The Immigrants in Breath, Eyes, Memory

Immigrants Breath, Eyes, Memory

Having to move to another country is not an east task because you are leaving behind everyone that you know since you are a little kid. Sophie was experiencing this because now she must drop everything and jump in a plane to reunited with her mother which she only have heard her voice.

Haiti and Tante Atie was all Sophie knew, the freedom that she had to run around or just play with kids from across the street while the hot sun is kicking in. Tante Atie for Sophie was the mother that she always wanted; a mother that would wait for her outside when she returned from school or a mother that would tell her stories when she couldn't fall asleep. This will soon change when one-day plane tickets arrive and everything that was familiar to her was no longer there.

Sophie was now in a new country with a mother that was also new to her. She now most learn English and at the same time maintain a fluent Creole. But the most difficult thing is to get use to New York and her new surroundings because you no longer can be running around in the street and your parents are working day and night. There is no more freedom until you become an American (meaning more independent an liberal) in from of your mother eyes.

I can relate to this novel a lot because I came to this country when I was eleven years old and I had to leave my grand parents, my father and my friends behind for a new life with my mother. It was a big change because I no longer could go outside and play baseball with my friends instead I most stay in and play Nintendo. I couldn't speak with some people in my school because I did not speak English nor did I understand the language. I had to work hard to understand and speak English, I used to always go to McDonalds and order the food, this was a way for me to practice or volunteer to go to the deans office to drop or to pick up something. At the beginning was hard but my friends were supportive but there were times when people try to put me down because of my heavy accent, at that point I wanted to loss my accent but I learn that my accent is part of who I am.