How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Page)
Quote #4
"I know old people, they have great knowledge. I have been taught never to contradict our elders. I am the oldest child. My place is here. I am supposed to march at the head of the old woman's coffin. I am supposed to lead her funeral procession. But even if lightning should strike me now, I will say this: I am tired. I woke up one morning and I was old myself." (21.136)
Atie explains her position (and disappointment) to Sophie. While she knows her duty, Atie wonders how it is possible for her to have done everything right up to this point and yet still not have anything of her own. She is not a mother or wife in her own right, the only two things besides daughter she can really be in her society. Atie feels this failure deeply and never really recovers her spirits by the end of the work, though she is able to endure.
Quote #5
I wanted to reserve my right to ask as many times as I needed to. I was not angry with her anymore. I had a greater need to understand, so that I would never repeat it myself. (26.170)
Sophie has asked her mother why Martine performed virginity tests on her, even though she and Atie hated them so much themselves. Martine tells Sophie that she will speak of it only once (don't ask again, kid), but Sophie's concerned for Brigitte. She doesn't want to continue this cycle of violation with her own daughter, and she feels that she might need more than one explanation to lift herself out of it.
Quote #6
"As a woman, your face has changed. You are a different person. Besides, I have always had nightmares. Every night of my life. It was just stronger then, because that was the first time I was seeing that face." (26.170)
Sophie has had to deal with the fact that her life began through an act of violence, one that continues to haunt her mother every night of her life. The sorrow of this is made worse when Sophie realizes that she doesn't look like her mother (ergo, she must look like her rapist father). But Martine does her best to release from this torment by making Sophie understand that she's her own woman. She doesn't have to feel contaminated by her difficult beginnings because she is making a life of her own—and that is reflected in her face.