Time

I continued to read The Farming of Bones, and began to see how Danticat plays with us when she decides to tell the story in a non linear way. She works with the past and the present, and when she goes to the past it’s usually a moment of Amabelle with her family mother and father.

The narration is also interrupted by moments that Amabelle has with Sebastien. She talks about moments, small things she does or speaks with Sebastien, and then goes back to what is going on in that moment. Like in pages 66 and 67, were in one page Amabelle speaks of Kongo’s dead son, and then she talks of a quick anecdote with Sebastien. This strategy used by Danticat is confusing in a way for I lose track of time, or don’t know which the “real” time is. She moves from talking of a current action to a secular moment that till this moment has small or no effect on the novel. The same effect is produced when a flashback to her childhood happens. You lose the track of time, and the events describes in these moments haven’t taken effect on the novels central story, or at least what I think is the central story. Sooner or later they will all unite as one.