Sophie's Journey Toward Freedom in Breath, Eyes, Memory

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Sophie's Journey Toward Freedom in Breath, Eyes, Memory

The novel Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Edwidge Danticat, is a bildungsroman. The narrator, Sophie, embarks on a journey towards her freedom. Sophie's freedom comes from her therapy. Sophie's treatment and her sex phobia group help her to cope with problems and move past them. The therapy helps Sophie to take logical steps towards her freedom.

In Sophie's sex phobia therapy group, Sophie is able to realize she is not the only person in the world with problems. Together, with the strength of the other woman and her own, Sophie is able to voice with conviction that she is a "beautiful woman with [a] strong body" (202). The group gives Sophie the self confidence she needs to feel good about herself and the strength to bravely admit who her abuser is. Each member of the group "wrote the names of [their] abusers in a pieces on a paper, raised it over a candle, and watched as the flames consumed it" (203). As Sophie got stronger, she no longer felt guilty about burning her mother's name. Through this procedure, Sophie is on...

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