How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Page)
Quote #7
Along the way, people stared at me with puzzled expressions on their faces. Is this what happens to our girls when they leave this place? They become such frightened creatures that they run like the wind, from nothing at all. (23.157)
As Sophie goes for a jog through Dame Marie to clear her head, she imagines what her grandmother's neighbors think of her behavior. She imagines that they can see her fear and anxiety (since why else would you run?) and for a moment, she sees herself with clarity: running in fear from nothing at all. Sophie thinks that the residents of Dame Marie will see this as a transformation brought on because she left Haiti.
Quote #8
"My favorite," said Tante Atie, "was the one about the girl who wished she could marry a star and then went up there and, as real as her eyes were black, the man she wished for was a monster." (26.164)
Hey, more wonderful folktales to scare the pants off little kids. Atie and Martine discuss the versions of star stories that their father used to tell them. Atie's story efficiently issues this warning: be careful what you wish for. The transformation here (i.e. beautiful star into monster man) underscores the thematic concern for male violence in this work.
Quote #9
"She is going to Guinea," I said, "or she is going to be a star. She's going to be a butterfly or a lark in a tree. She's going to be free." (35.228)
In her grief, Sophie imagines her beleaguered mother transformed into a character in one of the folktales she heard as a child. Though those tales sound a little like a nightmare from the outside, Martine was actually living a nightmare in her life. Following in the path of the bleeding woman or the sorrowful lark doesn't sound like such a bad deal from that point of view.