Breath, Eyes, Memory Identity Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Page)

Quote #10

I come from a place where breath, eyes, and memory are one, a place from which you carry your past like the hair on your head. (35.234)

These are Sophie's concluding words, as she tries to reconcile herself to the loss of her mother and to confront the terror of the past. She understands that Haiti is an integral part of who she is because of what she has experienced there herself and what she has inherited from her mother through stories and secondary memories. Sophie can't escape any of it—the good or the bad—since it is a visceral part of her. It's quite literally in her DNA, a basic part of her identity that she can't shed and will live with every day of her life.