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Chapter 25
Themes
and Colors
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
Doctor Javier examines Rosalinda, and whispers to Amabelle in Haitian Creole that she must leave the house. He has heard rumors that the Generalissimo has ordered soldiers to kill Haitians. Amabelle once again mistrusts these rumors; she claims there are always ongoing disputes, where “one side of the island [plans] to invade the other.” Amabelle believes that because the Haitians are working the land, the Dominican Republic would not wish to interfere with them.
Amabelle’s interaction with Doctor Javier subverts expectations about cultural boundaries. First, the doctor speaks in Haitian Creole, revealing that he is capable of moving between cultures with ease. Secondly, Amabelle does not initially believe the rumors of Dominicans assaulting Haitians, nor is she suspicious of the Dominicans. Rather, she believes that the cultures can coexist, as the Dominicans rely on the Haitians for labor. Both characters refuse to adhere to their community’s beliefs, demonstrating that people’s cultural groups do not necessarily dictate their viewpoints.
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Doctor Javier tells her that he will be crossing into Haiti with a large group later that night. He says he will make space for Amabelle’s lover, Sebastien, and his sister. Before she can answer, Señora Valencia interrupts the conversation. Amabelle wishes to ask her for help, but wonders if her employer will be “brave enough to stand between [Amabelle] and her husband” if a deadly situation arises.
The doctor’s plan to cross into Haiti illustrates his comfort moving between Dominican and Haitian cultures, as well as his willingness to transcend cultural boundaries. Doctor Javier does not subscribe to the narrow thinking that separates cultures from one another; rather, he is able to fit in amongst different groups. Amabelle’s belief in the Dominican Republic as her home begins to waver, particularly because she starts to doubt that her employer will support her. Her family with the señora—which was once welcoming—now seems unstable, again showing how one’s sense of home and family can shift unexpectedly.
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Amabelle tries to concoct a plan, but is unsure of what to do. She makes a sack in case she decides to flee: she packs Joël’s mask and a change of clothes. She hides the bag near Juana and Luis’s house, and then returns to Señora Valencia. She asks Amabelle if Don Ignacio has returned, and tells Amabelle to direct Luis to go looking for him. Amabelle does so, and follows Luis out as if she is pretending to help; she then leaves to find Sebastien.
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Amabelle and Sebastien discuss their options. Amabelle thinks they should go to Haiti together; she says that if they are wrong, they can always return. Sebastien confronts her, telling her that she “never believed those people could injure [her].” Amabelle admits that she may have trusted blindly, and that she had been living inside memories and her dreams to avoid the present, which is “truly frightful.”
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Sebastien and Amabelle agree to talk to Kongo before making a decision. They search for him and find him sitting with Yves; Kongo tells them that Don Ignacio visited him in order to talk about his son. Yves claims that he should not have wasted his time, and that only death would even things out. Kongo replies that they will never be even, until his life and Don Ignacio’s life are the same.
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Kongo then recounts how Don Ignacio talked to him about killing other soldiers in the war. Kongo tells the group that Don Ignacio feels as if his son’s death and the death of his wife are retribution for the men he has slain. Kongo insists that they spoke man to man, and that discussing these topics helped the two understand each other better.
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Sebastien informs Kongo that after hearing the rumors, they are thinking of leaving the Dominican Republic. Yves wants to stay, thinking the rumors are meant to scare Haitians away. Kongo draws an image on the floor, and tells Sebastien and Amabelle that their path will be a “trail of rivers and mountains.” Sebastien and Yves seem “content” with this response; they act as if their “dead fathers” have offered them a “benediction.”
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Amabelle returns to Señora Valencia’s house, and is wary of revealing her plans to her employer. Amabelle realizes there is an unsolvable tension between their two countries, as “two different people” are attempting to share “one tiny piece of land.” Amabelle decides that she will not say an official farewell to the señora; instead, she will send a message once she is settled in Haiti.
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Beatriz arrives, and Amabelle serves them water. Señora Valencia continues to worry about her father, and Beatriz speculates that he has a mistress. Beatriz then tells the señora that Mimi is leaving their household, and Amabelle feigns surprise. Beatriz once again changes the subject, and asks what the señora will paint nexther last work was the portrait of Trujillo.
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Beatriz and Señora Valencia begin to talk of travel. Beatriz wishes to travel to Spain, in order to escape and expand her horizons; she claims all the girls in the Dominican Republic only have aspirations to study domestic science. Señora Valencia says she will never leave, as it is the country of her family’s graves.
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Suddenly, Señora Valencia begins to have trouble breathing, and Beatriz and Amabelle carry her into the house. Amabelle sees blood on the señora’s dress, and tells herself that she will only leave for the church after the Señora is safely in bed. Señora Valencia grips her hand tightly, and Amabelle asks to be released to find medicine. In the pantry she finds Don Ignacio, who has placed a wooden cross with Joël’s name on the floor.
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The household staff hears voices and trucks outside the house, and they walk outside to investigate. They see a line of soldiers standing in front of Unèl’s armed brigade; Señor Pico is standing by one of the lead military trucks, watching the interaction. He tells the men to “kneel or sit,” and claims he will take them to the border.
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Unèl says they will not kneel, and Señor Pico claims that the Haitians’ work in the cane fields is “worse than kneeling” as they work “like beasts.” The men of the brigade curse at him, and the soldiers merely laugh at the Haitians’ response. Doña Eva, Doctor Javier’s mother, interrupts the standoff by asking Señor Pico if he can talk about her son, who has been arrested along with Father Romain and Father Vargas.
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Señor Pico brushes Doña Eva aside, and once again tells Unèl’s men that they will be taken to the border, to which the men reply, “Never!” Señor Pico tells one truck to drive forward, and a man from the brigade throws himself in front of it. The truck crushes his knees and legs; other men try to help him, but they back away as the truck continues to move towards them. Amabelle runs into the road as her “countrymen” are thrown into the back of the truck, and Señor Pico tells her to get out of the road. She feels a soldier’s whip strike her back as she runs away.
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Unèl is surrounded by a circle of soldiers and throws his machete; he cuts one of the men’s faces. The soldiers try to grab him, and Unèl yells that he has never lived on his knees. The soldiers grab his arms and hold them behind his back, and one of them uses a bayonet to injure him. Unèl is tied up and thrown into the back of the truck, while Señor Pico watches. Amabelle thinks that to the señor, this “seemed to have been regular work.”
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Amabelle travels to the church where she was supposed to meet with Sebastien and Doctor Javier. It is empty, so she begins to travel through a cane field, hoping to escape detection. The “spears” of cane cut up her legs, the marsh beneath the cane sinks under her feet, and she feels bugs crawling all over her body.
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Amabelle gets through the cane field and arrives at Kongo’s room; he cleans up her wounds, and tells her that Sebastien and Mimi were taken by army trucks. She asks where the trucks will take them, and he tells her there is a prison near Dajabón. She decides this is where she will go, and he explains the best location for her to cross the river. He tells her that Yves is at Doña Sabine’s house, and she decides to stop there before she leaves.
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She knocks on Doña Sabine’s door, and Félice greets her. Amabelle asks where the watchmen and guards have gone, and Félice tells her that they were sent away, as the doña was afraid they would switch allegiances and “turn on them.” Doña Sabine and Don Gilbert, who are awake, ask who has been let in; they tell Félice to be careful. The two supervise their property, and realize they will “not be able to save everybody.” Amabelle thinks they may not be able to protect themselves.
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Amabelle finds Yves and tells him her plan to travel to Dajabón, and he agrees to join her. Félice, however, chooses to stay behind; she is afraid, and does not wish to “die walking.” Amabelle gives her Joël’s death mask for safekeeping, and she caresses it lovingly. She claims it is a “good likeness of him.” Félice says goodbye, and wonders if she will see the two of them again some day.
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