Analysis Of The Farming Of Bones By Edwidge Danticat

The Farming of Bones, by Edwidge Danticat, takes place in the Dominican Republic during the 1930’s-40’s. During this time period, a wicked Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo, ordered the massacre of Haitian people living in the Dominican Republic. The novel follows Amabelle, a young Haitian woman, and the adventures and struggles she encounters during the Parsley Massacre. Death is an important subject throughout the novel, and is often foreshadowed and represented using motifs such as wood, both for the characters in the book and by the author. Specifically, cut wood is used as a motif following the deaths of both Joel and Rafi. Uncut wood planks, on the other hand, served as a motif for Amabelle and Yves’ ability to elude death

After Kongo visits Amabelle to give her a special mask, he says ““There is so much wood here. I’ve been on sugar land all over this country, and there’s never enough wood to spare for us. I’ve seen people take doors off hinges to make coffins for their dead” (120). For the reader, as well as the characters within the book, wood is a motif for death. Because Kongo states that he’s seen people go as far as to take doors off hinges to make coffins for their dead, it shows how important death and honoring the dead is in the novel. Following the death of Joel, Kongo’s son, Sebastien gifted Kongo wood for Joel’s casket. Kongo decided not to use the wood, however, and instead buried Joel in the ravine next to where he died, in a field of lemongrass. When Sebastien finds out about this, he says “Kongo didn’t make use of it” he said. “Maybe I’ll keep it for the next time somebody dies” (110). Sebastien says that he will keep the wood for the next death, showing the direct relationship between wood and death. Sebastien keeping the wood for the next death also shows the importance of honoring the dead in the book. Wood can be used for a variety of things, and Sebastien would most likely have a use for the wood before the next death. Because Sebastien kept the wood specifically for the next death shows that he wants to make sure they have wood when the next death occurs to be able to build a casket and

Immediately after hearing the news of Joel’s death, “Sebastien took four long boards, stained and polished, enough to build a coffin for a grown man” (48). Joel is killed when walking down the street by getting hit by a car. Coincidentally, Senor Pico was the one driving the car. Joel’s death is significant because it was essentially the start of the Parsley Massacre. The use of wood to represent death recurs often throughout the book, but is most prominent following the deaths of Joel and Rafi. After baby Rafi passes away at a very young age, a wooden casket is built for him, “With the cane fire smoke still floating in the sky above their heads, the men went out to the garden to make Rafi a casket from the cedar that Papi kept piled behind the house. Senora Valencia watched from the patio as the jagged teeth of a saw drilled in and out of the wood, shaping her son’s final bed” (89).The death of Rafi is an ironic one, as he was the fair skinned baby who came out of the womb strong and without any issues while Rosalinda, the darker baby, was born with the umbilical cord tied around her neck and a caul over her face. Wood is used to represent the deaths of Rafi and Joel, which are important deaths to the plot of the