db bone 1

In superficial summation: Young person loses parents and is taken in by economically and socially superior family as a servant. In adulthood, the person meets and loves and loses love. In an ethnic purge, this woman flees for her life.

There. Those are the “bones” of the story.

There is much more to the story.

There is much more to the story because there are significant writing tools and insight into the human condition. For example, notice how frequently the author balances one situation with another.

Note some salient techniques:

· Focus on skin color.

Dominicans pride themselves on their lighter skin relating it to their Spanish origins. “…the color of drift-wood ashes in the rain…” “…the color of warm egg shells.” “…coconut cream-colored.”

Purges of Haitians (indigenous people) is to maintain the “race.” Where have you seen this before?

The darker baby (the dusky princess) – and a girl at that! – survives while the purportedly stronger and larger boy dies. And that message is?

“Her skin was a deep brown, between the colors of tan Brazil nut shells and black saslify.”

“My poor love, what if she is mistaken for one of your people.?

· Radical variances in power and money.

· Naming. The mother names the daughter and the father names his next in line. Notice the relevance of these names.

· Feminism. Curiously perhaps, which group has the greatest liberty?

· Irony. See the irony of how one son dies while a father races to see his newborn. Then the newborn dies. See how the father of the dead man cares for his son’s body.

· The nebulous: dreams and shadows. Both are indistinct and yet powerful messengers of the mind.

“Whenever I had playmates, they were never quite real or present for me. I considered them only replacements for my shadow. There were many shadows, too, in the life I had beyond childhood. At times Sebastien Onius guarded me from the shadows. At other times, he was one of them.”

· Cave. Consider the references. When do they occur? Is the cave safe? Is there light? Is it in the open? Secret? Is there water?

· Feet in two spirit worlds. Note the Christian references countered by the indigenous spirit allusions. EX: Lighting candles. EX: Dogs’ teeth for protection. EX: Patron saint of tears.

· Family. If nothing else learned, is to be careful in choosing the person whom you marry. The story gives intense insights into how families operate and the extent of their care and love for each other. For example, notice how the female protagonist compares her parents.

· Power of names. See the relationships to the story.

(Latin) Amabelle means beautiful or loving.

(Latin) Sebastian was martyred by a dictator who was shot by arrows who survived the first murder attempt. The second was successful.

“…leaving him with criss-crossed trails of furrowed scars.”

(Hebrew) Joel means Yahweh is God.

(French) Desir derives from desire or desirable.

(African) Kongo is an African Kingdom

· Water. At times it kills. It can nurture and sooth. It can hide. It is boundary. It is life force.

· Oral History. In the absence of being able to write or having the tools to do so, people use their oral tradition (remember?) so their families and experiences are not lost to death and time. Remember Masks? Any application here?

· Parsley. Serves as a password, a medicine, soap, and food.

· Sisters. Four sisters operate in the story. How? What is the function of each?

· Man versus Man.

· Color. Consider the flame tree and how it is used in the story.

· Mob psychology. See how easily people can lose the individual and join the “mindless” crowd behavior. Remember anything about gums?

· Bones. Goats’, human who slave in the fields and house, sugar cane stalks resembling fingers, “Shrinking closer to my bones.”

· Foreshadowing. “it is good for you to learn and trust that I am near you even when you can’t place the balls of your eyes on me.”

· Power of keeping on. Character is required to survive adversity and horror. Think Holocaust.

· Love. All kinds: people, power, life, things…

· The Farming of Bones also offers some extraordinary quotes. Have you reached the point in your life where you are impacted by a few lines whose poetic majesty and/or grinding realism is so acute that you must make them part of your life? Here are few from the novel.

· “…until this pain becomes a child.”

· “..the one gave the other a life transfusion in the womb and in essence sacrificed itself.”

· “Yes please go with God. But also take Luis with you.”

· “..leaving us both to parent all our childhood dreams out of ourselves.”

· “…a cloud-soft child…”

· “his favorite way of forgetting something was to grab somebody even sadder.”