Trish Clark
English 5360 – Author/Text Background Information
Dr. Deena
3 July 2002
Edwidge Danticat and The Farming of Bones
Synopsis of The Farming of Bones (New York: Penguin, 1998): This novel follows the life of
Amabelle in 1937 Dominican Republic where it is estimated that 2500 to 16,000 Haitian laborers
were killed due to nationalists wanting to “weed out” the darker-skinned Haitians. Brought up as
a servant to the young wife of an army colonel, Amabelle reveals love, dignity, pain, memory,
and finally hope for a people who seem inevitably oppressed and persecuted.
Danticat’s life
 Born in 1969 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
 Separated with brother from parents at age 2
 Reunited at age 12 with family in Brooklyn, New York


Applied to several MFA and MBA schools and was accepted to NYU’s Stern Business
School and Brown’s creative writing program. She chose to attend Brown to receive her
MFA on account of a full scholarship
She resides in New York City
Awards and Honors
 First African/Haitian female author to write in English and be published by a major house
 (1994) Fiction Award, The Caribbean Writer
 (1995) Krik?Krak! – National Book Award nomination
 Pushcart Short Story Prize
 (1996) Best Young American Novelists Award for Breath, Eyes, Memory by Granta
 (1999) American Book Award for The Farming of Bones
Literary Influences
 Marie Chauvet
 Jacques Roumain
 J.J. Dominique
 Jacques Stephen Alexis
 Paule Marshall
 Toni Morrison
 Alice Walker
 Amy Tan
 Maryse Conde
 Jamaica Kincaid
Themes
 Faith/Belief/Superstition
 Doubt/Reason
 Justice/Karma
 Light/Dark/Shadows
 Disappearing Histories and People
 Collective memory
Settings: Haiti and Dominican Republic
Literary Techniques
 Symbolism: color, water, language
 Imagery
 Prose that reads like poetry
 Flashback
 Stream of consciousness
Critical Responses
 “In addition to illuminating a shameful, little known chapter of history, Danticat gives us
fully realized characters who endure their lives with dignity, a sensuously atmospheric



setting and a perfectly paced narrative written in prose that is lushly poetic and erotic,
specifically detailed, and starkly realistic” (Publisher’s Weekly, Vol.245, No.23, June 8,
1998).
“Danticat softens her often grisly narrative by intercalating beautiful and poetic dream
sequences in which Amabelle sees herself reunited with her parents, with Sebastien, or
with friends lost during the violence…[she] has written a gripping novel that exposes an
aspect of Dominican-Haitian history rarely represented in Latin American fiction. In spite
of the desolation and wretchedness of the people Danticat depicts, The Farming of Bones
is an inspiring book. It is a hymn to human resilience, faith, and hope in the face of
overwhelming adversity” (Mujica, Barbara. “Borges, Bones, and Bungled Bonds.”
Americas. Jan./Feb. 2000, Vol.52, Issue 1).
“Danticat’s poetic prose illuminates the people, colors, and customs of Haitian life and
made me hope against historical fact that the inevitable carnage would not happen. It is
an excruciating and compelling read and should not be done while you are preparing to
go on stage to perform standup comedy” (Clinton, Kate. “Best Books of 1999.”
Progressive. Jan. 2000, Vol.64, Issue 1).
“One of the charms of Danticat’s book is its evocation of Haitian cultural tradition and
the force of proverbial wisdom. Sophie’s grandmother ultimately explains the paradox
that custom may cause anguish to women, but it also gives them the strength to survive.
Sophie’s Aunt Atie, frustrated and inhibited sexually, feels that the love of children, even
of those not her own, is a governing force for her own existence. So the three generations
of women find in Sophie’s child Brigitte a source of joy and hope. Their characters, set
against the tragedy of Martine’s life, make the book not only powerful but positive
(Bruner, Charlotte. “Haiti – Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat.” World
Literature Today. Spring 1995, Vol. 69, Issue 2).
Interview with Danticat
(Penguin website - <www.penguinputnam.com/static/rguides/us/_farmingofbones_.html>)
Which of your books do you perceive as being your finest work? Which was the most
difficult to write? Why?
All three of my books have a special place in my heart. They were all written out of a certain
compulsion, a great desire to tell—in each case— a story that has haunted me in some form or
another for a long time. I can't really judge which one is my best work. However, The Farming
of Bones was the most difficult of the three books to write because it takes place more than sixty
years in the past, during a time in which I had not lived. I had to work harder at trying to recreate
the setting, the events, the characters, the story. I feel like I became a better writer while in the
process of writing this book.
Many critics express astonishment at the wisdom present in your work and surprise that,
being a young woman, you have achieved such insight. Can you comment on this? Where
do you think you gained such wisdom?
I think we are all born with a certain kind of intuition. I have always felt a bit older than my
years, even when I was a child. However, I think my "insight," if indeed that's what it is, comes
from spending time with a lot of the older women in my family when I was a child. I was always
intrigued by the bond between older women who gathered together and the things they told each
other. A lot of the stories I have written, including the story of The Farming of Bones, came out
of listening to those female family conversations, which Paule Marshall so wisely calls "kitchen
poetry."
Who are your greatest literary influences? What are you reading now?
My first "literary" influences were actually oral: my grandmothers and aunts and the stories they
told, both in the structural forms of folktales and in the informal conversations they had with
each other. I was also influenced by some very wonderful Haitian writers such as Marie Chauvet,
Jacques Roumain, J. J. Dominique, and Jacques Stephen Alexis, whose own novel on the 1937
massacre, Compère General Soleil has just been translated into English as General Sun, My
Brother. The works of Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Amy Tan, Maryse Condé,
and Jamaica Kincaid have also had a great impact on me. Right now I am reading Michele
Wucker's Why the Cocks Crow?, Bob Schacocis' The Immaculate Invasion, and Assoto
Saint's Spells of a Voodoo Doll, all related in some way to Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
What kind of reaction did you encounter in your historical research for The Farming of
Bones? What type of information did you find most useful?
For me the most important part of the research was actually going and looking at the places
where some of the events in the book took place, for example the river Massacre itself and the
small towns along the Haitian-Dominican border. I would just stand there, in those places, and
ask the voices from the past to speak to me. I tried to imagine what it was like sixty years ago
both during the massacre and after. It was during one of those visits that the line from the book,
"Nature has no memory" came to me.
It was also an exceptional experience to speak to the family members of the massacre survivors
and the few people from these towns who had lived during the time of the massacre—they are
very old now. It's hard to forget even the smallest details of what they say and do when you're
talking to them.
Many people have called you the "voice of Haiti." Are you comfortable with this? What
kind of reaction does your work get from the Haitian community?
It's wrong to say that anyone is the voice of such a large and diverse community. I am one of the
many voices of Haiti, and we have many amazing voices. As far as reaction from the
community, some people like my work and others do not. It's another example of the great
variety of our tastes and reactions.
What parts of Amabelle do you react to most?
I identify very much with Amabelle's innocence, her purity of heart, her thoughtfulness, her
attention to the small details of the heart, her desire to believe in the good in all people. I relate to
her vulnerability to love, her feeling that being loved is such an exceptional gift. I identify with
her feeling of uprootedness, of belonging to many different places at once, and not belonging
anywhere at all.
An important theme in The Farming of Bones is that of survival. What do you think it
means to survive? It is more than simply living through a chain of events, or does it imply a
quality of life?
We have learned by now that the burden of the survivor is a great one. People who survive
catastrophes are perceived by others as "lucky," but they carry of a lot of the survivor's guilt with
them. Amabelle wonders a lot why she survived and why others did not, and for the rest of her
life she has to figure out a new purpose for herself. She always lives with the fear of danger.
"Breath, like glass," she says, "is always in danger." She is trying to understand whether she is
meant to completely move away from what has happened to her or spend the rest of her life
honoring it. Why was she chosen to live? Understanding this becomes a way of life for her, as
well as for the other survivors.
How has your own emigration informed your fiction?
I think being an immigrant, you get to look at both your own culture and the culture you come to
with fresh eyes. This is a great point of observation from which to examine both cultures, a very
good space from which to write. I write both about Haiti and the United States as an
insider/outsider. This makes me work harder to understand both cultures. I take nothing for
granted about either place. Everything I write starts with my own personal quest for a better
understanding of both places and their different cultures.
What are you working on now?
I am editing a book of personal essays by Haitian-Americans. I am also going back to writing
short stories and articles, which I enjoy very much.
Literary Works (www.lehman.cuny.edu/ile.en.ile/paroles/danticat.html)
Novels



Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York: Soho Press, 1994; New York: Vintage
Books, 1995.
The Farming of Bones. New York: Soho Press, 1998. Penguin, 1999.
Krik? Krak! (recueil de nouvelles) New York: Soho Press, 1995; New
York: Vintage Books, 1996.
Short Story

"A Rain of Daffodils." Seventeen 53, 4 (1 April 1994): 152-.
Anthologies


The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United
States. Edited with an introduction by Edwidge Danticat. New York:
Soho Press, 2001.
The Beacon Best of 2000: Great Writing by Women and Men of All Colors
and Cultures. Edited by Edwidge Danticat. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000.
Articles



"Hanging With The Fugees." Essence 27, 4 (1 August 1996): 85-86.
"The Book of the Dead." The New Yorker 75, 16 (21 June 1999): 194-.
"Bonjour Jean." The Nation 272, 7 (19 February 2001): 20-22.
Map of the Caribbean (www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/namerica/crbmaps/haiti/htm)
Country Information
OFFICIAL NAME Republic of Haiti
CAPITAL CITY Port-au-Prince
Geography
Location: Caribbean, western one-third of the island of Hispaniola, between the Caribbean Sea
and the North Atlantic Ocean, west of the Dominican Republic
Area:
total area: 27,750 sq km
land area: 27,560 sq km
comparative area: slightly larger than Maryland
People
Population: 6,539,983 (July 1995 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 46% (female 1,490,939; male 1,535,607)
15-64 years: 50% (female 1,692,032; male 1,557,568)
65 years and over: 4% (female 133,291; male 130,546) (July 1995 est.)
Population growth rate: 1.5% (1995 est.)
Birth rate: 38.64 births/1,000 population (1995 est.)
Death rate: 18.65 deaths/1,000 population (1995 est.)
Net migration rate: -4.99 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1995 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 107.5 deaths/1,000 live births (1995 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 44.77 years
male: 43.04 years
female: 46.59 years (1995 est.)
Total fertility rate: 5.82 children born/woman (1995 est.)
Nationality:
noun: Haitian(s)
adjective: Haitian
Ethnic divisions: black 95%, mulatto and European 5%
Religions: Roman Catholic 80% (of which an overwhelming majority also practice Voodoo),
Protestant 16% (Baptist 10%, Pentecostal 4%, Adventist 1%, other 1%), none 1%, other 3%
(1982)
Languages: French (official) 10%, Creole
Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1982)
total population: 35%
male: 37%
female: 32%
Labor force: 2.3 million
by occupation: agriculture 66%, services 25%, industry 9%
note: shortage of skilled labor, unskilled labor abundant (1982)
Government
Names:
conventional long form: Republic of Haiti
conventional short form: Haiti
local long form: Republique d'Haiti
local short form: Haiti
Economy
Overview: About 75% of the population live in abject poverty. Agriculture is mainly small-scale
subsistence farming and employs two-thirds of the work force. The majority of the population
does not have ready access to safe drinking water, adequate medical care, or sufficient food. The
lack of employment opportunities remains one of the most critical problems facing the economy,
along with soil erosion and political instability. International trade sanctions in response to the
September 1991 coup against President ARISTIDE further damaged the economy. The
restoration of President ARISTIDE, the lifting of sanctions in late 1994, and foreign aid will
alleviate some economic problems. Haiti will continue to depend heavily on foreign aid.
Transportation
Railroads:
total: 40 km (single track; privately owned industrial line)
narrow gauge: 40 km 0.760-m gauge
Highways:
total: 4,000 km
paved: 950 km
unpaved: otherwise improved 900 km; unimproved earth 2,150 km
Inland waterways: negligible; less than 100 km navigable
Ports: Cap-Haitien, Gonaives, Jacmel, Jeremie, Cayes, Miragoane, Port-au-Prince, Port-de-Paix,
Saint-Marc
Merchant marine: none
Airports:
total: 14
with paved runways 2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
with paved runways 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
with paved runways under 914 m: 6
with unpaved runways 914 to 1,523 m: 5
Communications
Telephone system: 36,000 telephones; domestic facilities barely adequate, international facilities
slightly better
local: NA
intercity: NA
international: 1 INTELSAT (Atlantic Ocean) earth station
Radio:
broadcast stations: AM 33, FM 0, shortwave 2
radios: NA
Television:
broadcast stations: 4
televisions: NA
History (www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/Haiti_History.asp)
The island of Hispaniola was inhabited by the Arawaks prior to the arrival of Columbus in
1492. Disease, ill treatment, and execution by the Spaniards decimated the Arawaks, who gave
Haiti ( “land of mountains” ) its name. While establishing plantations in E Hispaniola (now the
Dominican Republic), however, the Spanish largely ignored the western part of the island, which
by the 17th cent. became a base for French and English buccaneers. Gradually French colonists,
importing African slaves, developed sugar plantations on the northern coast. Unable to support
its claim to the region, Spain ceded Haiti (then called Saint-Dominque) to France in 1697.
Haiti became France's most prosperous colony in the Americas and one of the world's chief
coffee and sugar producers. The pattern of settlement took the French south in the 18th cent. and
society became stratified into Frenchmen, Creoles, freed blacks, and black slaves. Between the
blacks and the French and Creoles were the mulattoes, whose social status was indeterminate.
When French-descended Creole planters sought to prevent mulatto representation in the French
National Assembly and in local assemblies in Saint-Dominque, the mulattoes revolted under the
leadership of Vincent Ogi . This rebellion destroyed the rigid structure of Haitian society. The
blacks formed guerrilla bands led by Toussaint L'Ouverture , a former slave who had been made
an officer of the French forces on Hispaniola.
When the English invaded Haiti in 1793 during the Napoleonic Wars, Toussaint maintained an
uneasy alliance with the mulatto André Rigaud and cooperated with the remnant of French
governmental authority. In 1795, Spain ceded its part of the island to France, and in 1801
Toussaint conquered it, abolished slavery, and proclaimed himself governor-general of an
autonomous government over all Hispaniola. Napoleon sent his brother-in-law, Gen. Charles
Leclerc , with a huge punitive force to restore order in 1802, but he was unable to conquer the
interior.
A peace was negotiated, and Toussaint, taken by trickery, died in a French prison; but the
revolt continued and forced the French troops, already ravaged by yellow fever, to withdraw.
The rebels received unexpected aid from U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, who feared that
Napoleon would use Saint-Dominque as a base to invade Louisiana. In 1804, Haiti became the
second nation in the Western Hemisphere, after the United States, to win complete
independence.
The Struggles of Nationhood
After independence the remaining French and Creoles were expelled, and Jean-Jacques
Dessalines , an ex-slave, proclaimed himself emperor. His assassination (1806) led to the
division of Haiti into a black-controlled north under Emperor Henri Christophe and a mulattoruled south under President Alexandre Pétion . After their deaths Haiti was unified by Jean Pierre
Boyer , who also brought (1822-44) Santo Domingo under Haitian control. Seeking to indemnify
French planters, Boyer brought financial ruin to Haiti; he was exiled in 1843. Haiti's last emperor
(1847-59) was Faustin Soulouque . Since the end of his reign, the country has been a republic.
Political and social conflict persisted, intensified by the mulatto-black hostility, and Haiti's
economy, which had never recovered from the violent struggle for independence, declined
further.
After the dictator Guillaume Sam was killed in a popular uprising in 1915, the United States,
troubled over its property and investments in the country and fearing Germany might seize Haiti,
took the opportunity to invade Port-au-Prince. The Haitian congress was forced to accept an
agreement permitting U.S. control over customs receipts; two years later the resident American
naval commander dissolved the congress and dictated a new constitution. Although financial and
general material progress advanced under American military occupation, Haiti protested against
U.S. violation of its sovereignty, and a U.S. Senate investigation in 1921 found that the avowed
purpose of preparing Haiti for responsible self-government had been ignored. In 1930 a U.S.
presidential commission recommended that Haiti be allowed to elect a legislature that would, in
turn, name a president. Sténio Vincent, a vocal opponent of U.S. military occupation, was chosen
by the legislators. The marines were finally withdrawn in 1934, although U.S. fiscal control was
maintained until 1947.
Political instability persisted in Haiti after World War II, and the country's future was clouded
by rising turbulence in the Dominican Republic and by the emergence of a Communist Cuba.
François ( “Papa Doc” ) Duvalier , who was elected president in 1957, suppressed opposition
through the creation of his paramilitary secret police, the tonton macoutes. In 1964 he
proclaimed himself president for life. Upon his death in 1971 he was succeeded by his 19-yearold son, Jean-Claude ( “Baby Doc” ), who also became president for life. After 15 additional
years of corruption, repression, and inequality under the younger Duvalier, popular discontent
became great enough to induce him to flee the country in 1986.
Starting in 1986 there were several brief attempts at civilian democracy, each terminated by a
military coup. In Sept., 1991, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced to flee the country only nine
months after becoming the first freely elected president in Haiti's history. The United States and
the Organization of American States responded with a trade embargo, and in 1993 a UNsponsored oil embargo was imposed. An accord in 1993 providing for Aristide's return was
repudiated by the army, which used terrorist violence to maintain power.
In 1994 the United Nations approved a nearly total trade embargo, and later authorized the use
of force to restore democratic rule. On Sept. 18, 1994, as U.S. forces were poised to invade the
island, an accord was negotiated. Haiti's military leaders relinquished power under an amnesty,
and U.S. forces landed to oversee the transition. Aristide returned on Oct. 15 as president; U.S.
troops were largely replaced by UN peacekeepers in Mar., 1995. In the Dec. presidential election
that year, René Préval was elected to succeed Aristide. In Apr., 1996, the last U.S. troops left,
except for a few hundred in the capital who remained until Jan., 2000; meanwhile, after a wave
of political killings, the United States suspended aid to Haiti.
In Jan., 1999, following a series of disagreements with Haitian legislators, Préval declared that
their terms had expired, and he began ruling by decree. Parliamentary elections were finally held
in May-June, 2000. They gave Aristide's Lavalas Family party an overwhelming majority in both
houses, but the method of counting the votes, in which only those won by the four leading
candidates were tallied and candidates thus did not need to win an actual absolute majority, was
widely criticized. In Nov., 2000, Aristide was again elected president, winning nearly 92% of the
votes cast, but turnout for the election was light. The following year Amnesty International said
that human rights and the rule of law had diminished in Haiti, citing harassment of opposition
politicians and attacks on journalists. There was an apparent coup attempt against Aristide in
Dec., 2001, although it was unclear who was behind it.
All information not cited was either discovered through my own reading of the text or
lecture notes and class discussion in English 5330: Studies in Women's Literature with Dr.
Laura Micciche (Summer Session I - 2002).