Previous
Symbols
Daffodils are, throughout the novel, a symbol of the strength and sacrifice it takes to thrive in a place in which one is not meant to be. According to Edwidge Danticat herself, one of the first fully-formed images that came to her as she began writing Breath, Eyes, Memory was that of the dried daffodil hanging off of the Mother’s Day card Sophie Caco makes for her Tante Atie. When Danticat realized that daffodils “wouldn’t generally grow in Haiti,” she was tempted to pick a different flower—but then, the thought occurred to her that daffodils could function as a potent symbol for the resilience of Sophie and women like her—women uprooted through diaspora, transplanted from their homes and challenged to thrive in a strange new place. The daffodils Danticat writes about in the novel grow, unexpectedly and improbably, in the villages of Haiti, where they adapt, hybridize, and take on a burnt orange color. Daffodils are Sophie’s favorite flower, and she often dresses in daffodil-colored or daffodil-printed clothes. Tying in with the novel’s overarching theme of home, daffodils represent the power that women—specifically Haitian women—have to adapt and remake themselves even in impossible circumstances.
Daffodils Quotes in Breath, Eyes, Memory
The Breath, Eyes, Memory quotes below all refer to the symbol of Daffodils. 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:
).
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:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
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:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Breath, Eyes, Memory LitChart as a printable PDF.
Daffodils Symbol Timeline in Breath, Eyes, Memory
The timeline below shows where the symbol Daffodils appears in Breath, Eyes, Memory. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...Atie. It is small and made of cardboard, but Sophie has dangled a flattened dry daffodil from its edge. As Sophie approaches the house, she puts the card into her pocket...
(full context)
...the bed. Dismayed to find that Tante Atie doesn’t want the card, Sophie tears the daffodil off of it and puts it into her pocket. While Tante Atie goes inside to...
(full context)
Chapter 2
...how many articles of yellow-hued clothing Sophie has. Sophie says she likes dressing like a daffodil, and Tante Atie tells her that Martine always loved daffodils, too, because the flowers, native...
(full context)
Chapter 4
...be strong, and gives her one of her presents: a saffron-colored dress embroidered with tiny daffodils. That night, Sophie has horrible nightmares of Martine, with daffodils in her hair, trying to...
(full context)
...the morning, Tante Atie helps Sophie get ready for the airport and don her new daffodil dress. As the two sit down to breakfast, Sophie sees that it is drizzling outside....
(full context)
Chapter 6
...replies that Tante Atie told her to give to Martine. Martine says she once loved daffodils as a girl, but hasn’t seen any in New York. Sophie says there are still...
(full context)
Chapter 9
...of Brooklyn near where Marc lives. Martine has a garden now, but tends only hibiscus—never daffodils. The new living room is still decorated entirely in red.
(full context)
Chapter 15
...yard and reads the poem Sophie wrote many years ago about her mother being a daffodil. Afterwards, Tante Atie tells Sophie that she has never forgotten those words.
(full context)
