The Farming Of Bones Sparknotes

Edwidge Danticat novel, The Farming of Bones, provides readers with an understanding of the relations of Haitians and Dominicans by chronicling the Haitians escape from the Dominican Republic following the parsley massacre and emphasizing the importance of remembering the past. Though it is a work of fiction, Danticat is able to present characters and plot points that illustrate the racial and ethnic relations between Haiti and The Dominican Republic that led to the spread of antihaitianismo. The main themes of the novel explores the impact of nationalism and the formation of ethnic/racial formation through the characters actions which allows the reader to understand the ethnic/racial tension occurring at the time on a much personal level,

Under the Regime of Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas, Dominican soldiers and civilians wielding machetes, bayonets and rifles massacred about 15,000 – 30,000 Haitians, using the pronunciation of “perejil” to identify who was Haitian (Ghosh, 2012). This act of genocide by Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas “ordered the massacre as a way of ‘whitening’ his country, portraying it as a paternal act to save his people from Haiti” (Simões, 2011). The novel, The Farming of Bones, shows the terror and cruelty that was a result of this genocide; it can be seen in the beating and torturing of Haitians, including Amabelle after recognizing that they cannot pronounce “perejil”. Throughout the novel, the reader is given the opportunity to experience the mindset of the Haitians as they try to escape being killed over a simple pronunciation. The pronunciation of “perejil” illustrate how ethnic/ racial relations are socially constructed and do not have to be based on phenotypes of scientific fact and language can also be a marker for identifying race and

There are smaller instance of racial/ethnic tension that happen globally, such as the many racial tension in American with various racial and ethnic groups. These racial/ethnic tension influence the formation of ethnic/racial identity, as discrimination and racism can lead to violent outcomes and affect the way people choose to use their race or ethnicity as an identifying marker. Nonetheless these small instances of racial/ethnic tension do have some similarities to the historical events in the novel. For instance, there are many places globally where there is a stigma against darker skin and that light skin is essentially superior. There are also cases, much like the pronunciation “perejil” in which individuals are classified into racial categories based on accents or pronunciation of certain words. In order to help combat against these tensions, there needs to be a restarting of global and political forces. The present system treats race as a scientifically proven separator of individual and instead should be seeing race for what it really is, a socially constructed