The Farming Of Bones Sparknotes

Darien Wellman
Latin American History
Dr. Nadel
October 11, 2014
Danticat, Edwidge. The Farming of Bones. New York: Soho Press, 1998.
Edwidge Danticat’s book The Farming of Bones focused on the personal life of a Haitian maid named Annabelle who lived in the Dominican Republic in the 1930s. Throughout the book, the author gave the reader an inside look into the world in which Annabelle lived. It is a world based on the status of class and ethnicity. What is most important to notice is that the author includes important historical moments that go along with Annabelle’s story and helps to give the reader a better idea of the different events that affected Haitians personally and deeply.
There are two big historical elements in the book. The first to look at is the famous Trujillo massacres of 1937. The massacres were authorized by the Dominican Republican dictator Rafael Trujillo. The massacres were designed as a form of ethnic cleansing due

to racism against dark skinned Haitians. In order to accomplish the goal of killing Haitians, the Dominican government created a test to help figure out how to do this. According to Palash Ghosh, the author of Parsley Massacre: The Genocide That Still Haunts Haiti, “Dominican border guards would ask people to pronounce the word ‘perejil’ (Spanish for parsley). Haitians who spoke French and Creole, could not pronounce the word properly and often paid…with their lives”(Ghosh). This ties in with the story of Annabelle due to her being asked by one Dominican soldier “Que diga perejil”(Danticat, 193). She was not killed, but she was forced to eat parsley and hit by a rock. There was even mention of how violent the massacres were. One example comes from when Annabelle and her friends were hiding and she saw a dead woman whose head had been split open by a machete. All of this shows the brutality and the oppression that the Haitians went through during this time, as well as in the book.
In addition to the massacres, Haitians also experienced issues of class due to race.

According to Ghosh, “Dominicans, like many Latin American societies were ruled by a white Spanish elite who lorded over a population principally compromised of mixed race mulattoes or those who were of mixed European-Amerindian blood. Haitians in contrast, were overwhelmingly of unmixed black African heritage”(Ghosh). When Annabelle’s mistress Senora Valencia gives birth in the book, she has twins. A light skinned baby boy and a dark skinned baby girl. When she notices this, Valencia’s belief in what she considers her superior Dominican ethnicity is revealed by her saying “Annabelle do you think my daughter will always be the color she is now? My poor love, what if she’s mistaken for one of your people?”(Ghosh). Another example from the book is when Sebastian’s friend was hit by Senor Pico’s car and died. The fact that he was not arrested or charged for the crime speaks to how Haitian lives are not considered as important as Dominican

ones.
` Another historical component of the book is the hurricanes in 1930. In this year, there was a terrible hurricane that ripped through both the Dominican Republic and Haiti. When the storm occurred, “thousands died when winds toppled trees and buildings onto people, floods caused by torrential rains and mudslides”(History Channel). Annabelle’s boyfriend Sebastian also lost his father in the hurricane and he is still haunted by his loss. The same can be said for Annabelle who lost her family in a flood, which might have been the same storm, which Sebastian’s father died in. However, the author does not really come out and say that this is the case.
In conclusion, the book is a good read. It gives the reader an idea of the feelings from both Haitians and Dominicans from a historical standpoint. However, the author tends to jump back and forth in time, which can be a little confusing to some readers. I also felt that the book would’ve been better if there was even more focus on the main characters trying to survive the massacres of 1937, than the issues before it happened. That would be more interesting to read. Despite this, I do credit the author for showing how race played a big role in everyday life in the Dominican Republic. It is because of this reason that I would recommend this book to other readers.