Vodou in Breath, Eyes, Memory

The nation of Haiti is a county steeped in religious history. With influences from African Vodou, to Christianity and Catholicism, the people of Haiti have a rich and diverse spiritual and religious background which can be witnessed in their everyday lives. Edwidge Danticat, a native Haitian writer, grew up with these influences in her life. Opal Palmer Adisa conducted an internet interview with Edwidge Danticat in the late 2000’s. The interview, Up Close and Personal: Edwidge Danticat on Haitian Identity and the Writer’s Life, was published in the African American Review in 2009. In the interview, Adisa asks Danticat: “What is your relationship to Vodou and the loa of Haitian cosmology?” (350). Danticat answers: “Vodou is part of my belief system as a Haitian. Erzulie, the goddess of love, has always intrigued me. She is the loa of Sophie’s family, their chosen protector, which is why she almost always stands by them as a character in their story.” (350). In her novel Breath, Eyes, Memory, Danticat illustrates many aspects of spirituality using spoken word, images, and recollections of stories passed down from generation to generation. Vodou, in particular, plays an important underlying role and allows the characters in Breath, Eyes, Memory to cope with both shared and inherited traumatic experiences.

Vodou is the common name for the religion that is practiced by the majority of Haitian people. Often misrepresented in American media with images of witchcraft, black magic, voodoo doll, curses, and hexes, this portrayal is far from accurate. Vodou is a complex mixture of different religious backgrounds, and is referred to as a syncretic religion. Brown writes: “In Haiti, vodou originally referred to one ritual style among many in ...

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...sheets on the floor” (224). Her own liberation came at the cost of her life by the spilling of her blood. Blood connects the Haitian Vodou myths to Sophie and Martine’s own lives and the ways that they deal with the traumas that they suffered.

Throughout the novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, elements and themes of Vodou are woven like threads into the tapestry of the novel. Edwidge Danticat illustrates many aspects of Vodou spirituality using spoken word, images, and recollections of stories passed down from generation to generation. As Danticat said in her interview with Opal Palmer, Vodou is a part of who she is as a Haitian, so it makes sense that these elements would be part of her characters. For the characters of Breath, Eyes, Memory, Vodou is not just a way of life, but a way to cope with the traumatic experiences that were they suffered directly and indirectly.