Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Farming of Bones, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Power of Memory
Dreams vs. Reality
Language and Identity
Death, Grief, and Hope
Home, Family, and Belonging
Summary
Analysis
Amabelle notes that Doña Sabine’s house is guarded by a group of armed peasants, and that there are people watching fearfully from behind the curtains. She walks towards Señora Valencia’s house, and sees that Señor Pico is teaching his wife how to shoot a gun; Amabelle narrowly avoids getting hit by a bullet. The señora cries out in terror, but sees she is unharmed. Her husband tells her she must learn to protect herself, and she says that her family has never had “these fears before.”
In a very literal way, the homes that Amabelle has grown accustomed to—her neighbors’ home, her employer’s house—are changing rapidly. They are no longer friendly and welcoming; instead, they are guarded, and people hide inside them. Additionally, the señora almost shoots Amabelle, and this close call demonstrates how cultural tensions are shifting into outright violence between the country’s two major cultural groups.
Themes
Señora Valencia, seeing a cadre of military men pull up to her house, says that it feels like everyone is “at war.” Don Ignacio explains that for men like Señor Pico, everything is an expedition; he claims that he, unlike these men, came to the Dominican Republic to escape from “armies and officers.”
The strict boundaries between classes and cultures in the Dominican Republic have led to distrust and tension. Eventually, even the señora—a privileged woman who was previously unaware of the Haitians’ struggle—notices that the friction between Haitians and Dominicans has escalated into aggression. Don Ignacio, revealing more of his revolutionary attitude towards identity and shared cultural boundaries, admits that he does not like his country’s militant ideology. He does not wish to preserve the cultural boundaries that lead to animosity and violence; in fact, he came to the Dominican Republic to escape those exact problems.
Themes
Don Ignacio explains that he has witnessed Señor Pico’s behavior before. He tells Señora Valencia that Señor Pico “believes that everything he is doing, he’s doing for his country.” He says that this is the reasoning Señor Pico uses to explain his behavior to himself.
Don Ignacio recognizes that Señor Pico is driven by his abiding devotion to his country. This intense nationalism allows him to justify his behavior, even if it is prejudicial or oppressive towards other cultural groups. The señor’s behavior illustrates the extreme consequences of using identity to separate people into groups. He is so blinded by prejudice against other identities that he can rationalize any actions, even if they are violent and immoral.
Themes
