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Joël
Kongo is Joël’s father. Kongo is devastated to hear of his son’s murder, but is unable to seek revenge because his son was killed by Señor Pico, a powerful government official. Although Señor Pico refuses to take responsibility for Joël’s passing, Don Ignacio shows slight remorse for the accident, and meets with Kongo to express his condolences. Racial tensions continue to rise in the Dominican Republic, and Kongo eventually claims he is too old to make the journey back to Haiti; in this way, he demonstrates how his sense of belonging has shifted due to his old age and his son’s demise.
Kongo Quotes in The Farming of Bones
The The Farming of Bones quotes below are all either spoken by Kongo or refer to Kongo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 12
Quotes
Now Kongo was bathing in the middle of the stream, scrubbing his body with a handful of wet parsley […] We used pesi, perejil, parsley […] for our food, our teas, our baths, to cleanse our insides as well as our outsides of old aches and griefs, to shed a passing year’s dust as a new one dawned, to wash a new infant’s hair for the first time and—along with boiled orange leaves—a corpse’s remains one final time.
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Chapter 22
Quotes
“Are you certain you don’t want to keep this face for yourself?” I asked.
“I’ve made many,” he said, “for all those who, even when I’m gone, will keep my son in mind. If I could, I would carry them all around my neck, I would, like some men wear their amulets […] The elder of your house, Don Ignacio, he’s not asked again to come and see me, no? […] I’m not surprised,” he said, “that my son has already vanished from his thoughts.”
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Kongo Quotes in The Farming of Bones
The The Farming of Bones quotes below are all either spoken by Kongo or refer to Kongo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 12
Quotes
Now Kongo was bathing in the middle of the stream, scrubbing his body with a handful of wet parsley […] We used pesi, perejil, parsley […] for our food, our teas, our baths, to cleanse our insides as well as our outsides of old aches and griefs, to shed a passing year’s dust as a new one dawned, to wash a new infant’s hair for the first time and—along with boiled orange leaves—a corpse’s remains one final time.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22
Quotes
“Are you certain you don’t want to keep this face for yourself?” I asked.
“I’ve made many,” he said, “for all those who, even when I’m gone, will keep my son in mind. If I could, I would carry them all around my neck, I would, like some men wear their amulets […] The elder of your house, Don Ignacio, he’s not asked again to come and see me, no? […] I’m not surprised,” he said, “that my son has already vanished from his thoughts.”
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