Dreams

In The Farming of Bones, Amabelle’s reoccurring dreams stop as she and Yves attempt to cross the border to Haiti. One may find this a rather perplexing development since Amabelle’s dreams had been so recurrent prior to her flight from the Dominican Republic. Thus, there are two probable explanations as to why Amabelle’s dreams would cease following her departure from DR. One involves a more literal or realistic reading of why a person’s dreams would cease, while the other involves a more symbolic, literary reading of why this would occur. Beginning with the more literal approach, one could pose the argument that Amabelle’s dreams stop occurring because she is under a great amount of stress and anxiety as she flees DR. On top of the fact that she is traveling with Yves, a man she is not close to, she is far from the people she considers closest to her. She longs to be with Sebastian, and the fear of never seeing him again only adds to her mounting stress. Moreover, Amabelle may have had dreams during this period, but the anxiety she was under may have rendered her incapable of recalling the dreams she had.

On the other hand, if one was to take a more literary-based approach to this reading, one may conclude that the author intentionally had Amabelle’s dream cease to indicate her journey home. Amabelle considers herself a displaced person in various parts of the book. She mentions that she does not have papers stating whether she belongs in Haiti or in DR. Therefore, Amabelle’s dreams may have persisted for so long because she was always longing to return to her homeland while living abroad in DR. When she is finally given the chance to escape back to Haiti, her dreams may have stopped because she knew she would be returning home soon, and would no longer have to long for home in her dreams.

As far as my own dreams go, they vary from night to night. Most of the time I cannot remember my dreams at all unless I have a very interesting or unusual one. Other times my dreams are so vivid that I wake up feeling so emotionally involved in the dream that it is as if the events that took place in my dreams actually occurred. When I don’t remember my dreams for an extended period of time, its usually due to the fact that I am extremely overtired, or because I am in a generally good place in my life where nothing stressful or overly exciting is plaguing my thoughts.