Pulitano Summary

             Pulitano explores the Caribbean Sea and landscape seen in Danticat’s stories, and how these should be considered a part of the Haitian culture, as they contain colonial history relating to their suffering and background.  The author presents this argument by looking at various of Danticat’s stories, such as “The farming Bones” , “Nineteen Thirty-Seven”, and “Children of the Sea”, and what literary experts have to say about them.

            The first story analyzed is “The Farming of Bones”. Pulitano views how the sugar cane landscape of Haiti and the Dominican Republic create a monument representing the history of the violent events that occurred in that area, what Danticat calls “uncomfortable spaces”.  These uncomfortable spaces emanate in the fact that the Haitian government turned their people in to slave labor of the sugar cane mills, in which they were abused. Through the events that occurred to the characters in “The Farming of Bones” Suarez believes that landscape and fictional stories serve as agents which restore the memories and stories of communities, at the same time healing their wounds and looking for future hope. When looking at “Children of the Sea” and “The Farming Bones” Glissant and Brathwaite conjecture that most of the Caribbean culture’s memory is implanted in the environment. Due to this fact Danticat’s genocide and ecocide stories present the history representing of the Caribbean archipelago. In the story “Nineteen Thirty-seven” Pulitano mentions that the Massacre River divides an island into two contrasting nations, collecting memories of both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It is where the massacre of Haitians occurred, an encounter between life and death, forever reminding the inhabitants of their background. Such as the case with Amabelle in “The Faming of Bones”, she attempts to eras the river from the landscape, as it is not visible during the night, yet the river won’t ever disappear, and its permanent existence reminds the inhabitants of their history. In “Children of the Sea” Pulitano suggests that the Caribbean sea reminds the characters of the events of the middle passage.

            Pulitano concludes that Danticat doesn’t talk about Haiti to portray a sense of nationalism, yet to remind her audience of a history that may have been hidden, providing hope to the survivors of the tragic events. I agree with what the author says, as the landscapes of the archipelago provide a permanent memory of the events that occurred. The way Pulitano executes this analysis relates to the literary analysis that is to be done in class, as it analyzes the author, similar themes in the author’s work, and contains a lot of scholarly citations.