Breath, Eyes, Memory

by

Edwidge Danticat

Martine Caco Character Analysis

Sophie’s mother. After giving birth to Sophie in her teens, Martine left for New York in order to pursue a better life for herself and her daughter, promising to send for Sophie when the time was right. When Sophie is finally summoned to Brooklyn, she is 12, and leaving the familiarity and comfort—but also the violence and strife—she’s come to know in Haiti is a jarring adjustment. Sophie adjusts to living with Martine, whom she is supposed to love but views only as a stranger. Sophie cares for Martine through Martine’s chronic night terrors and joins her at her job during her long hours as a nurse. In effect, Sophie sustains Martine emotionally as Martine continues to reckon with the enduring trauma of the rape that created Sophie in the first place. Martine’s personality becomes increasingly controlling as Sophie grows older, turns 18, and begins exploring her feelings and sexuality—she starts testing Sophie’s virginity, just as her own mother, Granmè Ifé, tested her, insisting that there are some secrets Sophie cannot and will not keep from her mother. After Sophie mutilates her own vagina, leading Martine to believe she has lost her virginity, Martine kicks Sophie out of the house, and the two don’t speak for many years. When they reunite years later in Haiti, Sophie has grown up and developed a sense of sympathy for her mother’s difficult lot in life. Martine and Sophie decide to start from scratch and begin a new chapter in their relationship. However, when Martine tells Sophie that she is pregnant once again with the child of her longtime boyfriend, Marc, her rapidly-destabilizing mental state begins to worry Sophie. Martine, convinced that she is unfit to carry or raise another child, begins experiencing auditory hallucinations in which her fetus speaks to her, and eventually kills herself and the unborn baby by stabbing herself in the stomach 17 times. Martine’s death leaves Sophie devastated—but as she returns to Haiti to bury her mother’s body, she experiences a newfound sense of freedom, wholeness, and understanding about the difficult world and painful lineage from which both she and her mother come. Neurotic, hardworking, and obsessed with sexual and emotional purity, Martine is the novel’s primary antagonist.

Martine Caco Quotes in Breath, Eyes, Memory

The Breath, Eyes, Memory quotes below are all either spoken by Martine Caco or refer to Martine Caco . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Mothers, Daughters, and Generational Trauma  Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

[Tante Atie] took the card from my hand. The flower nearly fell off. She pressed the tape against the short stem, forced the baby daffodil back in its place, and handed the card back to me. She did not even look inside.

“Not this year,” she said. […] “It is not mine. It is your mother’s. We must send it to your mother.

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Tante Atie (speaker), Martine Caco
Related Symbols: Daffodils
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

Tante Atie told me that my mother loved daffodils because they grew in a place that they were not supposed to. They were really European flowers […] meant for colder climates. A long time ago, a French woman had brought them to Croix-des-Rosets. […] A strain of daffodils had grown that could withstand the heat, but they were the color of pumpkins, […] as though they had acquired a bronze tinge from the skin of the natives who had adopted them.

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Martine Caco , Tante Atie
Related Symbols: Daffodils
Page Number: 20
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

Ou byen? Are you all right?” I asked her.

She shook her head yes.

“It is the night,” she said. “Sometimes, I see horrible visions in my sleep. […] Don’t worry, it will pass,” she said, avoiding my eye. “I will be fine. I always am. The nightmares, they come and go.”

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Martine Caco (speaker)
Related Symbols: Dreams and Night Terrors
Page Number: 45-46
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“You’re a good girl, aren’t you? […] You understand my right to ask as your mother, don’t you? […] When I was a girl, my mother used to test us to see if we were virgins. She would put her finger in our very private parts and see if it would go inside. Your Tante Atie […] used to scream like a pig in a slaughterhouse. The way my mother was raised, a mother is supposed to do that to her daughter until the daughter is married. It is her responsibility to keep her pure.”

Related Characters: Martine Caco (speaker), Sophie Caco, Tante Atie, Granmè Ifé
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

As she tested me, to distract me, she told me, “The Marasas were two inseparable lovers. They were the same person, duplicated in two. […] What vail lovers they were, those Marasas. Admiring one another for being so much alike… When you love someone, you want him to be closer to you than your Marasa. Closer than your shadow. […] You would leave me for an old man who you didn’t know the year before. You and I we could be like Marasas. You are giving up a lifetime with me. Do you understand? There are secrets you cannot keep.”

Related Characters: Martine Caco (speaker), Sophie Caco, Joseph
Page Number: 83-84
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

The story goes that there was once a woman who walked around with blood constantly spurting out of her unbroken skin. This went on for twelve long years. […] Finally, the woman got tired and said she was going to see Erzulie. […] After her consultation, it became apparent to the woman what she would have to do. If she wanted to stop bleeding, she would have to give up her right to be a human being. She could choose what to be, a plant or an animal, but she could no longer be a woman. […]

“Make me a butterfly,” she told Erzulie.

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Martine Caco , Joseph
Page Number: 86
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

“Who would have imagined it?” [Tante Atie] said. “The precious one has your manman’s black face. She looks more like Martine’s child than yours.”

Related Characters: Tante Atie (speaker), Sophie Caco, Martine Caco , Brigitte
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

I had spent two days in the hospital in Providence and four weeks with stitches between my legs. Joseph could never understand why I had done something so horrible to myself. I could not explain to him that it was like breaking manacles, an act of freedom.

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Martine Caco , Joseph
Page Number: 127-128
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

“The new lady,” [Eliab] said, “does she belong to you?”

“Sometimes I claim her,” I said, “sometimes I do not.”

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Eliab (speaker), Martine Caco , Joseph
Page Number: 169
Explanation and Analysis:

“I did it,” she said, “because my mother had done it to me. I have no greater excuse. I realize standing her that the two greatest pains of my life are very much related. The one good thing about being raped was that it made the testing stop. The testing and the rape. I live both every day.”

Related Characters: Martine Caco (speaker), Sophie Caco, Granmè Ifé
Page Number: 172-173
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 29 Quotes

After Joseph and I got married, all through the first year I had suicidal thoughts. Some nights I woke up in a cold sweat wondering if my mother’s anxiety was somehow hereditary or if it was something that I had “caught” from living with her. Her nightmares had somehow become my own. […] I looked back at my daughter, who was sleeping peacefully. […] The fact that she could sleep meant that she had no nightmares, and maybe, would never become a frightened insomniac like my mother and me.

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Martine Caco , Joseph, Brigitte
Related Symbols: Dreams and Night Terrors
Page Number: 196
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

“My grandmother was preparing her funeral,” I said. “It’s a thing at home.” […]

“You called it home?” [Joseph] said. “Haiti.”

“What else would I call it?”

“You have never called it that since we’ve been together. Home has always been your mother’s house, that you could never go back to.”

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Joseph (speaker), Martine Caco , Granmè Ifé
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 32 Quotes

“Your mother never gave him a face. That’s why he’s a shadow. That’s why he can control her. I’m not surprised she’s having nightmares. […] You and your mother should both go there again and see that you can walk away from it. Even if you can never face the man who is your father, there are things that you can say to the spot where it happened. I think you’ll be free once you have your confrontation. There will be no more ghosts.”

Related Characters: Rena (speaker), Sophie Caco, Martine Caco
Related Symbols: Dreams and Night Terrors
Page Number: 214-215
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 35 Quotes

“There is a place […] where the daughter is never fully a woman until her mother has passed on before her. There is always a place where, if you listen closely in the night, you will hear your mother telling a story and at the end of the tale, she will ask you this question: ‘Ou libere?’ Are you free, my daughter?”

My grandmother quickly pressed her fingers over my lips.

“Now,” she said, “you will know how to answer.”

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Granmè Ifé (speaker), Martine Caco
Page Number: 239
Explanation and Analysis:
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Martine Caco Quotes in Breath, Eyes, Memory

The Breath, Eyes, Memory quotes below are all either spoken by Martine Caco or refer to Martine Caco . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Mothers, Daughters, and Generational Trauma  Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

[Tante Atie] took the card from my hand. The flower nearly fell off. She pressed the tape against the short stem, forced the baby daffodil back in its place, and handed the card back to me. She did not even look inside.

“Not this year,” she said. […] “It is not mine. It is your mother’s. We must send it to your mother.

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Tante Atie (speaker), Martine Caco
Related Symbols: Daffodils
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

Tante Atie told me that my mother loved daffodils because they grew in a place that they were not supposed to. They were really European flowers […] meant for colder climates. A long time ago, a French woman had brought them to Croix-des-Rosets. […] A strain of daffodils had grown that could withstand the heat, but they were the color of pumpkins, […] as though they had acquired a bronze tinge from the skin of the natives who had adopted them.

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Martine Caco , Tante Atie
Related Symbols: Daffodils
Page Number: 20
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

Ou byen? Are you all right?” I asked her.

She shook her head yes.

“It is the night,” she said. “Sometimes, I see horrible visions in my sleep. […] Don’t worry, it will pass,” she said, avoiding my eye. “I will be fine. I always am. The nightmares, they come and go.”

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Martine Caco (speaker)
Related Symbols: Dreams and Night Terrors
Page Number: 45-46
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“You’re a good girl, aren’t you? […] You understand my right to ask as your mother, don’t you? […] When I was a girl, my mother used to test us to see if we were virgins. She would put her finger in our very private parts and see if it would go inside. Your Tante Atie […] used to scream like a pig in a slaughterhouse. The way my mother was raised, a mother is supposed to do that to her daughter until the daughter is married. It is her responsibility to keep her pure.”

Related Characters: Martine Caco (speaker), Sophie Caco, Tante Atie, Granmè Ifé
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

As she tested me, to distract me, she told me, “The Marasas were two inseparable lovers. They were the same person, duplicated in two. […] What vail lovers they were, those Marasas. Admiring one another for being so much alike… When you love someone, you want him to be closer to you than your Marasa. Closer than your shadow. […] You would leave me for an old man who you didn’t know the year before. You and I we could be like Marasas. You are giving up a lifetime with me. Do you understand? There are secrets you cannot keep.”

Related Characters: Martine Caco (speaker), Sophie Caco, Joseph
Page Number: 83-84
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

The story goes that there was once a woman who walked around with blood constantly spurting out of her unbroken skin. This went on for twelve long years. […] Finally, the woman got tired and said she was going to see Erzulie. […] After her consultation, it became apparent to the woman what she would have to do. If she wanted to stop bleeding, she would have to give up her right to be a human being. She could choose what to be, a plant or an animal, but she could no longer be a woman. […]

“Make me a butterfly,” she told Erzulie.

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Martine Caco , Joseph
Page Number: 86
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

“Who would have imagined it?” [Tante Atie] said. “The precious one has your manman’s black face. She looks more like Martine’s child than yours.”

Related Characters: Tante Atie (speaker), Sophie Caco, Martine Caco , Brigitte
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

I had spent two days in the hospital in Providence and four weeks with stitches between my legs. Joseph could never understand why I had done something so horrible to myself. I could not explain to him that it was like breaking manacles, an act of freedom.

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Martine Caco , Joseph
Page Number: 127-128
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

“The new lady,” [Eliab] said, “does she belong to you?”

“Sometimes I claim her,” I said, “sometimes I do not.”

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Eliab (speaker), Martine Caco , Joseph
Page Number: 169
Explanation and Analysis:

“I did it,” she said, “because my mother had done it to me. I have no greater excuse. I realize standing her that the two greatest pains of my life are very much related. The one good thing about being raped was that it made the testing stop. The testing and the rape. I live both every day.”

Related Characters: Martine Caco (speaker), Sophie Caco, Granmè Ifé
Page Number: 172-173
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 29 Quotes

After Joseph and I got married, all through the first year I had suicidal thoughts. Some nights I woke up in a cold sweat wondering if my mother’s anxiety was somehow hereditary or if it was something that I had “caught” from living with her. Her nightmares had somehow become my own. […] I looked back at my daughter, who was sleeping peacefully. […] The fact that she could sleep meant that she had no nightmares, and maybe, would never become a frightened insomniac like my mother and me.

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Martine Caco , Joseph, Brigitte
Related Symbols: Dreams and Night Terrors
Page Number: 196
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

“My grandmother was preparing her funeral,” I said. “It’s a thing at home.” […]

“You called it home?” [Joseph] said. “Haiti.”

“What else would I call it?”

“You have never called it that since we’ve been together. Home has always been your mother’s house, that you could never go back to.”

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Joseph (speaker), Martine Caco , Granmè Ifé
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 32 Quotes

“Your mother never gave him a face. That’s why he’s a shadow. That’s why he can control her. I’m not surprised she’s having nightmares. […] You and your mother should both go there again and see that you can walk away from it. Even if you can never face the man who is your father, there are things that you can say to the spot where it happened. I think you’ll be free once you have your confrontation. There will be no more ghosts.”

Related Characters: Rena (speaker), Sophie Caco, Martine Caco
Related Symbols: Dreams and Night Terrors
Page Number: 214-215
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 35 Quotes

“There is a place […] where the daughter is never fully a woman until her mother has passed on before her. There is always a place where, if you listen closely in the night, you will hear your mother telling a story and at the end of the tale, she will ask you this question: ‘Ou libere?’ Are you free, my daughter?”

My grandmother quickly pressed her fingers over my lips.

“Now,” she said, “you will know how to answer.”

Related Characters: Sophie Caco (speaker), Granmè Ifé (speaker), Martine Caco
Page Number: 239
Explanation and Analysis: