Sexuality—and specifically, female sexuality—is a fraught topic in Danticat's work. Sophie's body represents a particular battleground, one that is on the front lines of a cultural rift between Haiti and New York. Because Martine clings so strongly to her home culture, she transmits to Sophie a hatred of her budding sexuality, which she sees as unclean and something that must be contained at all costs.
Martine's obsession with her daughter's virginal purity is not her own compulsion—it's something inherited from her own mother, and so on down the ancestral line. Female sexuality threatens the honor and stability of the family, so it is the duty of every good mother to make sure that natural urges do not undermine efforts to marry off daughters to eligible men.
The high value set on "cleanness" means that these women pay a high emotional price when their virginity is lost. Whether it happens through violence or choice, loss of virginity means loss of identity, honor, and place in the family. It nearly costs Sophie her marriage and her sanity. For Martine, it eventually costs her life.
Questions About Sexuality
- Why is virginity so important in this novel?
- Why can't Sophie think of her mother as a sexual being? Why does her therapist think it's important for her to do so?
- What reason does Ifé give for performing virginity tests on her daughters? Is Sophie satisfied her response?
- Why does Sophie practice "doubling" when Joseph tries to be intimate with her?
Chew on This
Female sexuality in Haitian culture, as Danticat presents it, is based on supernatural or spiritual exemplars rather than real women.
Illicit sexual relationships are problematic in Sophie's family not necessarily because it proves that women are "bad." It is the threat of abandonment by men that makes them taboo.