Verified Document

Breath, But Not Voice As Term Paper

But into this more hopeful (if only by a small margin) view of Haitian culture as one that is polysemous, Martine reappears. She and Sophie initially reconnect and there is a sense -- briefly -- that women in Haiti may be able to meet each other without the distortion of men's ideas about women's bodies and destinies. But then Martine becomes pregnant and kills herself, unable to bear the implications of her own fertility and sexuality. Despite the suggestion that a woman can rewrite Haitian cultural values, Martine finds herself overwhelmed by these values. As a Haitian she is enveloped by the rules of a culture designed to privilege those with privilege, which did not include women like herself.

Does Danticat want us to take a sense of encouragement from the fact that it is Martine and not Sophie who is defeated? Does each new generation of women (or other minorities) make it a little farther down the road away...

Two years later she began to write, gaining a voice that a character -- or indeed a woman -- like Martine could never have claimed. Is the biographical action of writing fiction a way in which culture can be fractured to let in other voices? Danticat's contention is a forceful 'yes'.
Works Cited

Charters, Mallay, "Edwidge Danticat: A Bitter Legacy Revisited," in Publishers Weekly,

August 17, 1998, p. 42.

Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York: Vintage Books, 1998. 2nd Vintage

Contemporaries Edition.

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Charters, Mallay, "Edwidge Danticat: A Bitter Legacy Revisited," in Publishers Weekly,

August 17, 1998, p. 42.

Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York: Vintage Books, 1998. 2nd Vintage

Contemporaries Edition.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Voice of American Opera. Opera
Words: 505 Length: 2 Document Type: Article Critique

Stars today do not have the huge voices of the past. Even Wagnerian sopranos have more delicate tones, and schools try to produce these types of students, because of the demands of the industry. Midgett also points a finger at the schooling of opera singers today as well as the economics of the recording industry, stating that singers do not get enough personal lessons and have too many distractions, including

Hearing Voices, Patients/Therapists in an
Words: 4695 Length: 15 Document Type: Term Paper

Jung and auditory hallucinations Meyer (2003), in a discussion of Jungian symbolism in the movie, Spider-Man, notes that both masks and voices are essential to the movement of heroic characters through the plotline. Meyer is not, however, a psychologist, nor even an anthropologist; rather, she is a write about communications. Still, her work on Spider-Man tied several of the movie's themes to Jungian thought. Halifax's work goes farther in bringing Jungian thought

Night the Crystals Broke Write Where You
Words: 3364 Length: 10 Document Type: Essay

Night the Crystals Broke Write where you got inspiration from? The inspiration from this poem comes from my grandmother and her family, who lived through the pogroms and just before the Nazis took over Hungary. The title refers to the Kristallnacht, the event in which the Nazis burned synagogues and their religious items, and broke the windows. They also broke the windows of the local businesses. This poem also refers to

Pat Mora -- "Curandera" and "Immigrants" --
Words: 1255 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Pat Mora -- "Curandera" and "Immigrants" -- are quite different and yet they both express the what it's like to be Latina and they detail experiences that are unique to Latinas in America. "Curandera": A curandera is a woman of Latina ethnicity who practices folk medicine. In the poem, the curandera has bonded and her life has progressed with and is dependent upon nature -- the desert -- even though

Irony in Two Short Stories
Words: 1177 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

She also learns, too late, that the jewels and the life she coveted so long ago was a sham. Hence, the symbolic nature of the necklace itself -- although it appears to have great value, it is in fact only real in appearance, not in reality and the heroine is incapable of assessing the false necklace's true worth. The tale of "The Necklace" conveys the moral that what is real,

Rock Decided to Meet Lucas,
Words: 3404 Length: 11 Document Type: Term Paper

Miami was where it all happened. I dated then. I guess you could say I had a life. Back then, if I were to be living under any rock, it had to be a very beautiful one, such as limestone, the kind of limestone that grew in small crevices on the road leading up to my grandfather's home on the island. I felt then that Prince Charming would come, eventually

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now