Biblical Influences in History and Literature

The Farming of Bones is an impressive story about a young Haitian girl named Amabelle, her life, and her attempt at escaping during the sickening genocide of the time known as the Haitian Massacre of 1937. Danticat uses many tricks and literary devices to pull the reader into her book and what is going on during the setting. One such amazing device is placed before the novel actually begins. Indeed, before the even “dedication” from Amabelle, there is written a passage from the Bible. It is Judges 12:4-6, as found on the fourth page of Danticat’s The Farming of Bones:

Jephthah called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordon 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,” they said, “Alright say ‘Shibboleth.’” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the work corre...