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The Massacre River, named for a slaughter of French buccaneers in 1728, took on additional historical significance during the Parsley Massacre; many bodies were left in the river after the violence. For Amabelle, however, the river is also personally significant. It is the site of her parents’ deaths, and the crossing she must make to return to Haiti in order to escape the massacre. Furthermore, when Amabelle first arrives in the Dominican Republic, her future employers find her alongside the river; in this way, the river is her constant companion, and signals the transitions that she endures throughout her life.
Additionally, Amabelle often dreams about the river and her parents’ demise; in this way, the river is a representation of death, an omnipresent and powerful force in her life. Throughout the story, the river brings grief to Amabelle and her acquaintances; when they attempt to ford the river and return to Haiti, some of their compatriots die in the crossing, and the survivors are left to mourn their loss. When Amabelle attempts to rebuild her life in Haiti, she is at first unable to confront the sight of the rivera physical representation of her griefor offer a testimony of the atrocities she has seen. Eventually, however, Amabelle begins to live in spite of her sadness, and attempts a form of reconciliation with the river. She returns to the riverside and floats in it, in an effort to find relief from her past and offer a tribute to the violence she has witnessed and endured.
The Massacre River Quotes in The Farming of Bones
The The Farming of Bones quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Massacre River. 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:
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Chapter 9
Quotes
The water rises above my father’s head. My mother releases his neck, the current carrying her beyond his reach. Separated, they are less of an obstacle for the cresting river. I scream until I can taste blood in my throat, until I can no longer hear my own voice […] I walk down to the sands to throw [myself] into the water […]
Two of the river boys grab me and […] pin me down to the ground until I become still. “Unless you want to die,” one of them says, “you will never see those people again.”
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Chapter 10
Quotes
“Give yourself a pleasant dream. Remember not only the end, but the middle, and the beginning, the things they did when they were breathing. Let us say that the river was still that day.”
“And my parents?”
“They died natural deaths many years later.”
“And why did I come here?”
“Even though you were a girl when you left and I was already a man when I arrived and our families did not know each other, you came here to meet me.”
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Chapter 41
Quotes
I thought that if I relived the moment often enough, the answer would become clear, that they had wanted either for us all to die together or for me to go on living, even if by myself. I also thought that if I came to the river on the right day, at the right hour, the surface of the water might provide the answer: a clearer sense of the moment, a stronger memory. But nature has no memory. And soon, perhaps, neither will I.
I slipped into the current […]with my shoulders only half submerged, the current floating over me in a less than gentle caress, the pebbles in the riverbed scouring my back.
I looked to my dreams for softness, for a gentler embrace, for relief from the fear of mudslides and blood bubbling out of the riverbed, where it is said the dead add their tears to the river flow.
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The Massacre River Symbol Timeline in The Farming of Bones
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Massacre River appears in The Farming of Bones. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 9
...to Dajabón, a Dominican town, to buy special cooking pots. They attempted to cross the river upon their return to Haiti, and her father sprinkled water on his face, to “salute...
(full context)
Chapter 16
...kept her company as she paints the coffin—about the day she found Amabelle by the river. Señora Valencia says that “after [her] mother’s death, the house was so filled with her...
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Chapter 26
...where she will go, and he explains the best location for her to cross the river. He tells her that Yves is at Doña Sabine’s house, and she decides to stop...
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Chapter 29
...refugees who have made a hasty escape. Odette and Wilner split off to investigate the river, and Amabelle blends into the crowd. She hears that Trujillo has given a speech that...
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...are coming towards the house; the group leaves the safe house and moves towards the river. Amabelle begins to ask about Mimi and Sebastien, but Odette misinterprets her words and believes...
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The group begins to ford the river. Amabelle separates herself from Odette, claiming that she does not want to be responsible for...
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As the group continues to travel through the river, soldiers spot Wilner and shoot him. Amabelle seals Odette’s mouth with her hand to keep...
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Chapter 30
Amabelle worries that rain will cause the river to flood, which will make it difficult for Mimi and Sebastien to cross over into...
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Chapter 36
...and tells them to hold on to her note. She cannot bear to visit the river, and instead dreams of disappearing from the world and spending her life indoors; she imagines...
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Chapter 41
...towards the dawn,” and kisses her. When he leaves, she finds a boy by the river and asks to be taken over the border into the Dominican Republic. She is told...
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Amabelle describes being found by the river’s edge, and the señora finally believes her. She gestures at Amabelle to sit down, and...
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...and Amabelle tells the señora to go in peace. Amabelle is picked up by her driver, and she asks him what he does for a living; he tells her that he...
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Amabelle walks down to the river, which looks nearly invisible in the darkness. With the river nearly undetectable, she thinks to...
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Amabelle sees the man who kissed her back in Haiti stepping out of the river, and wants to ask him to lower her into the river, or into Sebastien’s arms,...
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