"'You have never called it[Haiti] that since we've been together. Home has always been your mother's house, that you could never go back to'" (195). It was very curious to me the multiple meanings I had concluded from this line Joseph had said to Sophie. The firs meaning was the use of the word home. I suspect from this line Sophie never refers to her house with Joseph her home but places she had to leave unwillingly. Her "home" at her mother's house and leaving there I believe was unwilling because she probably didn't want to leave there but felt that she had to when her mother threatened to never come back. Unwilling because at the time it seemed to be her only option to leave and go to Joseph. When she first left Haiti she did not want to leave as well in fear of finally meeting her mother and leaving the only life she had ever known with her Tante Atie. The second time she leaves Haiti, this time referring to it as her home, she has to resume her life with her husband back in America. Another obligation she must fulfill.
Her label of home also seems to be wherever her mother is. Perhaps she is subconsciously recognizing that her connection to her mother is stronger than she wants to admit, even to herself. "..Home has always been your mother's house..." This is the place Sophie truly became someone's daughter which really signifies the importance of her role in the mother/daughter relationship. Mothers in many cultures make houses into homes because they provide a sense of security and nurture. Even though Sophie didn't realize until the never end that her mother testing was not an actual punishment but what her mother felt was just proper procedure for keeping her daughter pure she can see the love in her mothers actions (207). When she refers to Haiti as her home it is the time she spends with her grandmother, aunt and mother. All three generation, four including the baby, but only three mothers. This is probably the only time Sophie's family was the closest to complete probably prompting her to categorize it as a home. Such "home" things were the sharing of beds, which all of the members of the family have done, the cooking with the spices tying them together, as well as the storytelling.
The last conclusion drawn from Joseph's choice of words are "...that you could never go back to.." Originally when Sophie left her mother's she felt that she would never be allowed to go back there, banished. Her mother wouldn't even return any of the letters Sophie had sent. As far as she was concerned she would never be returning to that "home". When departing from Haiti and returning to America Sophie probably felt that she would never really be able to return to Haiti or at least when she did it would only be for funerals. When going back for funerals the people that made it home for her would have passed on, no longer giving the home feel. In fact her third time being in Haiti, her essential "home" beacon is gone physically forever. Her mother is lost to her, just as they were starting over.
I believe home is a place where you feel safe, like your taken care of. I don't believe Sophie ever had this at her mothers house. There was always the underline tension between not knowing her mother until she was twelve, the tests, and the nightmares. Sophie has only had one home, and that was in Haiti with Tante Atie growing up. It is only during this time of her life that she feels a motherly connection with some, even if that person isn't really her mother, and she has the typical happy childhood memories. I believe it is those things that make some place a true home for you and that house with Tante Atie turns out to be the only place in her life that meets all the qualifications of a "home".
ReplyDeleteBut she would never refer to that time in Haiti with Tante Atie as home, only until she was with her mother in America or in Haiti. Maybe there was an innate connection that she sensed home was where her mother was.
DeleteI think this may be a situation of "you don't know what you've got until it's gone." Sophie's home in Haiti was her home, and although she believed that, no one else wanted to. Everyone was always trying to provide Sophie with more, which made the true meaning of words like "home," "love," and "mother" became arbitrary and twisted. Forcing Sophie to explore America and call that her "home" may have seemed the right thing to do since she would be with her mother, but it was clear from her first night in New York that that would never be the case. Sophie tries to fill the void of leaving what she always knew was her home, but it isn't until all remnants of that home are gone that she realizes what she had was all she really needed despite the efforts made in America.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a strong possibility of what Sophie was probably thinking and feeling. Once again doing what she was told, because she never had many choices of her own to make.
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