ABSTRACT
Breath, Eyes, Memory is Edwidge Danticat's first novel. Newtona Johnson in "Challenging Internal Colonialism: Edwidge Danticat's Feminist Emancipatory Enterprise" argues that Sophie's "sense of violation alienates her from the mother, and forecloses, albeit temporarily, the possibility of identifying with her mother and allowing a bond of friendship to develop between her mother and herself". In addition, Donette A. Francis in '"Silences Too Horrific to Disturb': Writing Sexual Histories in Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory" discusses testing as a form of sexual violence manifest in family life through socialization practices. Breath is bold in its atypical presentation of matriarchal Haitian society, publicizing such Haitian rituals as the testing of females from young age to protect their virginity. Testing therefore becomes a natural and necessary part of growing up, and females are expected to understand importance of being tested without feeling violated or disgraced. This concept supports Francis's argument that "violence, especially directed towards women and their bodies, is necessary to maintain status quo".
