Analysis of Conflicts of The Protagonist in Edwidge Danticat's 'Breath, Eyes, Memory'.

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ABSTRACT

Di dalam skripsi ini, saya akan menganalisa konflik dari tokoh utama

dalam novel yang berjudul Breath, Eyes, Memory karya Edwidge Danticat. Saya

akan menganalisa konflik apa saja yang dialami oleh tokoh utama, apa yang

menyebabkan konflik itu terjadi dan bagaimana solusi yang diambil untuk

memecahkan konflik-konflik tersebut.

Tokoh utama dalam novel ini adalah Sophie Caco. Sophie caco

ditinggalkan oleh ibunya sejak lahir, dia dibesarkan oleh tantenya di desa. Pada

saat Sophie berumur dua belas tahun, Sophie pindah ke Amerika untuk tinggal

bersama ibu yang tidak terlalu dia kenal. Di Amerika, dia baru mengetahui bahwa

dia adalah seorang anak yang lahir karena perkosaan yang dialami ibunya. Oleh

karena perkosaan yang dialami Martine, ibu Sophie, telah membuat hidup dan

mimpinya berantakan, ibunya berusaha agar hal yang sama tidak terjadi pada

Sophie. Hal-hal itulah yang menyebabkan keduanya tidak bisa menghindari

konflik-konflik yang nantinya mempengaruhi hubungan antara ibu dan anak.

Ada lima konflik yang dialami oleh Sophie, yang terdiri dari tiga konflik

sosial dan dua konflik internal. Sophie mempunyai perbedaan keinginan dengan

ibunya, sehingga menimbulkan konflik sosial. Kemudian, Sophie juga mengalami

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Maranatha Christian University konflik internal. Pada akhirnya, semua konflik tidak terpecahkan kecuali satu

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APPENDIX

Synopsis of Breath, Eyes, Memory

Breath, Eyes, Memory is a story about a young girl who has been left by

her mother. Sophie is raised by her aunt in the village of Croix-des-Rosets. She

never meets her mother since she was born. She lives with Tante Atie and

considers her as her mother. At the age of twelve Sophie has to leave her aunt and

move to New York to live with her mother.

Sophie begins her new life in New York City, where she finds out that she

is a child of a rape victim. She also finds that her mother has been traumatic for

many years by the memories of Sophie’s father who raped her when she was a

teenager. Sophie is raised under the authoritative way of her mother. She forces

Sophie to be a doctor and allows Sophie to have a boyfriend only after she is

eighteen.

At the age of eighteen, Sophie falls in love with Joseph, a musician who is

much older than her. Sophie’s mother does not agree to their relationship. To

protect Sophie’s virginity, her mother does a traditional testing, which is the test

of virginity by inserting a finger into the very private part of her body. Sophie

decides to take her own virginity. As Sophie fails the test, Sophie’s mother asks

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Sophie marries Joseph. They have a daughter, Brigitte. However, the test

leaves a trauma in Sophie. To calm her mind and to find the answer to what the

test is for, Sophie along with Brigitte goes to her grandmother’s village in Dame

Marie. Later, Sophie’s mother comes to Dame Marie to settle their quarrel and

they go back to USA together.

One day, Sophie’s mother commits suicide because her traumatic is

getting worse when she is pregnant again. On her mother’s funeral, Sophie goes to

the cane fields where her mother was raped, and attacks the cane fields. To release

her feelings, she begins to beat a cane stalk so brutally that she is bleeding. Only

after that can she now be free from her trauma.

Biography of the Author

Edwidge Danticat was born in January 19, 1969 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

When she was two years old, her father André immigrated to New York, to be

followed two years later by her mother Rose. This left Danticat and her younger

brother Eliab to be raised by her aunt and uncle. At the age of twelve, she moved

to Brooklyn, New York, to join her parents in a heavily Haitian American

neighborhood. After graduating from Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn, New

York, Danticat entered Barnard College in New York City. Initially she had

intended on studying to become a teacher, but her love of writing won out and she

received a BA in French literature.

BesidesBreath, Eyes, Memory(1994), Edwidge Danticat’s works areKrik?

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the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti(2002), The Dew Breaker,

Brother(2004), I'm Dying(2007), andThe Butterfly's Way.

In 1993, she earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Brown

University. Her thesis, entitledMy turn in the fire - an abridged novel, was the

basis for her novelBreath, Eyes, Memory, which was published by Soho Press in

1994.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Edwidge Danticat is the author of nine novels and two short stories. Granta

Magazine mentions her as one of Twenty Best Young American Novelists in 1996

(“Edwidge Danticat”). Most of her works are inspired by her own experiences as a

child and by her family’s experiences so that the characters look tangible. “In nine

interrelated stories, Danticat used some her own family’s experiences as a basis

for the lives of the characters” (“Edwidge Danticat”). Among her works, I am

interested in analyzingBreath, Eyes, Memory.

In the novel Breath, Eyes, Memory, the protagonist, Sophie Caco is raised

by her aunt in Haiti until later she migrates and has to be separated from her

beloved aunt because she has to join her mother, whom she barely knows, in

America. The author portrays how hard it is to leave her loved one and live with a

mother who is a stranger to her as a young girl.

Sophie is also portrayed as a child of a rape victim, which causes her

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2 Maranatha Christian University happening to Sophie, her mother does a traditional practice of virginity testing to

her. Edwidge Danticat says, “The essential thing to all the mothers in the book is

to try, in their own way, to be the best mothers they can be, given their

circumstances, because they want their daughters to go further in life than they did

themselves” (“An interview with Edwidge Danticat”).

In such a situation, it is inevitable that both mother and daughter should

have disagreement between them. That is why, in this thesis I would like to

analyze the conflicts in Breath, Eyes, Memory. According to Harry Shaw in his

Dictionary of Literary Terms,

Conflict is the opposition of person or forces upon which the action

depends in drama and fiction. Conflict is an important element of plot;

they are the material from which a plot is constructed. There are three

types of conflict; first type is physical conflict, a struggle between man and

the physical world. It represented man versus forces of nature. Second type

is social conflict, a struggle between man and man. Third type is inner

conflict, a struggle between desires within a person. (Shaw 91-92)

Statement of the Problem

The problems in this study are:

1. What conflicts occur in the protagonist’s life?

2. What are the causes of the conflicts?

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3 Maranatha Christian University Purpose of the Study

Based on the statement of the problem, the purposes of the study are:

1. to show the conflicts that occur in the protagonist’s life.

2. to show the causes of the conflicts.

3. to show the resolutions of the conflicts.

Method of Research

In my analysis, I use the library research. I read Edwidge Danticat’s novel,

Breath, Eyes, Memory,as the primary text. Then, I search for other sources from

books and electronic websites as references to support my analysis; moreover, to

help me in writing my analysis. Finally, I draw a conclusion based on my

analysis.

Organization of the Thesis

This thesis is organized into three chapters. Chapter One contains

Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study,

Method of Research and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two contains the

analysis of conflicts of the protagonist in Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes,

Memory. Chapter Three is Conclusion. The thesis ends with Bibliography and

Appendices, which consist of the synopsis of the novel and the biography of the

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

Having analyzed both the inner and the social conflicts in Edwidge

Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory, in this chapter, I am going to draw a

conclusion.

I find three social conflicts between Sophie and Martine. The first social

conflict is about Sophie’s education. Martine is of the opinion that Sophie should

pursue her education and become a doctor. According to Martine, education is the

only thing that make people respect them and that can raise their family status. On

the other hand, Sophie does not like going to school because she is afraid of being

accused of having AIDS. Sophie’s mother insists on Sophie’s going to school and

becoming a doctor for the reason that it is good for her future. Because of that,

Sophie does not dare to have a dream of her own although deep down she does

not want to be a doctor. Besides, when finally she thinks about her future, she

knows that she wants to become a secretary. In the end, after she is married,

Sophie does become a secretary and by her becoming a secretary is accordance

with her desires, the conflict is resolved.

The second social conflict between Sophie and Martine is about Sophie’s

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16 Maranatha Christian University unconditional because for Sophie, age does not matter. Sophie also does not mind

the fact that Joseph is a musician. Sophie is very happy and she feels that her life

is more interesting after she meets Joseph because Joseph breaks the monotony

activities between school, home and prayer. But, Sophie’s mother does not allow

Sophie to have a relationship with Joseph because Martine wants Sophie to have a

boyfriend from a good family background and with a steady job. Martine also

thinks that Joseph is too old for Sophie. Finally, Sophie decides to meet Joseph

secretly while her mother is working. This conflict is unresolved because their

relationship becomes worse when Martine finds out about their relationship and

this conflict leads to the third social conflict below.

The third social conflict between Sophie and her mother is about the

virginity testing. Virginity testing is a common practice done to every woman in

their family. After Martine knows that Sophie and Joseph are in a relationship,

Martine starts to test Sophie. On the one hand, Sophie hates the testing because it

hurts her and it is humiliating. On the other hand, according to Martine, doing the

testing is her duty to protect her daughter’s virginity before she is married. It has

been a tradition. Sophie’s mother has also been tested by Sophie’s grandmother

who wants to keep her from pre-marital sex or to get pregnant at a young age.

Furthermore, loosing one’s virginity is a disgrace. In the end, Sophie breaks the

hymen by pressing a pestle into it in order to stop the testing. As a result of

Sophie’s action, Martine concludes that Sophie has been having sex with Joseph

and she asks Sophie to get out from the house. Sophie has no place to go so she

goes to Joseph and agrees to marry him. After that, Sophie and her mother have

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17 Maranatha Christian University I also find two inner conflicts that happen to Sophie. The first inner

conflict is about her relationship with Joseph. Sophie is confused whether to

continue her relationship with Joseph or not. On the one hand, Sophie knows that

Martine disagrees to their relationship and she would not approve of seeing him.

On the other hand, Sophie likes Joseph from the first time they met. Sophie is

happy when she is with Joseph. As Sophie’s love is unconditionally and she loves

Joseph very much, in the end Sophie marries Joseph even though it is not with

Martine’s blessing, so the conflict is resolved.

The second inner conflict experienced by Sophie happens when her

grandmother asks Sophie to greet her mother first when they finally meet again at

Dame Marie. On the one hand, Sophie thinks that the younger should obey the

older, she knows that as a daughter she should come and greet her mother first. On

the other hand, because her mother does not reply all the letters and never answer

the phone from Sophie after her marriage, Sophie does not want to greet her

mother first. Sophie also still remembers what Martine has done to her, the testing

and everything so she is unable to greet her mother. But in the end, as Sophie’s

grandmother becomes angry and makes Martine looked uncomfortable and almost

scared, Martine decides to give in to Sophie. She walks to Sophie and kiss her

cheek. In my opinion, as Sophie does not reject her mother, this conflict is

resolved.

After analyzing all the conflicts, I find that all the problems lie in the

relationship between a mother and a daughter in the novel. The author portrays

how Martine is trying to be the best mother that she can be in her own way

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18 Maranatha Christian University know, Martine’s life and dream is ruined because she is raped in her young age.

Moreover, the incident leaves a traumatic experience in her, so she does not

realize that she forces on Sophie too much and she likes to control Sophie, not

only about her education but also about her personal life. Unfortunately, Martine

never explains the reason why she tries to control Sophie’s life. In my opinion, it

is a mother’s obligation to give all the best for her daughter but Martine’s past

experience and her being bound by tradition make it hard for her to act differently.

Sophie as a daughter feels that she is not free to choose or to decide what

she wants. She also never shows or expresses what she wants and what she feels

to her mother. In my opinion, every child has their own dream. Not only that,

Sophie is also a grown up child. I think she will not always follow her mother’s

desire.

In my opinion, Sophie and Martine have no communication at all. Not to

mention that Sophie and Martine have been living separately and thus they have

not known each other well. If Sophie understood her mother’s past experience and

family tradition, they might be able to solve the conflict between them.

Finally, I am of the opinion that Edwidge Danticat is a great writer who

succeeds in creating a good story which makes the readers feel satisfied after

reading the novel. She also succeeds in creating inner and social conflicts which

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Text

Danticat, Edwidge.Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York: Vintage Contemporaries,

1994. Print.

References

An Interview with Edwidge Danticat.Web. 24 August 2010

“Edwidge Danticat”. Answers.com. Web. 10 August 2010.

Shaw, Harry.Dictionary of Literary Terms.America: McGraw-Hill Book