Question

In Danticat's The Farming of Bones, prior to crossing the border to Haiti, Amabelle is beaten in Dajabon and forced to "eat" what?

1) Sugar
2) Bones
3) Parsley
4) Dirt

Answer 1

In Danticat's 'The Farming of Bones', Amabelle is forced to eat parsley before crossing into Haiti, referencing the Parsley Massacre which is symbolically significant within the novel.

Step-by-step explanation:

In Danticat's The Farming of Bones, prior to crossing the border to Haiti, the protagonist Amabelle is beaten in Dajabon and is forced to eat parsley. This act is not only physically brutal but also symbolically significant within the context of the novel as it references the Parsley Massacre of 1937, a tragic historical event where Haitians were targeted and killed based on their ability to pronounce the Spanish word for parsley, 'perejil'.

The novel explores themes of memory, identity, and the legacies of colonialism and slavery in Haiti, a country where sugar production fueled by the labor of enslaved Africans was a primary industry under French colonial rule.