Breath, Eyes, Memory

Sophie is the main character in the book Breath, Eyes, Memory. Her mother gave birth to her after being raped and beaten by an unknown man, so Sophie, and her mother, never know who this man is. Sophie spent the first 8 or 9 years being raised by her aunt in Haiti while her mother lived in New York. Because of this, Sophie doesn't meet her mother until she moves to New York to live with her mother. As Sophie grows older she begins to notice the neighbor next door that she eventually falls in love with and marries.
This man is older and is a traveling musician. This is one of the obstacles that Sophie needs to go through because of her mother's initial reaction to this. Her mother doesn't immediately approve because of his age and his occupation. Sophie's mother wanted her to grow up to be a doctor and to marry a man with a stable job that can help provide for the family. Eventually her mother comes to terms with the marriage and is ok with it. Sophie and her husband have a daughter together that travels with Sophie when she went to Haiti.
The trip to Haiti was a part of something else that Sophie had to deal with personally. As a teenager her mother would come home and test Sophie to see if she was still a virgin. Sophie hated these tests alot, she hated them enough to make herself intentionally wihtout actually losing her virginity. She felt that if she were to fail one of these tests her mother would stop them. These tests traumatized Sophie to the point where didn't feel 100% comfortable with her husband. She evntually began attending a help group with other people who were sexually traumatized. This was another step she took towards dealing with and getting over the problem.
Another obstacle Sophie needed to face was dealing with her mother's pregnancy. It didn't affect her directly, but it affected her mother greatly. Her mother suffered from nightmares which caused her to toss and turn in bed violently. When Sophie first moved in with her mother, she would have to wake her mother up whenever the nightmares happened. Her mother didn't want the child and for a while she was contemplating getting rid of it. Getting rid of the child was something her mother eventually did, but it ended up costing her her life.