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The Farming Of Bones Character Analysis

893 Words4 Pages

In his sermons to the Haitian congregants of the valley, Father Romain often reminded everyone of common ties: language, foods, history, carnival, songs, tales, and prayers. His creed was one of memory, how remembering—though sometimes painful—can make you strong (Danticat, 73). In “The farming of Bones,” Danticat presents the unvarnished effects of the construction of social identity to expose racial suppression on the men and women to illustrate the racial prejudice that took place in the 1937 massacre, which can also be referred to as the Parsley Massacre. While the majority of the novel is filled with sorrow, it is also full of life, love, and survival. Amabelle, a young Haitian woman witnessed middle class non-vwayaje Haitians walk their …show more content…

She traveled to the northern Haitian-Dominican border in the year of 1994, which was 57 years after the massacre. She explained that she wanted to place her hand in the massacre river where the colonists of the Spanish and French had once butchered one another over how to split the island of Hispaniola, which Haiti and the Dominican Republic currently share. While she sat by the side of the river, she jotted down in her journal that “nature has no memory.” She observed children who were bathing in it, men watching their animals drink from it, and women washing their clothes in it. Thus, instead of seeing blood in the river, which is what she was expecting, she saw people living and thriving. People were living even with such a painful and dark past. However, living does not entail forgetting. Parents and grandparents stories’ were inherited and passed down from generation to generation. Confused as to why there were no plaques or even a memorial to remember and honor the thousands of individuals who died, she asked an old Haitian cane worker why he thought that was. The cane worker was unsure why there were no plaques but he replied with the following: “the best way to commemorate the horrors of the past, is to stop the injustices of the present” (Danticat,

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