Edwidge Danticat is a prominent Haitian-American author known for novels that explore the immigrant experience and issues faced by women. She was born in Haiti but moved to the US at age 12 to live with her parents in Brooklyn. Danticat received degrees from Barnard College and Brown University. Her acclaimed novels include Breath, Eyes, Memory and The Farming of Bones. The latter addresses the 1937 massacre of Haitians in the Dominican Republic and themes of loss, family separation, and adapting to new environments. Through her writing, Danticat illuminates the struggles of Haitian immigrants and women while drawing on her own experiences growing up between two cultures.

1. Edwidge Danticat
The History and Story behind the Author of Farming of Bones
Early Life
Mrs. Danticat was born on January 19, 1969 in Port-au-Prince,
Haiti
When she was only four years old, in 1973, her mother and
father moved to the United States and left her and her brother
with an aunt and uncle.
Eventually, in 1981, Mrs. Danticat joined her parents but, with
only being familiar with the Creole language and the Haitian
style of dress and mannerism, she found adapting to life in the
United States difficult.
As a way to escape unpleasant situations, she began to write
stories.

2. Meanwhile, in 1970, thousands of Haitians began to flee
poverty and repression under the Dictatorship of the Duvalier
family.
On April 22, 1971 Jean-Claude Duvalier, became the new
Dictator of Haiti after his Father’s, Francois Duvalier, death.
1977, on the 15 of August, U.S. ambassador, William B Jones
arrives in Haiti to meets with Jean Claude to discuss civil rights
in Haiti
Jean Claude Duvalier
Born on July 3, 1951, Port-au-Prince, Haïti
The only son of François Duvalier, he succeeded his father as
president for life in April 22 1971, becoming the youngest
named president at 19.
Due to pressure from the USA, Jean began to “moderate” the
tyrannical and corrupt rulings that came from his father by
easing press censorship and replacing a few of his father’s old
cabinet members with a few of his own.
Nevertheless, Haiti continued to be semi-isolationist when
dealing with foreign relations and any political opposition was
met with death or torture
Due to the increase in Social unrest from the people of Haiti,
Jean Claude fled in February 1986 and left the country under
military rule until his return in 2011
He died on October 4, 2014 in Port-au-Prince

3. Rising through Adversity
Although her Parent’s wanted her to become a doctor, Mrs.
Danticat graduated from Barnard College in New York City in
1990 with a B.A. in French Literature.
Then in 1993 she received a Masters of Fine Arts degree
from Brown University
Her first published work, Breath, Eyes, Memory(1994), was
actually her master’s thesis and was a autobiographical account
on the relationships between several generations of Haitian
women.
Acclaimed Fame
Danticat has received numerous honors, including the Pushcart
Short Story Prize and awards from magazines like The
Caribbean Writer and Essence.
In 1998, Breath, Eyes, Memory was picked by the famous talk-
show host Oprah Winfrey for her book club and granted

4. Danticat even greater success.
She wrote her second novel, the Farming of Bones, in 1998 and
explained that the meaning behind the title was a Haitian term
for harvesting sugar cane.
The story background was related to the massacre of Haitian
emigrants by Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1937.
Through her stories, Danticat continues to explore the struggles
of power, women, social injustice and fighting poverty
Citations
Britannica, T. E. (2018, September 30). Jean-Claude Duvalier.
Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-
Claude-Duvalier
Britannica, T. E. (2019, January 15). Edwidge Danticat.
Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edwidge-
Danticat
Breath, Eyes, Memory. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/about-breath-eyes-
memory-by-edwidge-danticat
Edwidge Danticat. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://edwidgedanticat.com/

5. Two Discussion Boards:
1. Discuss three of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by
Maxwell from Laws 15-21 focusing on Leadership.
2. Discuss Managing Conflict Constructively from Chapter 13
in textbook by Dillon.
Instructions:
Need one reference for each discussion apart from textbook. So,
Overall, two references for each discussion board. Perfect APA
format with citations, APA 7, No Plagiarism – 0% Plagiarism
and 100% UNIQUE paper with proof reading
Edwidge Danticat
Kiona Reid
Edwidge Danticat
Haitian- American
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and moved to Brooklyn, NY at 12
Began writing at 9
First essay published at 14
BA in French Literature at Barnard College
MFA in Creative Writing at Brown University
Has received awards from Seventeen magazine and Essence

6. 2009 MacArthur Fellow Recipient
Parents
Moved to New York to help start their family’s new life when
Edwidge was four
At that time in Haiti, Francois Duvalier was president from
1957 to 1971 and were trying to also isolate Haiti from the
world
Her parents escaped to the US, while she and her younger
brother stayed in Haiti and were raised by their aunt and uncle
Her parent’s goal for her was to go into the medical field, but
Danticat knew that her passion was for writing
Family Life
Edwidge is happily married with two daughters, Mira and
Leila
She frequently visits Haiti and still considers it as her home
In an interview Edwidge stated “While I have left Haiti, it’s
never left me.”
She has a lot of family who currently live in Haiti that she still
visits

7. The Farming of Bones
Oprah added this novel to her book club (1998)
Won a 1998 American Book Award
Addresses racism,
Setting & Plot
1937 in Dominican Republic
A young girl, Amabelle, orphaned and abandoned at 8 was taken
in by Don Ignacio
During the massacre, she got separated from her lover,
Sebastien
She battles with nightmares from her childhood and endures
dangerous obstacles
She works for him as a midwife
Amabelle
Protagonist
Story is told from her point of view
At 8, she watched her parents drown in a river
She was rescued by Don Ignacio and taken in by his family
She worked for his daughter as a midwife
Her parents death weighed down on her throughout the story
because it was a very traumatizing experience
Throughout the story Amabelle is looking for her lover
Sebastien
When she was 8, she watched her parents drown in a river.
Central Themes

8. She uses her own personal life experiences as inspiration for her
characters
The themes in Danticat’s novels tend to involve separation of
family, loss, mother-daughter relationships, assimilation, and
migration
The female characters are usually haunted by their past and
struggle to adapt to their new beginnings
Breath, Eyes, Memory
Published at 25
Based on a young girl, Sophie, who moves from the fictional
Croix-des-Rosets to Brooklyn
Novel broken into four parts that emphasize different times in
her life
Living in Haiti without her parents
Moving to New York to live with her parents
Going to Haiti to clear her mind and going back again to bury
her mother
Danticat is able to address many complex issues such as
nationality, feminism, and family
Other Novels from Danticat

9. Works Cited
Adisa, Opal Palmer. “Up Close and Personal: Edwidge Danticat
on Haitian Identity and the Writer's Life.” Oral History Review,
Oxford University Press, 23 Sept. 2011,
muse.jhu.edu/article/450908/summary.
“Edwidge Danticat Biography.” Encyclopedia of World
Biography, Advameg, Inc.,
www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2005
-A-Fi/Danticat-Edwidge.html.
“Haiti's Storyteller.” Brown Alumni Magazine,
www.brownalumnimagazine.com/articles/2011-01-06/haitis-
storyteller.
Farming of Bones Introduction
This story of man versus man, man versus nature, and man
versus himself “rings” with truth. Yes, the use of “man” here is
applied to both genders. It could just as easily been “flippe d” to
the feminine use. After all, whose story is it? Think about this
message.
Each time I have read it, it still seems like a biography or
autobiography. How can the author get human nature so
accurately? How can she know the pulse of living and convey

10. its experience with a freshness and gripping reality? To rip this
from the formality of academic writing, the woman knows her
stuff. She knows people traits from whom her characters are
taken. She knows her country. She knows sugar cane field
machetes and the people who wield them.
What is farming? It is planting. It is nurturing. It is reaping
what is sown. Context! It is loss and danger and rewards of
various kinds. There is uncertainty and yet pursing because that
is what it is
Why the reference to bones? Sugar cane and the joint of the
fingers have a similar structure. Clearly, the latter is needed to
harvest the former.
What is sugar? It comes from massive rods of uncured
sweetness. And at what point does sweetness turn sour?
The goal for this course from the very beginning is to provide
you with ways of understanding, broadening your scope and
wisdom, and helping you establish a baseline for viewing a
world where there is no single story. And yet there are basic
needs and desires that the vast majority of people seek.
See how often physical and emotional safety is an issue. If I am
brave enough to share my body as lover or field hand or servant
or ….and my heart and efforts with you, are you kind enough
not to injure them? Do you value me? Can you protect me? You,
my employer in my often grinding poverty. You, my new found
love? You, my parent. You, my priest and doctor? You, my
sibling.
Do you see the arbitrariness of life with all its unfairness and
unknowing? What courage and generosity of spirit to live! And
choosing the honorable way. That is the miracle and wonder of
humanity. That is meaning. Remember our study of the WWII
Holocaust? Now remember Man’s Search for Meaning.
How often does uncontrollable circumstance impact the
characters? How much does poverty place them in places where
the options are tragic? And yet, they face adversity with

11. strength and humanity.
Please, please, please read this not with the goal of earning
points. Treat yourself to seeing a world that you probably have
not seen. Consider how a world-wide depression can place us
there. Notice how the curtailment of income can open us to
similar circumstances.
People, it has not been that long ago, in this country that five-
year old little boys were sent into the mines crawling into tiny
coal veins where they placed dynamite. Those who do not learn
from history are doomed to repeat it
Farming of Bones Lecture
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.”

12. 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. Power corrupts and
absolute power corrupts absolutely. Where have you seen this
before?
· 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

13. 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 protagonis t
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.

14. · 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.”

15. · “…a cloud-soft child…”
· “his favorite way of forgetting something was to grab
somebody even sadder.”