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    A Study Guide for Edwidge Danticat's "Breath, Eyes, Memory"
    A Study Guide for Edwidge Danticat's "Breath, Eyes, Memory"
    A Study Guide for Edwidge Danticat's "Breath, Eyes, Memory"
    Ebook41 pages44 minutes

    A Study Guide for Edwidge Danticat's "Breath, Eyes, Memory"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Edwidge Danticat's "Breath, Eyes, Memory," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJun 27, 2016
    ISBN9781535819923
    A Study Guide for Edwidge Danticat's "Breath, Eyes, Memory"

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      A Study Guide for Edwidge Danticat's "Breath, Eyes, Memory" - Gale

      11

      Breath, Eyes, Memory

      Edwidge Danticat

      1994

      Introduction

      When Breath, Eyes, Memory was published in 1994, Edwidge Danticat was hailed by Publishers Weekly contributor Mallay Charters as a distinctive new voice with a sensitive insight into Haitian culture. Although there are some similarities between Sophie's story and Danticat's own life, the work is largely fiction, informed by Danticat's own experience. The book was the culmination of many years of writing beginning in Danticat's adolescence, when she wrote a story about coming to America to be with her mother; this story was the seed for the later, much longer work.

      Danticat continued work on the novel during her pursuit of a master of fine arts degree in writing at Brown University, where she was given a full scholarship. Written as her master's thesis, the unfinished book was eagerly awaited by Soho Press, which offered Danticat a five thousand dollar advance for it.

      Not everyone in the Haitian community approved of the book. In the book, Sophie's mother Martine tests her to see if she is still a virgin. Although virginity is highly regarded in Haitian culture, most Haitian Americans no longer follow this testing practice, and some felt that Danticat's depiction of it made Haitians seem backward and sexually abusive. Danticat is aware that many people see her as a spokesperson for Haitians but disagrees with the notion. She believes that she is just one person writing about her own experience and that there are many other voices to represent the Haitian experience.

      Author Biography

      Edwidge Danticat (pronounced Edweedj Danticah) was born January 19, 1969, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and was separated from her father at age two when he immigrated to the United States to find work. When Danticat was four, her mother also went to the United States. For the next eight years, Danticat and her younger brother Eliab were raised by their father's brother, a minister, who lived with his wife and grandson in a poor section of Port-au-Prince known as Bel Air.

      When Danticat was twelve, she moved to Brooklyn, New York, and joined her parents and two new younger brothers. Adjustment to this new family was difficult, and she also had difficulty adjusting at school, because she spoke only Creole and did not know any English. Other students taunted her as a Haitian boat person, or refugee. She told Mallay Charters in Publishers Weekly, "My primary feeling the whole first year was one of loss. Loss

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