The aim of this article is to study the concept of trauma of the black Haitian woman in Edwidge Danticat's novel, Breath, eyes, memory. The novel tells the story of a young Haitian-American Sophie Caco, who tries to rebuild her identity and find a way to recover from her past experiences. The main female characters in the novel suffer from a wide range of different traumas, which together construct the trauma of the black Haitian woman, which can therefore be understood as a collective accumulation of traumas, their sources and their effects. The women in the novel are influenced by trauma experienced individually and directly by female sexuality, sexual violence, and surrogacy. The thesis draws on a diverse set of theories on memory, identity, and trauma. Memory is a key theme in Breath, Eyes, Memory and also an important factor in the formation of trauma. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In the novel, the women are held prisoner by their own memories of the traumatic conflicts they endured, and they seem unable to let go of these traumatic memories. Sophie suffered immense trauma throughout the novel. She must have suffered from a feeling of abandonment and must suddenly readjust to her life with a strange authority figure, Martine, who expects Sophie to view her as the mother. It is then that Sophie feels abandoned twice in her life, first by her biological mother, and now by her other mother Atie. Sophie is ashamed and might think she is at fault. For Sophie, the trauma of motherhood lies in abandonment. Sophie cannot form a maternal relationship with Atie, as she continues to reject Sophie by trying to protect them both from heartbreak. When Sophie finally finds her biological mother, Martine imposes strict rules on Sophie on how to behave. Martine becomes the other and an enemy who oppresses Sophie's individuality and sexuality with masculine colonial values. Martine takes Sophie away from herself by testing her. She doesn't give Sophie the motherly love she lacks, which makes her feel abandoned again. Consequently, she experiences the trauma of motherhood as a girl lacking the maternal bond with her biological mother and her other mother. Although Atie tries to remember that she is not Sophie's biological mother, she loves her deeply and considers her her mother. own child, because she has taken care of him since his birth. Atie even calls Sophie her child when she forgets to be more careful, for example when she tells a taxi driver that her child is cleaning his garden, referring to Sophie: "Before leaving, the driver turned the head and complimented us on our cleanliness. yard: “My child, she cleans him,” said Aunt Atie.” But it could also be that Atie is ashamed of not being biological Sophie, or her “real” mother, and that she wants to hide it from the taxi driver. Atie's trauma in motherhood is that she is not fully recognized as Sophie's mother by society. If we return to Anzalduà's categories of women in patriarchal societies, Atie would not belong to any of them. Atie does not know what her place is in society, because she cannot anchor her identity in the existing conventional functions of women. Every time she remembers Sophie, the memory of society's rejection comes back. Severely traumatized, Atie begins gambling and drinking excessively to cope with her trauma. Of course, this doesn't take away the trauma andto Sophie's memories, as Atie, like Martine when she moved to New York, tries to escape her trauma, and they both fail, as a result, in their efforts to recover. , the rape and the testing traumatized Martine, but just as traumatic was the fact that she became pregnant and gave birth following the rape. As memory is the creative force of trauma, Martine cannot escape the memory of the rape, because Sophie is a direct link with this event. Martine reveals that she still sees her rapist in Sophie, because Sophie is nothing like the other Caco women. She loves Sophie, but cannot bear the memory of the rape. Thus, for Martine, the trauma of motherhood stems largely from the recurring memory of rape. However, Sophie and Martine share a deep bond. Martine and Sophie often claim to be each other's "marassas", two spirits destined to be together and who are "the same person, duplicated in two". Even though the two have a difficult and turbulent relationship, they seem to be connected in a way that Sophie and Atie are not. Sophie even has the same rape nightmares as her mother after leaving Martine's house. This symbiosis reinforces the traumas of both women, and they seem unable to recover from their traumas by sharing this curious bond. The women in the novel have different ways of negotiating with their traumas. Motherhood is not only a source of trauma, but it can also help women cope with trauma. Atie decides to make one of her long-term dreams come true and learns to read and write. The motivation behind this was her ambition to be able to write the verse in the Mother's Day card that Sophie had made for him when they were still living together in Haiti. When Sophie returns to Haiti, Atie reads to her at the same time the text revealing his endless maternal love for Sophie. For the first time, Atie also reveals that she considers herself Sophie's mother: “Sometimes I wish I could go back in time with you, when we were younger. » She closed her eyes, as if to fall asleep. The past is still the past,” she said. “Children are the rewards of life and you were my child.” Atie is recovering from her trauma and can now perhaps begin to cope with it. Atie uses narrativization as a means of negotiating, putting words to her trauma. In doing so, she can process the traumas of her life and the traumatic memories of her past. Sophie began the process of creating a witness before coming to Haiti. She sees a therapist and goes to a meeting for survivors of sexual violence. She recounted her traumas and is trying to get rid of her memories. When she told them about her maternal relationships and her tests, she created witnesses to her traumas, and they can carry the weight of the trauma with her. When Atie claims Sophie as her daughter, she and Sophie can finally have a chance to resolve their motherhood questions, and the processing of this trauma can begin. Sophie also shares her thoughts on the tests with Ifé, who apologizes to Sophie for this horrible tradition. Today, Sophie shared her story of the trauma of sexual violence with Ifé and benefited from Ifé's support. For Sophie, her traumas concern her mothers. As noted, Martine and Sophie share a connection with each other, and this connection continues to fuel their traumas. In the novel, Sophie learns that a Haitian woman cannot become a woman until her mother dies. When Martine dies, Sophie brings her body back to Haiti. The connection of the marassas was severed by death. After Martine was buried, Grandmè Ifé and Tante Atie declared to Sophie “,.