie also worries that Brigitte will inherit the Caco women's problems and have nightmares of her own.
Symbol: Colors
Color is an extremely important component of the text. When Sophie lives in Haiti she loves the color yellow, as does Martine when she is young and unscarred. Yellow is a color of light, happiness, and warmth. Then there is red, a color associated with Martine and life in New York, and, in death, with the Caco women. Red can, and does symbolize many things: blood, pain, sacrifice, heat, boldness, sexuality, power, and more. Red appears in the text in the form of blood, Martine's burial clothes, the hibiscus plants Martine grows, the bird that glows crimson when it dies, and more. There is also reference to black, the color of mourning worn by Grandmè.
Symbol: Daffodils
Martine's favorite flower when she lived in Haiti was the daffodil, a bright yellow flower not native to the island but brought there by the French. It grows there even though it is not supposed to. This makes Martine happy because it suggests that one can prosper even in a place that is not really home. The daffodil thus symbolizes growth, happiness, tenacity, resilience. However, significantly, Martine grows tired of the daffodil. She begins to be interested in red flowers because they can speak to her pain more, and she no longer knows how to resist the things that plague her.
Symbol: Butterfly
Sophie grew up hearing fantastical tales and myths, one of them being a woman who could not stop bleeding and asked Erzulie to turn her into a butterfly. The butterfly is a symbol of transformation, as the creature builds a cocoon and turns from the caterpillar into the beautiful winged butterfly. Sophie sees her mother as a butterfly after she kills herself, transforming into a free woman from a frightened, imprisoned one.
Symbol: Erzulie
Erzulie is a vaodou goddess associated with beauty, love, and womanhood. She is evoked several times in the text to suggest that the characters are trying to surmount their difficulties and to be secure in their identity. Sophie brings her statue to the sex phobia group and it acts as a symbol of what a powerful woman is capable of.
