The Farming of Bones Introduction Presentation created by Kim Decatrel

DATE: AIMS: How do we… apply pre-reading strategies to ready our minds for reading? understand why Edwidge Danticat’s novel, The Farming of Bones, is widely respected? DO NOW: What’s the last book you read? Did you like it? Why or why not? In general, what do you think makes a good book “good?”

SURVEY = (Pre-reading) Preview the material. Look at:  title/subtitle  headings  illustrations/photos/graphics  captions  bold words  footer  Author  Praise  Summary  Dedication  Opening Quote

The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat

Praise for The Farming of Bones “One of the Best Books of the Year” – Publisher’s Weekly, People, Entertainment Weekly, The Chicago Tribune, Time Out New York AWARDS ALA Booklist Editor’s Choice A New York Times Notable Book

Danticat - Early Life and Career Danticat was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. When she was two years old, her father André immigrated to New York, to be followed two years later by her mother Rose. [1] This left Danticat and her younger brother, also named André, to be raised by her aunt and uncle. Although her formal education in Haiti was in French, she spoke Kreyòl at home. [2]Port-au-PrinceHaitiNew York [1]Kreyòl [2] While still in Haiti, Danticat began writing at 9 years old. [3] At the age of 12, she moved to Brooklyn, New York, to join her parents in a heavily Haitian American neighborhood. As an immigrant teenager, Edwidge's disorientation in her new surroundings was a source of discomfort for her, and she turned to literature for solace. [2] Two years later she published her first writing in English, "A Haitian-American Christmas: Cremace and Creole Theatre," in New Youth Connections, a citywide magazine written by teenagers. She later wrote another story about her immigration experience for New Youth Connections, "A New World Full of Strangers". [3]BrooklynNew YorkHaitian American [2]

What do you see? What is happening ? Feelings? Connections? Title?

What do you see? What is happening ? Connections? Feelings? Title?

Think about the Title “The Farming of Bones” What images enter you mind? What are the key words? What things and ideas are associated with these? Why do you think the author chose these words instead of other similar words? Who, what, when, where, why, how?

Reflection What is this book going to be about? Do you think you will like it? Why or why not?

Chalk Talk Silent exercise = extra credit Use your marker to “talk” about the quote and your classmates comments and questions. Move around the room to each poster. Bring your notebook to add 5 words to your personal glossary. INTERPRET, QUESTIONS, REACT, OPINION, CONNECTIONS, PARAPHRASE

Chalk Talk - Sentence Starters I think this might mean… I’m confused about …. An easier word for ______________ is … Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? I agree/disagree with This reminds me of… This makes me feel This makes me think about… Another way to say this is…

Chalk Talk Discussion BookAuthorLanguageVocabularyQuestions

Personal Glossary: 1.Add your 5 words to your Personal Glossary. 2.Start on the last page of your Notebook and work backwards as you continue to add to the list. 3.Make headings for: Word - POS - Definition - Original Sentence 4. Include the title and date for each new set of entries

Personal Glossary Example Word POS - Definition 1. Impulse - n. a sudden desire, urge, or inclination Original Sentence I suddenly had the impulse to run away. 2. Ashamed – adj. embarrassed or regretful I’m ashamed to say I didn’t finish my homework.

HW1 Research and paraphrase the opening passage and dedication. Pages vii, viii Complete Personal Glossary #1 “Praise for The Farming of Bones” 5 words

HW2 Complete Personal Glossary #1 “Praise for The Farming of Bones” 5 words Read pages 1-14 for next class (Thurs)

Judges 12:4-6New International Version (NIV) 4 Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh.” 5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,” 6 they said, “All right, say ‘Shibboleth.’” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.

Explanation 3. (Judges 12:4-6) The Gileadites (led by Jephthah) overwhelm the people of the tribe of Ephraim.Judges 12:4-6 The men of Gilead defeated Ephraim: Apparently the men of Ephraim were better at talking than fighting, because the men of Gilead seemed to conquer them easily. Then they would say to him, “Then say, ‘Shibboleth’!” The word shibboleth means either “ear of grain” or “flowing stream.” With this word the people from the tribe of Ephraim were easily identified by their dialect. They had a hard time pronouncing the “h” in Shibboleth and said Sibboleth instead, therefore giving themselves away. i. During World War II, the German soldiers sometimes identified Russian Jews by the way they pronounced the word for corn: “kookoorooza.” Their distinctive pronunciation revealed their ethnic background. So it was for these men of Ephraim. ii. The term shibboleth therefore came into the English language as something which determines which side you are one. In modern English usage a shibboleth is the same as an “acid test.” iii. Today, there are certain true shibboleths in a person’s vocabulary. In Judges 12:6, you could know something about a person by how they said Shibboleth. It is true that our dialect gives us away, and so does our everyday speech.Judges 12:6

“In confidence to you, Metrès Dlo, Mother of the Rivers.” Amabelle Dèsir “Mistress Water” By studying a little of the traditional Haitian Voudou, one can start to look at this dedication in a different light. Pointed out by RenÈe Larrier, ìMËt Dlo is a Vouduri figure from whom one seeks protection and it is to his female counterpart that Amabelle dedicated her narrative.

Novel’s Context In October of 1937, Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered his troops to massacre as many as 15,000 Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. (1) The attack came as a complete surprise to these Haitians as well as to many Dominicans; no prior event had warned them of what was about to take place. The killings were swift and particularly brutal. (2) Trujillo ordered his soldiers to use machetes and other crude weapons instead of guns, a brutality captured by the name of the massacre: in Spanish, El Corte, the cutting, and in Haitian Kreyol, kout kouto, the stabbing. (3) Those who survived lived with permanent injuries, scars, and impairments as well as the psychological trauma of having experienced a massacre. After visiting Haiti in order to research the testimonies of survivors, Haitian-born Edwidge Danticat wrote The Farming of Bones (1998), a historical novel that tells the story of one individual's experience of the attack and its devastating effects. Her novel is filled with wounded and disabled individuals whose marked, scarred bodies prevent them and those around them from forgetting what has happened.