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
The group continues on to Dajabón, and they arrive at nightfall. Amabelle sees children and adults making music, and notes the colorful uniforms and banners that bear Trujillo’s name. She then looks at herself and the group, and realizes that they all look similar; they look like refugees who have made a hasty escape. Odette and Wilner split off to investigate the river, and Amabelle blends into the crowd. She hears that Trujillo has given a speech that says the Dominican Republic’s “problems with Haitians” would soon be solved.
The travelers arrive in the midst of a public gathering, which is colorful and joyous. In contrast, the refugees are disheveled and somber, befitting the gravity of their situation. This difference illustrates how separate Dominicans and Haitians have become: one group is celebrating a festival, while the other group is fleeing for their lives. Identity has completely dictated these groups’ trajectories and kept them separate within the same country.
Themes
Amabelle hears voices whispering in Haitian Creole, and believes that the voices’ owners would join her group, if they were not frightened of drawing attention. She notes that the Dominicans look as if they pity her group. Yves urges the travelers to leave for the border immediately, while nearby soldiers are dispersed through the crowd.
The dynamics of the crowd further reveal how language and identity separate and divide the people in the Dominican Republic. Amabelle identifies other Haitians through their language, but believes that they fear persecution. The Dominicans in the crowd are seemingly sympathetic, however, disproving the idea that cultural borders completely separate groups.
Themes
A group of young soldiers spot Amabelle, Yves, and Tibon. They surround the travelers, “isolating” them from the rest of the crowd that is eagerly anticipating Trujillo’s departure from the nearby church. Tibon lunges for one of the younger soldiers and begins to choke him; in retaliation, the soldiers steal a machete —which belonged to Félice and Doña Sabine—out of Yves’s hand. The soldiers stab Tibon in the back. The national orchestra, which is near the church because of Trujillo’s presence, begins to play a “popular hymn.”
Despite most of the crowd’s sympathy, there are still Dominican soldiers who believe that Haitians and Dominicans should not coexist. These soldiers reaffirm the idea that cultural prejudice leads to violence and intolerance. Tibon, who also believes that different cultures must be separated into rigid groups, begins to act violent as well. In the backdrop, nationalistic music plays, which symbolizes the way in which intolerance is always in the background of society in the Dominican Republic.
Themes
The soldiers close in on Amabelle and Yves, and hold up a spring of parsley. They ask, “Que diga perejil”—prompting the two of them to pronounce the Spanish word for parsley. For a moment, Amabelle believes she could have “said the word properly, calmly, slowly,” as she used to say it to shop vendors. She notes, however, that some of the word’s consonants are “too burdensome… for [her] tongue.” The soldiers do not wait for a response, and begin force-feeding her parsley.
The soldiers ask Amabelle in Spanish to pronounce the word for parsley. Amabelle, who often bridges Dominican and Haitian cultures due to her upbringing, believes she would be capable of proper Spanish pronunciation. Regardless, she admits that the Spanish language—an embodiment of Dominican identity—is sometimes burdensome or difficult. This difficulty is symbolic of the effort it takes for Amabelle and others like her to connect Haitian and Dominican cultures in a hostile country.
Themes
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The soldiers brutalize Yves and Amabelle. The crowd begins to kick Amabelle, and she hears the distant sounds of a bugle, and then a “twenty-one-gun salute.” The crowd around her cheers and begins to sing the national anthem; they stampede over Amabelle, hoping “to glimpse” the Generalissimo’s car and his processional.
The soldiers’ violence against Yves and Amabelle once again demonstrates the violent consequences of prejudice. Furthermore, the national anthem begins and the crowd starts to stampede. The crowds’ violent momentum and the loud music, are physically representative of how Dominican culture overpowers Haitian culture in the Dominican Republic.
Themes
Odette and Wilner reappear, and they take Amabelle and Yves to a safe house owned by Alberto, a man that Wilner has paid to safeguard them. Yves questions whether they can trust him, and Wilner replies that they do not live “lives of certainty.” Amabelle tries to communicate about Tibon, but her injuries prevent her from speaking; she is unable to tell Odette that they should bury Tibon. When the travelers arrive at their shelter, Yves asks the group why Haiti will not go to war after this attack.
Amabelle is physically unable to vocalize the horror and reality of Tibon’s death to the group. Her muteness is symbolic of the ways that death and trauma can silence those who experience or witness it. Yves then wonders why Haiti will not declare war as a result of the Dominican Republic’s persecution. Yves’s question illustrates how prejudice and intolerance can lead to a vicious circle of violence. Cultural groups war with one another to reinforce their borders and their perceived superiority, and the groups continue to separate from one another as the violence spurs retaliation of the kind that Yves suggests here.
Themes
Suddenly, Alberto warns them that the soldiers are coming towards the house; the group leaves the safe house and moves towards the river. Amabelle begins to ask about Mimi and Sebastien, but Odette misinterprets her words and believes she is asking about Tibon. They arrive at the riverbank, and Amabelle emphasizes that the river looks more intimidating than her memory of it.
The group comes to the river that separates Haiti and the Dominican Republic, a symbol of cultural divide and violence between the two countries. Amabelle’s memory, which has preserved the river in her mind despite her many years away, has not faithfully captured the sight. Amabelle’s inaccurate recollection of the river that killed her parents and affected her childhood proves that memory is not always perfect. Rather, it can be influenced by time, and it can fade and become inaccurate.
Themes
The group begins to ford the river. Amabelle separates herself from Odette, claiming that she does not want to be responsible for another person’s life; she would prefer to drown alone. She sees an empty dress floating in the river, and the corpse of a man. She touches the body to see if it is Sebastien; when she confirms that it is not him but rather a stranger, she wishes she could say a “ceremonial prayer.”
Once Amabelle enters the river, she begins to fixate on death. She clearly associates the river, the site of her parents’ drowning, with the idea of mortality. The corpse that floats in the water only reinforces this association. Amabelle, who has witnessed others’ deaths and experienced deep grief, wishes to respect the dead and honor their passing, even as she’s filled with gratitude that Sebastien is not the one who died. In this way, Amabelle’s behavior here shows again that death has a profound and lasting impact on those who have seen it.
Themes
As the group continues to travel through the river, soldiers spot Wilner and shoot him. Amabelle seals Odette’s mouth with her hand to keep her from making noise; when Odette struggles against her, Amabelle seals her nose as well. Amabelle swims towards the shore with Odette’s body in her arms, but knows she will not “regain consciousness.” Amabelle believes Odette has “made her choice” not to continue on the journey.
The soldiers, who have been motivated to persecute and kill Haitians by intolerance and political propaganda, shoot Wilner. Once again, tension between two cultural groups has led to violence. Amabelle, fearing death if Odette—Wilner’s partner—cries out, accidentally kills Odette in the process of trying to keep them both safe. Amabelle’s actions illustrate how death can inspire profound fear in people. In this case, death inspires such powerful terror that Amabelle accidentally (and ironically) murders another person to avoid it.
Themes
Once they are safely on land, Odette says “pesi,” the Haitian Creole pronunciation of the word “parsley,” before passing away. This prompts Amabelle to wonder why “parsley” is the word used by the soldiers to target Haitians: she speculates that since the Haitians use the herb to cleanse themselves, perhaps the Generalissimo is using the word to cleanse his country. Amabelle thinks Odette’s pronunciation of “pesi” is a “challenge” and a “dare.”
Odette says the Haitian Creole word for parsley, instead of pronouncing it in Spanish. This word is a declaration and reaffirmation of Odette’s Haitian identity. Odette speaks her own language—not the language of the country that mistreats her—before she dies, as if she is still proud of her cultural identity even when she knows that it is part of the reason she’s dying.
Themes
