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“A Border is a Veil”: Death as a Border in 
The Farming of  Bones and The Book Thief

Brigid Maguire, Ball State University

Within literature, death has always been Within literature, death has always been 
a common theme. In this essay, death as a common theme. In this essay, death as 
a border in literature will be explored in a border in literature will be explored in 
Edwidge Danticat’s Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of BonesThe Farming of Bones  
and Markus Zusak’s and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. The The Book Thief. The 

Farming of BonesFarming of Bones follows Amabelle Dé- follows Amabelle Dé-
sir, a young Haitian woman working in sir, a young Haitian woman working in 
the Dominican Republic, and tells of the Dominican Republic, and tells of 
the Haitian massacre in the Dominican the Haitian massacre in the Dominican 
Republic in 1937. Republic in 1937. The Book ThiefThe Book Thief follows  follows 
Liesel Meminger, a young German girl Liesel Meminger, a young German girl 
living under the Nazi regime, and tells of living under the Nazi regime, and tells of 
life during World War II. Both Danticat life during World War II. Both Danticat 
and Zusak explore death as it appears in and Zusak explore death as it appears in 
those tragedies, how it affects the people those tragedies, how it affects the people 
under those regimes, and how it creates under those regimes, and how it creates 
a border. Death creates a border both a border. Death creates a border both 
physical and spiritual, rigid yet perme-physical and spiritual, rigid yet perme-
able, and one that is displayed through able, and one that is displayed through 
the personification of death by Danticat the personification of death by Danticat 
and Zusak.and Zusak.

When most people think of  borders, they 
tend to think about physical borders: ones 
that separate countries, ones that separate 
the imprisoned from the free, and more. 
A border that is often forgotten, one that 
is both physical and spiritual, is the border 
between life and death. Death has long 
been a theme in literature and it has been 
explored in many ways. Death creates a 
border both physical and spiritual, rigid 
yet permeable, and one that is displayed 
through the personification of  death in 
Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of  Bones 
and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. In The 

Farming of  Bones, Amabelle Désir is a young 
Haitian woman who works as a servant for 
a wealthy family in the Dominican Republic. 
She loses her parents to death as a child 
and later loses her other loved ones during 
the Haitian massacre. Amabelle survives 
the Haitian massacre in the Dominican 
Republic, what’s referred to as the Parsley 
massacre, and flees back to a Haiti she 
barely knows or remembers. In The Book 



Thief, Liesel Meminger is a young German girl who is sent to live with a foster family during 
World War II. She loses her brother to death, her mother to the war early in her childhood, 
and then the rest of  her loved ones over the course of  World War II. Both Amabelle and 
Liesel are confronted with the reality of  death due to genocide, as they witness their loved 
ones’ deaths and the aftermath. Amabelle’s and Liesel’s lives are shaped by losing their family 
and friends to the other side of  the border of  death; or as Amabelle puts in The Farming of  

Bones: “A border is a veil not many people can wear” (Danticat 264).

The Farming of  Bones
 While death is more than just a physical border, the consequences of  it as a 
physical boundary are usually the most prominent. In The Farming of  Bones, Amabelle Désir 
experiences the physical border of  death when her parents die. While trying to cross the 
river from the Dominican Republic back to Haiti, her parents are swept away by the current 
while Amabelle stays waiting on the bank. One of  the boys at the river, who stops her from 
jumping in after her parents, remarks on the finality of  the physical boundary: “‘Unless 
you want to die,’ one of  them says, ‘you will never see those people again’” (Danticat 52). 
The physical border of  death keeps her from her loved ones later in life as well, like with 
Sebastien, her lover.
 The spiritual border of  death becomes blurred for Amabelle. She spends the better 
half  of  the novel living as if  dead on Earth. She admits this to Sebastien in one of  her 
dreams, saying “I chose a living death because I am not brave” (Danticat 283). Although we 
know she lives for at least two more decades after returning to Haiti, it isn’t really living. As 
Hewett states, “Amabelle lives like a ‘ghost,’ trapped somewhere between past and present” 
(132). She sticks to her routine of  sewing and staying in the house as she struggles with 
feeling able to live after being surrounded by so much death. Death, although she is scared 
of  it, is something she comes to welcome.
 After living through the river-crossing that her fellow refugees, Odette and Wilner, 
did not, Amabelle was not comfortable with her own survival: “There was a stillness to it 
[Odette’s face] I nearly envied” (Danticat 205). Not only did Odette die, but it was a result 
of  Amabelle’s actions. While they were crossing, Wilner was shot by a soldier and Amabelle 
covered Odette’s nose and mouth to keep her from yelling. Odette was still breathing 
when they got to the shore, but since Wilner died “... she had already made her choice” 
(Danticat 202). Again, after more than two decades have passed, Amabelle describes sleep 
as a “comfort” for it “... was as close to disappearing as I could come” (Danticat 287). After 
Sebastien is gone, Amabelle seems to give up on living. Even before she lost Sebastien, 
Amabelle said “I am afraid I cease to exist when he’s not there” (Danticat 2). That feeling 

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would only solidify once she had lost him for good. After losing so many people to the 
violent acts of  genocide, Amabelle experiences a spiritual death; she is never fully living 
again.-fort” for it “... was as close to disappearing as I could come” (Danticat 287). After 
Sebastien is gone, Amabelle seems to give up on living. Even before she lost Sebastien, 
Amabelle said “I am afraid I cease to exist when he’s not there” (Danticat 2). That feeling 
would only solidify once she had lost him for good. After losing so many people to the 
violent acts of  genocide, Amabelle experiences a spiritual death; she is never fully living 
again.
 Even the idea of  parsley, which is explored throughout the novel, is used as a symbol 
of  both life and death. Amabelle’s community used parsley “... to wash a new infant’s 
hair for the first time and ... a corpse’s remains one final time,” along with culinary and 
medicinal methods (Danticat 62). When Amabelle, Yves, and Tibon are being beaten by 
the Dominicans and have parsley shoved in their mouths, instead of  thinking about the 
impending death that was sure to come, she thinks of  it as a way to survive instead: “I told 
myself  that eating the parsley would keep me alive” (Danticat 193).
 Death is personified in different ways throughout the novel. Amabelle is the narrator 
of  her own story and so we, as readers, get to experience her thoughts, feelings, and dreams. 
Amabelle is haunted by “shadows” in both her waking life and her dreams: “When I was a 
child, I used to spend hours playing with my shadow ... There were many shadows, too, in 
the life I had beyond childhood” (Danticat 2-3). These “shadows” followed her around her 
whole life, representing the spirits of  all the loved ones she would lose. Amabelle also refers 
to Sebastien’s absence as her “shadow” before she knows if  he has died or not (Danticat 
281).
 Haitian folk religion is heavily linked to the Voundoun religion and it makes its 
appearance in the spiritual practices of  the characters in the novel (Weir-Soley 168). The 
Voundoun religion has been notoriously misrepresented, especially in Western cultures, and 
is “... perceived as an illicit source of  spiritual agency, is associated with death, darkness and 
the devil” (Weir-Soley 171). It has even become common to refer to it as ‘voodoo’ with 
all the negative stereotypes of  ‘black magic’ instead of  the real Voundoun religion. But as 
Weir-Soley explains, it couldn’t be farther from the truth: “Experts recognize Voudoun as 
a legitimate source of  agency and transformation for the Haitian peasantry, perhaps even a 
spiritual reprieve from the abjectness of  poverty and the oppression of  political tyranny” 
(171). Like most communities, the Haitians’ religious ferocity helps them to stay sane and 
deal with the turmoil in their country.
 While Voundoun is not part of  the “dark arts” as modern media would have us 
think, it does still have ties to both death and life through healing. When Amabelle is sick, 



her mother makes her a doll out of  her favorite things; whether it be a spiritual doll or just 
forcomfort, it helps. In her fever, she sees the doll get up and start jumping rope. The doll 
tells Amabelle, “‘I am sure you will live to be a hundred years old, having come so close to 
death while young’” (Danticat 58). Since Amabelle comes so close to death again later in life, 
during the massacre, it seems the doll’s predictions come true.
 The way that life and death are addressed in The Farming of  Bones is also very cyclical. 
The final scene wraps up Amabelle’s personal experience with death neatly. As Amabelle 
gets into the river, “in the place of  [her] original loss,” she finds comfort in her dreams and 
memories instead of  pain (Hewett 141). She “has found a place where she can be at peace 
with her body and the violence of  her past, at least temporarily” (Hewett 141). We, the 
readers, don’t know if  Amabelle is simply reflecting on her life when she gets into the water 
or if  she intends to end her life. Hewett reads the final scene of  Amabelle as a reflection of  
her life and finally embracing what she’s gone through. At this moment when “Amabelle 
finally embraces all of  the losses that have defined her identity and creates a new self  out 
of  loss,” there is a rebirth (Hewett 141-142). But perhaps Amabelle was not there to simply 
reflect on death, but to embrace it herself. It would be a fitting way for her to go: just as her 
parents did, just as when she first tried to join them in death.

The Book Thief
 In The Book Thief, Death as a narrator and death as the idea and act itself  are two 
separate concepts, and thus require distinct styles of  capitalization moving forward. Liesel 
Meminger loses her brother to death as well. She and her brother are traveling with their 
mother to be taken in by a foster family, but on the train ride there, her brother dies 
suddenly. Liesel “could see without question that her younger brother, Werner, was now 
sideways and dead” (Zusak 20). With the death of  her brother, she sees the physical border 
of  death in action; at one moment her brother is breathing and conscious, and in the next, 
he’s simply a limp body sat next to her.
 Her brother’s death is not the only one she experiences, as she again witnesses the 
death of  everyone close to her at the end of  the book. Her foster father, Hans Hubermann, 
foster mother, Rosa Hubermann, and best friend, Rudy Steiner, all die in a bombing that 
she survives. She loses almost everyone. Literary scholar Débora Ameida de Oliveira states 
that “of  all people who know Liesel, just three are able to survive and share her life” (49). 
Death separates Liesel from almost all her loved ones. Mass death is often described by 
Death through his narration, but in simple ways. Not only does Liesel witness her brother’s, 
foster parents’, and friends’ deaths, but Death does as well. Death often uses numbers to 
relay tothe readers the violence he’s seeing in an impersonal way, like “just over two hundred 

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murdered souls” (Zusak 488). For Death’s own “sanity,” he creates a boundary between 
himself  and the dead by trying to see them simply as numbers and not as the complex 
humans he knows they are.
 Liesel is haunted by Death, as he follows her and tells her story, but she is also 
haunted by death, especially her brother’s. She often wakes up to terrible nightmares about 
her brother’s death, waking up “swimming in her bed, screaming, and drowning in the flood 
of  sheets” (Zusak 36). As Johnson explains, “Swimming while drowning symbolizes life—a 
painful struggle that ultimately ends with death. Liesel’s dream further demonstrates this 
innateness of  human suffering because Werner’s death haunts only the living Liesel” (3). In 
her sleeping hours, the border of  death becomes more permeable. Her dreams feel real and 
show her struggle with letting her loved ones cross that border. As Johnson says, only Liesel 
experiences the terror that Werner’s death came with because she is the one who is alive 
(3). When she’s asleep, the deaths that Liesel has experienced haunt her, while Death haunts 
her waking hours. Death sees Liesel’s interactions with death, the act, and has her own 
interactions with her, like picking up her diary after she threw it away (Zusak 539).
 While Liesel is haunted by death itself, Death is also who narrates her story. To 
fully understand The Book Thief, “it is necessary to view The Book Thief as a double story: 
it is Liesel’s story, but it is Death’s story too” (Oliveira 37). Not only that, but one must 
understand that Death is both a character, narrator, and a border. Zusak wrote the narrative 
style in such a way that Death, since he is omniscient, can share the details of  Liesel’s life, as 
well as her thoughts. But even Death experiences borders and is limited to only insight into 
Liesel’s mind. He says “Max, Hans, and Rosa I cannot account for, but I know that Liesel 
Meminger was thinking that if  the bombs ever landed on Himmel Street, not only did Max 
have less chance of  survival than everyone else, but he would die completely alone” (Zusak 
384). While Death has the ability to travel around, he is entranced by Liesel once he first sees 
her, when he is collecting her brother’s soul: “I buckled — I became interested. In the girl. 
Curiosity got the better of  me, and I resigned myself  to stay as long as my schedule allowed, 
and I watched,” and he continued to watch and share her story (Zusak 7).
 Death is personified, as he is given feelings and opinions of  his own, but he is not 
made human. Throughout the novel, colors. Then the humans,” while he ends the novel 
with “I am haunted by humans” (Zusak 3; 550). But he is not unmoved by all the tragedy 
he sees, often using the colors of  the sky to distract him from the violence and keep his 
focus away from the humans who survive, “the leftovers” (Zusak 4). He takes no joy 
from collecting souls but even more so dislikes the whole experience of  his job: “When 
Deathtakes someone away, he feels a great discomfort by noticing the behavior of  those who 
stay” (Oliveira 26). In a convoluted way, he experiences death as a border as well; he never 

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is shown interacting with or even seeing the souls he carries away again. It is simply his job 
to carry the souls and they are permanently on the other side of  the border once he’s taken 
them away.
 When he first introduces himself  as what humans will meet at the end of  their life, he 
makes sure to explain there is no choice in it, saying “Please, be calm, despite that previous 
threat. / I am all bluster— / I am not violent. / I am not malicious. / I am a result” (Zusak 
6). While the explanation comes because he is desperate to make clear that bringing death is 
not his choice, the contrast of  himself  with humanity makes the border clear. As much as 
Death follows Liesel’s life, the border of  death keeps him from taking part in life at all.

Conclusion
 Amabelle and Liesel both lived through genocides and experienced death all around 
them. Amabelle, like Liesel, is also haunted in dreams, often with imagery or memories 
of  death. Although they have managed to evade death on multiple occasions, they are 
still surrounded by death in their waking life. Their stories take place only years apart, in 
1937 and 1939 respectively. Death separated them from their loved ones, first as a physical 
boundary and then as a spiritual one. They both lost their immediate family early in their 
childhood and then the majority of  their loved ones later in life, because of  the genocidal 
acts. Death becomes permeable for them at times, like Amabelle with the doll during her 
fever dream and Liesel having Death narrate her story. At the end of  both their stories, they 
themselves cross the border of  death: Amabelle in the same river that took her parents and 
Liesel to finally meet her old friend face-to-face.

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Works Cited

Danticat, Edwidge. The Farming of  Bones. Soho Press, 2014.

Heather. “At the Crossroads: Disability and Trauma in The Farming of  Bones.” MELUS, vol. 
31, no. 3, 2006, pp. 123–45. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30029654.

Johnson, Sarah K. “Pain, Death, and Nazis: The Surprisingly Beautiful Function Death Plays 
as Narrator in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief.” 2015. Brigham Young University, PhD 
dissertation. hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/3348.

Oliveira, Débora Ameida de. “‘Haunted by Humans’: The Uncanny Narrator in Markus 
Zusak’s The Book Thief.” 2017. Universidade Federal Do Rio Grande Do Sul, PhD 
dissertation. Lume Digital Repository, hdl.handle.net/10183/159109.

Weir-Soley, Donna. “Voudoun Symbolism in The Farming of  Bones.” Obsidian III, vol. 6/7, 
2005, pp. 167–84. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44511673.

Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. Alfred A. Knopf, 2016.

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