The Farming of Bones by Ewidge Danticat------Critical analysis of the book - Essay Example

The Farming of Bones by Ewidge Danticat Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Thesis ment 3 Critical Analysis 4 Conclusion 6 Works Cited 7 Introduction “The Farming of Bones” by Ewidge Danticat is a historical fiction published in the year 1998. The novel is set against the background of the time period of 1937 and centres round the saga of love and soon launches into the paradigm of national movement. Thematically, the book celebrates the importance of the forgotten and the by-gone days and events and it is celebrated through a love story of Amabelle and Yves that grows and gathers strength to save them from the turmoil of the revolution of Dominican Republic.

The novel retells the incidents that the Haitian sugarcane workers encountered and this is done pertinently by the novelist to emphasize her theme that provokes to remember the names and faces of the possible forgotten heroes of the movement. Thesis Statement The book, “The Farming of Bones” sets a trajectory of a survivor through the massacre of Haiti and projects the aftermath of the government’s decision regarding the propaganda for ‘cleansing the country”. This essay intends to judge these two facets of the book along with its ephemeral relation of celebrating human emotions which definitely acclaims critical acclamation universally.

Critical Analysis At the outset of the critical analysis of the book, “The Farming of Bones” by Ewidge Danticat, it is essentially important to note the fact that the Danticat is the first female novelist from Haiti and her work is instrumental in paving the door to the world of Haitians before the mainstream Americans. The book is set against the socio-cultural milieu of the Haitian sugarcane mill workers, their life, sorrow and saga. The most important aspect in this regard is the historical context of the novel against which the romantic story of Amarelle and Yves is plotted.

A long and marked story of political unrest, economic depravity and corruption of the government that culminated from the long drawn dictatorship captivates the political and social scenario of Haiti. The book, “The Farming of Bones” marks and recognizes the political and social struggle of the people to overcome and break the shackles of the long drawn slavery and depravity inflicted upon the workers at the sugarcane mills by the wealthy elite class. The bridge between the cities with the gleaming lights of profit and wealth and the dark abbeys of the non-industrial provinces overcastted with the shadow of poverty is pertinently displayed in the novel.

For this reason the book, is acclaimed as a social and political doctrine to comprehend the inside stories of Haiti and its people. Undoubtedly, the novel at the outset presents a vibrant love story between a young woman and her youthful passionate lovers who have dreams behind their eye-lids and plenty of hopes in their hearts to make their way towards a new dawn. But soon the novel takes its readers to a platform which is profound with senses that easily transcends the barrier of individual passionate story of romance and appears as a story narrating national tragedy.

Critic Kelli Lyon Johnson founds the novel as, “a national identity that includes members of the memory community previously excluded from historical discourse” (Baker, “The Farming of Bones: How to Make Sense of an International Tragedy”). The novel, “The Farming of Bones” bears both the testimonies along with a narrative space that captivate the events of the massacre of 1937. April Shemak in the essay, “Re-Membering Hispaniola: Edwidge Danticat's The Farming of Bones” rightly observes that novels culminating from the Caribbean socio-cultural milieu typically focus on the social and political issues of the terrain where the voices of the oppressed form a subaltern that acts as a catalyst and is instrumental in providing a plane where the readers from the “First World” nations can throw their insights into the life of the people from the “Third World” (Project MUSE, “MFS Modern Fiction Studies”).

The title of the novel is alluded to the mentioning of the phrase “travay te pou zo” which means farming of the bones refers to the risk literally associated with working in the sugarcane field where the threat of mutilation even eclipse the lives of the workers out there in the field. At the same time, the novel hinges on digging out the past as well. This marvelous narrative that oscillates between present threat undergone by the couple and the trajectory into the devastating history that indicates a genocide inflicted by Rafael Trujillo, President of Dominican Republic to mutilate all the Haitians in the year 1937 is blended with the fineness language and narrative devices (Barsamian, “Edwidge Danticat Interview”).

Conclusion The book, “The Farming of Bones” by Edwidge Danticat narrates a national tragedy which is able to attain its coherence and could launch itself at an international realm by narrating the story of locale with the burning global issues captivated within the bosom of the narrative. Works Cited Baker, Kathleen. “The Farming of Bones: How to Make Sense of an International Tragedy”. November 05, 2011. The Delta, 2008. Barsamian, David. “Edwidge Danticat Interview”. November 05, 2011.

Home, 2003. Project MUSE. “MFS Modern Fiction Studies”. November 05, 2011. Journals, 2002.