The Farming Of Bones Character Analysis

The book The Farming of Bones is a constant reminder of loss and regret shared by almost all of the characters. The story is a tragic event in itself but the character’s pain doesn’t start with the massacre. Throughout the story, water is a reoccurring entity not always shown in a positive light. This is what makes the ending scene difficult to interpret and the significance varies between readers. In the ending scene, Amabelle is laying naked in the river “waiting for a new dawn” not really hinting if this new dawn is in heaven or still on earth. Personally, I believe Danticat is insinuating Amabelle is preparing herself for death from the way he uses water in other situations that do not turn out well for the characters.
Water seems to play an important role in Amabelle’s life and affects her and the people around her. In the opening scenes we find out
the tragic reason why she is in the Dominican Republic living with a family that is not her own, her parents drown and the only thing she could do was watch. She explains the event, “My mother tightens her grip around his neck; her body covers him and weights him down at the same time. The water rises above my father’s head. My mother releases his neck, the current carrying her beyond his reach. Separated, they are less of an obstacle for the cresting river (Danticat 52).” As you can see, water began to play an important role in her (Amabelle’s) life at a very young age. In this scene, water is portrayed with its rampant, destructive potential, grievously leaving Amabelle’s parents dead and her a stranded orphan.
Similarly Sebastian, Amabelle’s lover, also had the unfortunate fate of witnessing the same type of tragedy. His father was killed in a hurricane right before his eyes. When asked “How did the Hurricane find your father?” he replied “You can see it before your eyes, a boy carrying his dead father from the road, wobbling, swaying, stumbling under the weight… praying that more of the father’s blood will stay in the father’s throat (Danticat 34).” This is an even better example of water’s destructive potential, although this quote does not show the extent of a hurricane’s power it effectively shows an instance of death and devastation brought about by the watery storm.
Continuing with this theme, water was involved in the Haitian massacre.
We learn from Tibon, one of the traveling companions, whom Yves and Amabelle met on their way to dejabon, that the Dominican soldiers and citizens actively made the Haitian immigrants choose their death. “They make us stand in groups of six at the edge of the cliff, and then it’s either jump or go against a wall of soldiers with bayonets pointed at you and some civilians waiting in a circle with machetes (Danticat 173).” That was choice number one, the second choice was even worse, “when you jump, it’s a long way from the cliff to the sea,” he explained as he himself had jumped off the cliffs. “I fall and fall, passing the rocks where many of the bodies land on the way down. And then me, I fall in the water. I know too when I strike the water because it is so cold and sharp, the water, more like a big machete than water (Danticat 174-175).” Tibon portrays the water as being a machete, the weapon of choice for the massacre, showing its deadly potential. If you clear the cliff you can still die from impact or get seriously
injured. Now onto the third and final choice, which was a complete slap in the face for the survivors. “Now I’m in the water, but when I look at the beach, there are peasants waiting with their machetes for us to come out of the water, some even wading in to look for the spots on the necks where it’s best to strike with machetes to cut off heads (Danticat 175).” Here the water is being shown more as a grave than anything else. It could kill you in three different ways. First, the impact could kill you, knocking you out or causing an injury that wouldn’t allow you to stay afloat effectively drowning you. On the other hand, you could survive the fall, then get cut down as you tried to swim/run out of the shallow waters towards safety by the citizens waiting on the shore. Finally, you could try to swim farther away from land but drown from waiting as long as need be for the soldiers and citizens to leave the beaches, or from an injury received before, during, or after you chose your fate.
The final example I took into consideration before ultimately deciding to believe Amabelle was preparing herself for death in the ending scene, was towards the end of her journey. Amabelle and her companions had one task left, to cross the river acting as the border between the two countries. As they set out to safety, two more lives were claimed in and around the river. Wilner was the first to meet his demise on the river bank, getting shot by a soldier so close to freedom. The next, was Odette, Wilner’s wife. She was already in the water when her husband died, and essentially gave up hope. “She did not struggle but abandoned her body to the water and lack of air… We lay Odette facedown. Even though she was still breathing, she would not gain consciousness. It was as though she had already made her choice. She was not going on the rest of the journey with us (Danticat 202).” Wilner’s death wasn’t at the hands of the river, but to a degree it acted as a barrier between life and death. Odette’s death on the other hand, can be contributed at least partially to the river and the events that took place in its grasp.
Ultimately Amabelle’s family and those she learned to care about met their ends at the hand’s of water. It only makes sense that she goes out and surrenders to the same entity that caused her so much pain and misfortune in the hopes of seeing her friends and loved ones once more. It seems like she is tired of waiting for Sebastian to come home and is ready to see him as she puts it “inside the waterfall cave at the source of the stream (Danticat 282).” Showing when she finally gives up hope that Sebastian would not come back to her alive, she uses water as a references to indicate where he will be waiting for her in the next life.