Narrating Trauma in The Farming of Bones

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the trauma faced by the main character Amabelle Desir in Edwidge Danticat’s novel The Farming of Bones. It also takes into account the trauma faced by other characters in the novel. It explores their psychological trauma and its causes. The trauma is caused by the disappearance of her parents as well as her lover Sebastian. The shock of this loss overwhelms her and causes a deep wound on her heart. Her trauma is what exemplifies the suffering of many Haitians that has come as a result of ethnic cleansing practised by the despot Trujillo. Set in the 1930s Dominican Republic, the novel highlights the pain and torture experienced by the Haitians working-class people in the cane plantations of the Republic and the torture and mass killings carried out by the despot. How Amabelle is traumatized and how she tries to give an expression to that trauma is the main focus of this research paper. The paper analyses the issue in the light of theoretical insights taken from Cathy Caruth and Dominick La Capra.