Massacre River is a novel about the "Parsley Massacre" " perejil" which is mainly centered around a young couple who falls in love. They are, the Dominican Pedro Brito and his beautiful Haitian wife Adèle who both live in Elias Piña. This is a city located close to the massacre river boarding between the Dominican Republic and The Republic of Haiti.This novel makes reference to the massacre or genocide happened in the Dominican Republic in 1937. The president Rafael Leonidas Trujillo ordered the decapitation of millions of Haitians and Dominican Haitian decedents who could not pronounce the word perejil (parsley) correctly. It earned the name the Parsley Massacre because Dominican soldiers carried a sprig of parsley and used it to
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Readers can notice this since trough the whole novel Adele is struggling while trying to pronounce the word parsley in Spanish ( perejil) and pass a Dominican in front of Trujillo 's forces". Also, this novel explains in details how many of Haitians are killed by the " parley forces trying to cross the Massacre River because they know that cannot pronounce the word parsley without a Haitian accent. I think that René Philoctète through this novel tries to convey the difficulties of " Haitian-creole roots as a central part to define Haitian culture. Since it is a hard realty to remember that the Haitian slaughter of 1937 occurred using Creole as a critical Element that condemned Haitian destiny. This happens because this novel satirizes Trujillo 's ridiculous and sarcastic myth of Dominican nationality.That is why his attempt to 'whiten ' the population, and the creation of European identity despite the obvious African and Indian heritage of the Dominican population. Haitian-creole is seen by Trujillo as a divergent language with African and Indian roots and with no European descent. This is something ridiculous since Trujillo 's ancestors belong to African and Indian roots as Haitians as well
Readers can notice this since trough the whole novel Adele is struggling while trying to pronounce the word parsley in Spanish ( perejil) and pass a Dominican in front of Trujillo 's forces". Also, this novel explains in details how many of Haitians are killed by the " parley forces trying to cross the Massacre River because they know that cannot pronounce the word parsley without a Haitian accent. I think that René Philoctète through this novel tries to convey the difficulties of " Haitian-creole roots as a central part to define Haitian culture. Since it is a hard realty to remember that the Haitian slaughter of 1937 occurred using Creole as a critical Element that condemned Haitian destiny. This happens because this novel satirizes Trujillo 's ridiculous and sarcastic myth of Dominican nationality.That is why his attempt to 'whiten ' the population, and the creation of European identity despite the obvious African and Indian heritage of the Dominican population. Haitian-creole is seen by Trujillo as a divergent language with African and Indian roots and with no European descent. This is something ridiculous since Trujillo 's ancestors belong to African and Indian roots as Haitians as well