Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Breath, Eyes, Memory, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Mothers, Daughters, and Generational Trauma
Virginity and Violence
Home
Memory, Storytelling, and the Past
Summary
Analysis
The next morning at breakfast, Sophie eats heartily, and Martine praises her for eating so well. Sophie asks her mother about where she went last night, and what news she gave Marc. Martine replies that she is pregnant. Sophie is stunned that Martine and Marc have been having sex, and asks if the two of them are going to get married. Martine says she has no idea why Marc would marry her—she is missing her breasts, and she is “not an ideal mother.”
Sophie’s ability to eat a whole meal without restricting herself or purging afterwards seems to portend healing and recovery. At the same time, Martine’s news complicates things. Sophie is forced to contend with her mother not only as a sexual being, but as a woman who might be able to love a second child better than she ever did Sophie herself.
Themes
Sophie asks Martine what she plans to do, and Martine admits that she has no idea. She is frightened, she says, and her nightmares are worse than ever. She worries that because she was not a very good mother to Sophie, she should not be a mother to another child—but Sophie urges Martine to see that she has a “second chance.” She suggests Martine see a psychiatrist, but Martine is afraid of confronting the past—and says she’d kill herself if anyone made her relive the day of her rape. She already feels, through her nightmares, like she’s being raped each night.
Sophie seems to actively want Martine to have the chance to do right by another child—even as Martine admits that going through another pregnancy might actually kill her. Martine’s allusion to killing herself here suggests that she has had suicidal ideations before, and that she may be willing to act on those thoughts in the future.
Themes
Martine confesses to Sophie that when she was pregnant with her, she took herbs, teas, and tinctures to try and abort the pregnancy, and even beat her stomach with wooden spoons. Sophie, however, was brave even in the womb—and Martine says that she can feel this baby, too, already fighting to live. Martine, however, is considering aborting the child—but every time she thinks about it seriously, her nightmares get worse and her stomach acts up.
The revelation that Martine tried to abort Sophie—repeatedly and unsuccessfully—sheds light on a new facet of violence and mistrust in their relationship. It’s clear that even before Sophie was born, Martine viewed her daughter as a tangible reminder of being raped.
Themes
Sophie asks Martine if Marc has helped ease the nightmares at all, and Martine basically admits that she has traded enduring painful sex in order to have someone sleeping next to her each night to wake her from her nightmares. Martine predicts that if her nightmares ease up, maybe she’ll be able to have the child—but if they don’t, she worries she’ll “wake up dead” one morning.
The sad, painful admission that Martine has been submitting to sex—in spite of the pain and fear it causes her—just so that she can have someone beside her at night to ward off her nightmares shows just how inescapable sexual trauma is, and how profound and continuous the violence of assault can be.
Themes
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Sophie offers to stay with Martine longer, but Martine urges her to get back on the road to Providence—Marc, she says, will come care for her. Sophie urges her mother to marry Marc, but Martine is afraid that Marc will one day grow sick of her nightmares and leave. Sophie continues pressing Martine to decide what to do, and Martine, frustrated, tells Sophie what Sophie “want[s] to hear”: that she’ll have the baby.
Sophie wants to help her mother through this difficult time, but Martine is determined to refuse help and reject any kind of confrontation with the reality of her own pain and suffering.
Themes
On the drive back to Providence, Sophie thinks back to the first year of her own marriage—she had suicidal thoughts all the time, and each night woke up in a cold sweat, worrying she’d “caught” her mother’s night terrors. Sophie snaps herself out of her memories and looks back at Brigitte, who is asleep in her car seat. Sophie hopes that Brigitte’s peaceful sleep means that she has not inherited Martine and Sophie’s nightmares.
