Massacre in Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper examines two very different books, "The Massacre at El Mozote : A Parable of the Cold War" by Mark Danner and "The Farming of Bones" by Edwidge Danticat. It looks at how in each of these books the authors provide a complete picture of a massacre and how each story lays out the events in graphic presentation that cannot be ignored or shoved aside. It evaluates how each book tells a similar story in that people were brutally murdered, yet each story has differences that set them apart from each other. It analyzes how the books address the anger at Americans, given the fact that the nation brags to the world that it is free, fair and the savior of the underdog and how America has been known since its inception as the big brother willing to swoop in and rescue any nation being hurt or treating its members cruelly. In both of these books the point is driven home that the American government turned its back on an entire people that were in crisis.

From the Paper:

"The leader at that time decided that he needed to rid his nation of the Haitians working in the cane fields. Annabelle's dedication to finding her man and trekking across the nation to do so she represents some of the things that occurred between the workers and the president. Her fierce determination was metaphorically representative of the determination of those who were being persecuted at the time. The refusal to give up and the instinct of survival were things that the victims also possessed. This book differs from the first one in that it offers up much of the events in historical metaphorical fashion. While this is less hard hitting than the brutal truth from Danner's book it is sometimes a technique that can maintain the reader's attention when straight horror and fact will be to hard to handle."

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