1.

Discuss with the use of examples the relationship between Tante

Attie and Sophie.
Tante Attie is Sophie’s maternal aunt and her first guardian. Tante
Attie and Sophie have a good relationship. Tante Attie has been
Sophie’s caregiver since birth. She treats Sophie as her child. We
can tell that Sophie appreciates Tante Attie when she makes the
Mother’s day card for her. Even when Aunt Tattie refused to
accept the card, Sophie insisted that she made it for her aunt and
not her mother. We can also tell that Tante Attie cares about
Sophie when she worked extra hours to purchase gifts for Sophie
to carry with her to New York and how she did not want Sophie to
know that she had to be separated from her aunt. She did not have
to do that for Sophie but she still did and that shows how far she
would go to make Sophie happy.
Sophie and Tante Attie are very close. Sophie is a caring niece and
this is obvious when Sophie offers to teach Tante Attie how to
read. We can tell that they are very close because Tante explained
to Sophie why she did not want to start reading now and that
Sophie should appreciate the opportunity she received. Tante Attie
was embarrassed that she could not read but she still explained to
Sophie the importance of education. We can tell that Tante Attie
loves Sophie when she did not want to let her go at the airport. She
did not want her niece whom she had looked after for twelve years
to leave her but she still allowed Sophie the opportunity to reunite
with her mother. She could have been selfish and kept Sophie
away from her mother but she knew that the child needed to form a
bond with her real mother. We can also tell that Sophie and Tante
Attie are very close when Tante Attie stood beside Sophie and
cried watching the Augustines getting ready for bed. If she was not
close to Sophie she would have never allowed her to see her doing
something like that. She also trusted Sophie enough to keep the
encounter as a secret.
2. Describe the Caco women (Sophie, Tante Attie, Grandma Ife).
Sophie Caco is the youngest of the Caco women. She leaves for
New York from Haiti at the young age of twelve. Sophie is a very
loyal and obedient child in the first part of the novel. We see as she
matures throughout the novel. When she arrives in New York, we
get to see Sophie is a responsible child who is overcome with the
responsibility of taking care of her mother who constantly has
nightmares. Sophie is a loyal daughter who takes care of her mother
for most of her teenage life. Sophie is also a determined young
woman. We can see this when she uses the pestle, breaking her
hymen to stop her mother from testing her. She then leaves home in
pain to be with Joseph, her soon to be husband. Sophie matures into
a more caring but traumatized version of her childhood self. Sophie
is somewhat similar to her mother, Martine Caco.
Tante Attie Caco is responsible for taking care of Sophie as a child
and then her mother afterward. She is a spinster and has never
gotten the opportunity to settle down with a man and build a family.
She loves Donald Augustine who is married and does not seem to
truly love her. She is constantly faced with the loss of the people
closest to her. Tante Attie is also a selfless person who looks after
others and forgets about her true happiness. In the novel we see
Tante Attie change from a responsible adult to a carefree person.
She constantly endures loss but we can see that the loss and what
she has never had brings her sadness even though she covers it all
with her carefree attitude and her reckless habits.
Ife Caco is the head of the Caco family. Ifé Caco lives in the village
of La Nouvelle Dame Marie, Haiti, until Sophie leaves for New
York and Atie comes to Dame Marie to take care of her. She is a
wise, candid, practical, and astute old woman who seems to have
expertise in human behaviour and knows many parables yet she is
just like all the other women of the village, accepting its customs
 and order. Grandmè Ifé is responsible for the tremendous pain and
heartache being caused to her granddaughter and her daughters.
However, even though Ife Caco refuses to change the social order,
she is intensely loyal to her children, loving them against all of the
world's pain so that a granddaughter or great-granddaughter can see
her way out from under the burden.

3. Describe the relationship between Tante Attie and Monsieur

Augustine. What implication(s) does this relationship have for Tante
Attie?
Tante Attie is in love with Monsieur Augustine. This love is one
sided. Monsieur Augustine somewhat cares about Tante Attie. We
can tell this because he watched Sophie for Tante Attie while she
was away working at night. Aunt Tattie trusts him with Sophie and
she confides in him. However, he is not as trustworthy as he seems.
He tells his wife about Sophie’s trip to New York and she corners
Aunt Attie and questions her in front of all the women. He
constantly plays with her feelings. He is very special to Tante Attie.
He gives Tante Attie a kettle with a love letter even though he knew
she would not be able to read it. Tante Attie cherishes the kettle bur
she does not know the story behind him gifting it to her. Monsieur
Augustine and Tante Attie are ex-lovers. Monsieur left Aunt Tattie
for another woman but Tante Attie has never gotten over him.
Though once in love with Atie, he married another woman and that
is a betrayal from which Atie has never recovered.
Tante Attie does not deserve a cruel man like him. There is no hope
for them to have a relationship and if they did, Monsieur Augustine
would leave her again for another woman. He would pretend to love
her and Tante Attie would be faced with more heartache. Monsieur
Augustine does not want Tante Attie. He likes knowing that she has
feelings for him and probably laughs at her with his wife. He would
 most likely betray her again and Tante Attie would have to endure
the pain of the loss again.

4. . What does the title 'Breath, Eyes, Memory' mean?

The title Breath, Eyes, Memory suggests that memory, or recalling
the past, is just as essential to life and identity as breathing or
seeing. When Sophie considers the importance of Haitian culture
and tradition in her life, she says, "I come from a place where
breath, eyes, and memory are one." When Sophie says this, she
thinks about Haiti, its customs, and how they have impacted her life.
Sophie’s recollection of her childhood and moving to New York and
enduring the stress of her mother’s problems has shaped her into the
individual she now is. She is a caring mother who refuses to allow
her daughter to endure the pain and heartache of Haitian tradition.
Her mother’s testing has ruined part of her life and she does not
want her daughter to go through the same generational discomfort
that has caused pain to all the women in her family. Sophie's past is
an eye-opener to her and she now knows that forgiveness is
important. The past is what shapes some people. It is sometimes so
painful to relive it but it is necessary to move on.
The novel describes the importance of memory in Sophie's healing
and reconciliation with her mother. Her sexual phobia is a result of
her mother’s testing. Her mother endured the same discomfort and,
sadly, she did not make a change to the social order. Martine,
herself has a painful past. A past that keeps her up at night, twisting
and turning. A past that should've encouraged her to change the
social order of Haitian traditions. However, she does not and Sophie
ends up taking the stand to stop this practice of ‘testing’ young girls.
She lets go of all the hurt her mother has caused her and she fights
to move on. Breath, Eyes, Memory is a story of fighting to forgive
her mother and forgetting the pain that she has endured and is still
enduring.