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Part 1:
1. Breath, Eyes, Memory is a novel. Is a novel fact or ction? 2. When the novel opens, how old is
Sophie Caco?
3. Who is Atie and where is Sophie’s mother?
4. What does Sophie create for Atie?
Chapter 2, pages 18 to 21
Chapter 3, pages 22 to 25
12. Why do Atie and Sophie travel to La Novelle Dame Marie? What kind of town is it? Is it a
real town? 13. Who is Ifé? Where does she live?
14. Why does Ifé stress that “Your mother is your rst friend” to Sophie?
15. Who believes that chagrin can be a disease like a broken arm? Do you believe this?
16. Where is the Guinea that Ifé talks about? What does it mean that there people carry “the sky
on their heads?”
Chapter 4, pages 26 to 31
Chapter 5, pages 32 to 38
22. Why do they travel to Port-au-Prince? What kind of town is it? Is it a real town? 23. What’s
happening in Port-au-Prince when they arrive? Why?
24. What does the word Caco, Sophie’s last name, mean in Creole?
25. How does Sophie get to the U.S.?
26. Why is the boy who initially sits next to her so upset and angry?
Chapter 6, pages 39 to 49
27. How does Martine’s appearance compare to Atie’s?
28. What is Martine’s economic status? How doe you know?
29. Who’s Lotus and what does she have to do with Atie?
30. Why does Martine keep a doll?
31. When Sophie looks at herself in a picture, what does she notice for the rst time? 32. How did
Atie explain that Sophie had no father?
Dave Badtke English 1: Edwidge Danticat Breath, Eyes, Memory Journal Questions Page
Chapter 7, pages 50 to 56
Brooklyn?
38. What happens when they’re in the restaurant? 39. Does Marc like the food?
Chapter 8, pages 57 to 61
40. How many jobs does Martine work? What kinds of jobs are they? What does Sophie do
while her mother is working?
used to perform?
Part 2:
Chapter 9, pages 65 to 76
45. How much time has passed since the previous chapter and what is Sophie about to do?
46. What was her high school experience like?
47. Who is Joseph, what does he do, and how old is he?
48. How is the Haitian view of young adult responsibility different from the American view that
Joseph
espouses?
49. What does Joseph want his relationship with Sophie to become?
status?
54. What does Martine say is difference between success in Haiti and America? 55. Why does
Martine have nightmares?
Part 3:
Dave Badtke English 1: Edwidge Danticat Breath, Eyes, Memory Journal Questions Page
64. Where is Sophie, where is she going, and why does she get to sit with the driver? 65. Why
might returning Haitians claim they can’t speak Creole?
66. Why does Louise want to sell her pig? For how much?
67. What is Louise to Atie?
86. What does Atie have on her calf? What kind of healthcare is there in Dame Marie? 87. What
does “Crabs don’t make papayas” mean?
88. What’s the signi cance of Krik? Krak?
89. What is the meaning of the lark story?
Dave Badtke English 1: Edwidge Danticat Breath, Eyes, Memory Journal Questions Page
100. What does Atie write in her journal? 101. How does Atie seem? Why?
102. How does Ifé feel about Louise? 103. What happens to Dessalines?
123. When Martine arrives, what does Sophie notice about her skin? Why? 124. What happened
to Martine when she got cancer?
125. What does tradition say a mother and daughter should do when meeting? 126. How old is
Brigitte?
128. Why does Ifé not want to move from Dame Marie?
129. What are Ifé and Martine going to do? Which sister is favored by Ifé? 130. Why did Atie
never marry?
Dave Badtke English 1: Edwidge Danticat Breath, Eyes, Memory Journal Questions Page
139. What does Atie mean when she says, “Money makes dogs dance”?
140. While William Faulkner said that the past isn’t dead, it isn’t even past, Atie says, The past is
always
Part 4:
143. Given that her family is there, why does Martine only want to return to be buried?
144. Sophie says that she has bulimia, an eating disorder. What is this and what are some of the
causes?
145. What is the tone of the interaction between Sophie and Martine when Martine tries to give
Sophie advice
on eating?
146. When no one picks them up at the airport, Martine says, “The only person you have to
count on is
149. The previous chapter ended with something important she told Marc. What is it?
150. Does Martine want to marry Marc? Based on her description of herself, how do you think
she feels
development from Erikson, is there another explanation for what Sophie seneses? 154. What
concern does Sophie express concerning Brigitte?
result?
Dave Badtke English 1: Edwidge Danticat Breath, Eyes, Memory Journal Questions Page
160. Who is Davina and why do Sophie, Buki and Davina meet at her house?
161. What is the ethical meaning of the Reinhold Niebuhr’s serenity prayer: “God grant us the
courage to change those things we can, the serenity to accept the things we can’t, and the
wisdom to know the
166. What does it mean that Rena, Sophie’s therapist, is a Santeria princess? How does this
relate to her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic?
167. What is the historical relationship between the Dominican Republic and Haiti? Why is the
of cial language of Haiti French while in the Dominican Republic it’s Spanish?
168. How does Rena suggest that Sophie deal with her emotions and her past? Are Rena’s
suggestions ethical?
169. At the end of Smoke Signals, Thomas Builds-the-Fire recites a modi ed version of Dick
Lourie’s poem “Forgiving Our Fathers.” How might this poem help Sophie?
170. Does this poem present an ethical approach to dealing with a parent when a crime is
involved? 171. When she was in Haiti, did Sophie go to the place Martine was raped? What does
Rena suggest?
172. What kind of a person is Marc? What does Martine mean when she says that “Marc has a
lot of the old ways”?
173. In the exchange between Sophie, Joseph, Martine and Marc, what sense do you get of their
identity and association with place?
174. What is the signi cance of “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child”? 175. What does
Martine tell Sophie that she’s going to do? Why?
176. What should Sophie do that she doesn’t?
177. How does Sophie use the idea of Marassa to explain the concern she has for her mother?
178. What does Rena suggest that Martine do?
179. What ethical issues are raised Rena’s suggestion that Sophie has a Madonna image of her
mother? 180. What does Rena tell Sophie she should do? Does Sophie do this?
181. What is the signi cance of the Buki’s balloon?
Dave Badtke English 1: Edwidge Danticat Breath, Eyes, Memory Journal Questions Page
189. What’s the signi cance of the call Ou libéré? and the response Ou libéré!?
190. What is the signi cance of trees that sing and of women like cardinal birds?
191. Why does red appear so often in this novel and how does Caco relate to this?
192. What is the signi cance of the title Breath, Eyes, Memory?
193. What is the signi cance of the burial tradition and how does it relate to Ou libéré?