Doctor Javier Character Analysis in The Farming of Bones

Doctor Javier is a physician for Señora Valencia, and a respected man in the community. Despite his high social standing, he is unsympathetic to the Dominican government’s violent agenda, and sympathetic to Haitian workers and migrants. In fact, he offers Amabelle the chance to escape and return to Haiti as a midwife, and then warns her of the impending massacre. Doctor Javier’s disavowal of the Dominican government’s racist regime illustrates how some characters transcend identity: he is unwilling to be complicit in his country’s racism and violence. Instead, he tries to aid Haitians and help them escape the oncoming massacre; as a result, he is captured and killed for his disobedience to the Dominican government.

Doctor Javier Character Timeline in The Farming of Bones

The timeline below shows where the character Doctor Javier appears in The Farming of Bones. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Realizing that the local physician, Doctor Javier , will not make it in time, Señora Valencia tells Amabelle that she will have... (full context)

...the community, arrives at Señora Valencia’s house and examines the newborns. Señora Valencia tells the doctor that she is grateful that Amabelle knows how to birth children. Amabelle notes that Doctor... (full context)

...for decades. When Amabelle returns with the water, Don Ignacio is in the room with Doctor Javier and Señora Valencia. Don Ignacio asks when the children were born; Amabelle does not know... (full context)

Doctor Javier comments on Rosalinda’s dark skin tone, only to be chastised by Don Ignacio, who is... (full context)

Doctor Javier and Amabelle leave the new mother to rest, and the doctor gets something stuck in his hair. Amabelle reaches up to help remove it, but then... (full context)

The doctor then strikes up a conversation about Señor Pico (Señora Valencia’s husband). He notes that the... (full context)

After overhearing this discussion, Amabelle runs into Doctor Javier . He asks if she has thought about returning to Haiti as a midwife, and... (full context)

Doctor Javier arrives, but it is clear that the boy has died. Señora Valencia is grief-stricken, and... (full context)

...day, where Rafael will be buried next to her mother and brother. The señora asks Doctor Javier why her son died, and he answers that the boy “lost his breath”—but his expression... (full context)

Doctor Javier examines Rosalinda, and whispers to Amabelle in Haitian Creole that she must leave the house.... (full context)

Doctor Javier tells her that he will be crossing into Haiti with a large group later that... (full context)

...brigade curse at him, and the soldiers merely laugh at the Haitians’ response. Doña Eva, Doctor Javier ’s mother, interrupts the standoff by asking Señor Pico if he can talk about her... (full context)

Amabelle travels to the church where she was supposed to meet with Sebastien and Doctor Javier . It is empty, so she begins to travel through a cane field, hoping to... (full context)

...night that Amabelle was supposed to leave for Haiti. He recounts how the soldiers told Doctor Javier that they would “treat him like a Haitian” since he wanted to be Haitian, and... (full context)