Blog 3: Gender

Gender is explicitly present in Bois Savage as Esch defines gender among her family and friends. When Esch goes to the park, she gives description upon all the individuals at the park.  For her brothers and their friends, she defines athleticism and physical strength to define their masculinity when they were playing basketball on court, Skeeta jogging with China, and Junior riding his bicycle.  Though Junior is still young and acts as the child, he still has physical strength in his arms and is on the borderline between a child and a man.

On the feminine side, Esch provides example of her mother, Mudda Ma’am, and Sharylin as being womanly figures compared to herself.  These women carry an elegant fashion in them that is portrayed as motherly. From Mudda Ma’am, she has lived a long life in her home being a motherly figure taking care of children such as junior when they are very young. In Esch’s mother, we can see the care that she portrays towards her children and especially her husband when she cradles him in her arms when he is drunk. Lastly, we can she Sharylin being elegant as she was supporting Manny at the park and acting as a female would when approached by her lover. Compared to these women, Esch defines herself as confused and unprepared as she will have to eventually become a mother. Due to her witnessing the affects of motherhood on China and tragedies occurring with the puppies, the fear that she has within her body makes her want to escape it with the thought of miscarriage.

The expectations for males and females are clearly defined as males being proactive and females being passive. As men would work on outside activities such as farming or building, women would work indoors and attend to the children and chores. In the case, with Esch and her family, she has to be able to do both male and female jobs since the man dominance in the family overshadows and consumes her femininity. She also notes that her father rarely sees her as a woman whenever they interact. Therefore, the expectations for characters can differ by the situation of the family or social structure in current order.

BLOG 3: Gender in Salvage the Bones

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward is a story told through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old girl named Esch Batiste. Esch is entangled in a world of men who do not understand her feminine nature, and others who take advantage of her sexually. Ward draws a line between the roles of a female and male in the fictional town of Bois Sauvage. The distinction arises throughout the novel from the direct observation of the minimal female characters compared to male characters. In fact, every female character in the novel, except Esch, China, and Mudda Ma'am, are caricatures who evoke strong feelings in Esch’s imagination, unlike the male characters who have substantial human presence. When Esch’s dad forces her brother Skeetah to use her as a ladder to reach the ceiling, Esch describes how Skeetah’s “foot grinds into [her] skin”(63). She cannot help but “breathe hard, ashamed.” Esch recalls “when [they] were little and would fall and skin a knee and cry, Daddy would roll his eyes, tell [them] to stop” encouraging her to “straighten up” and take the pain without objection. Though Esch is feeling pain due to the pressure of Skeetah stepping on her leg, the pain can also be seen as the pain she feels throughout the novel being motherless, misunderstood, and alone. As a female she feels embarrassed that she cannot hold her own, so to say, as her father wants her too. However, we can start to see that gender roles in the novel aren’t actually characterized as females being passive and males as rugged. In actuality, the female characters, Esch and China, are expected to be just as strong as their male counterparts. China expresses this through her title of being a champion dog fighter while Esch isn’t originally portrayed this strong, but is expected to be one of “the boys”. The difference between the females and males is really motherhood. China and Mudda Ma'am in some ways portrayed this sense of motherhood, while Esch is struggling to even wrap her head around being pregnant. Another example can be portrayed through the pain Esch continues to feel substantially from her infatuation with Manny. Although she seems to love everything about him, he does not reciprocate the same feelings, constantly reminding her of his absence of affection towards her. Male and female roles don’t differ due to stereotypical characteristics of how each gender should act or do in Salvage the Bones, but instead identifies females as fitting in or being left out without questions or concerns.        

The Effect of Gender Isolation

Throughout Salvage the Bones, we see the effect that the absence of Esch’s mother has on her development into a young woman. Because she is the only woman in her familial system and friendships, Esch has no “mentor” or “role-model” to guide her into womanhood. The isolation that Esch feels can be attributed to this. For example, when Esch finds out that she is pregnant she has nobody to turn to that would understand her condition. Esch, in turn, then resorts to more drastic measures to deal with her problem- such as kneeing her stomach in an attempt to cause a miscarriage.

                Another consequence of Esch’s gender isolation is the degraded gender boundaries that we see throughout the novel. In many ways Esch’s father, brothers, and male friends see her as “just one of the guys” and she often plays the part. For example, when Esch, her brothers, and friends venture out into the pit to put down the puppy that has contracted parvo, all of the boys strip down naked and jump into the Pit to swim. Esch does the same and thinks nothing of it. This is caused by the gender boundaries that have been melted away from Esch being the only female.       

Gender Salvage the Bones

BLOG 3: Esch loves her brothers and her brothers’ friends, yet she often feels alone as the only girl. How does gender work in Bois Sauvage? How are expectations different for male and female characters?

     Due to the situation that Esch is in, she doesn't fit with the stereotypical teen girl in the south. The expectations between her and the guys in her family do not seem as different as most families. She is being forced to grow up fast in part because of her pregnancy. Esch does not have time to have a proper coming of age because of it. She also comes from a poor family in a rural town where she has to be tough to survive. The labor and chores she does is different from that of her brothers though. It was part of Esch's job to clean jars while her brothers had to remove wood from the roof and tear down a shed on a tractor. While removing the wood, her dad forced Skeetah to stand on her in order to get it. Esch later says that about her dad that "sometimes I think he forgets that I am a girl (Ward 102)?" The main reason Esch has become 'one of the guys' is because of the lack of women in her family. She has lost her mother and grandmother. They both could have guided Esch in the right direction but their passing has created a void in her life. However she doesn't have this and as a result, she is trying to fill that void elsewhere through Manny.
      Esch seems to be as tough as her brothers. She can almost keep up while running with them. Randall and his friends are also often accompanied by Esch. She even goes swimming while naked with him and his friends in order to clean off. While discussing strong females in "Salvage the Bones", China should also be mentioned. She endured great pain while in labor and still reluctantly cares for her puppies. Since the women in her family are gone, Esch seem to be learning from China for guidance. When talking about the pregnancy test she stole, she says "maybe its China who made me get it (Ward 30)." Esch admits it was the combination of sickness and vomiting that made her take the test.

Bad Love

Sorry guys about being so late to the game. I had a couple pages left to read but let me answer the question.
I think that Ward is trying to tell us many things about love. The main point she is trying to make is that there are different types of love. In the first chapter alone we see physical love, maternal love, paternal love, and a little bit of unrequited love. The one thing I found interesting about this chapter and the thing that will answer the question is that these different types of love can help or hinder future events. For example, Esch is "in love" with Manny, but he doesn't feel the same way. The consequences of the "love" between the two will blow up in both of their faces and can only end badly.

On a different topic, Esch reminds me of a Wale song called, "Bad". The main chorus of the song describes how the young women does not know how to make love, but is great at sex. This reminds me of Esch because states that she is good at sex and swimming, but never really address the love aspect of sex. Yes, she has sex with Manny and talks of the love she feels from him, but is that necessarily love?  I believe that there is a clear distinction between making love and sex and I don't think that Esch is mature enough to understand the difference between the two. I would like to believe that she can't understand the difference because of her mother's death and not having a female figure to tell her the complexities and allure of a women's body.

Esch and Sexual Influence - Gage Counts

I found the most interesting form of love between Esch and Manny. At first, I saw the relationship between them as Esch having a kind of crush on Manny, on there not being much more to that relationship. I justified this by thinking that whenever she cut her hand and said she wanted Manny to notice her, which meant that they hadn’t been involved with each other yet. Later, once they started having sex, it became apparent that this had happened before. This disproved my conception of the typical schoolgirl crushing on her big brother’s best friend.

At this point in the book, it’s not made clear what kind of relationship they have. Do they just have sex every time Esch’s brother smokes, or do they have a romantic relationship outside of sex? Based off of her description of the scene, I got the impression that she anticipated that he wanted to have sex with her: “I wanted to shut up, but it was my only thought, so I spoke.” She asked why he wasn’t smoking with them because she wanted him to be the one to initiate the sexual contact. This is clear when she described how she wanted to like the sweat off Manny's face but wouldn't, and drew an analogy to Greek female figures and their power of seduction. To me, this is the most powerful window into figuring out their relationship and Esch's feelings toward Manny.

Based off of her repeatedly bringing up Greek women who seduce men, it seems like her sexual influence over Manny - and his appreciation of it, especially in comparison to other boys she's had sex with - is a potent form of love to her.

Salvage the Bones blog - 1

I can only imagine how difficult it would be to grow up on a poor farm in southern Mississippi, let alone with 3 other siblings. My grandmother also lost a child in labor and still cries about it today. It would be extremely difficult to have to grow up through a similar experience knowing that your mother passed away in child birth. I feel for for the narrator of this story. the difficulty of her early years seems to paint a great picture as to why her best friend seems to be a dog. It seems to be extremely difficult for her to take car of her family and dog as they are in extreme poverty. Even when they are preparing for a hurricane, it is extremely sad to think that al they own could disappear in just a few days. Not only that, but that the fact it probably took their family forever to earn what they do have. Having a child hood when one has to work all the time to help out at home is not much of a childhood at all. while other kids are out playing, out Esch has to work at hime to help around the house. It is tough for a child when they have to grow up at such a young age. Although our narrator seems like she has to grow up at a young age, she is learning lessons which will make her stronger for the rest of her life. She does not seem very strong at this point in our story yet, but instead she seem somewhat week and fragile. From what we can see so far, it could be extremely hard to come of age in the south. 

Will Blount : Love in Salvage the Bones

Love is portrayed in many ways by the way Ward describes her family.  firstly, I noticed the love among the family.  The family bonded and was strengthened after their mother's death. Her older brother Skeetah has a special love for China the pit bull as well.  the dog will only let Skeetah near her while giving birth.  For example, "China walks past Skeetah, licks his pinky. It is a kiss, a peck."  This is subtle and caring affection.  China also showcases love through maternal caring of her newly born puppies.  The love between Manny and Esch is more of a lustful crush so to speak.  She did not want to make a big deal out of cutting her hand in front of him.  Randall, her other brother, provided a somewhat motherly role by helping Esch to clean her cut hand from the broken bottle.  Randall also basically takes care of Junior on his own.  Love between individuals is subtle yet always present.  The power lies in that they all have each other's back, even in times of trouble. 

Josh Young: Discussion of Love in Ch. 1

In the first chapter of Salvage The Bones I believe that the author's main focus is not to discuss the power of love specifically. However, there are notable instances in which this is highlighted. For example, when Esch's father dragged her mother to the hospital against her will. He was aware that she was in dire need of medical attention, but she was refusing to receive it. His love for her was so powerful it compelled him to make an effort to try to save her. This demonstration of the power of love is also mirrored when China is birthing her puppies and Skeeta is tending to her. Although China, like Esch's mother, wants to birth on her own and not receive help, Skeeta does as his father did and provides help anyways. 

In my interpretation of the reading, the author used love as a theme for the chapter. It showed different types of love such as an intimate love with Manny and Esch. It also showed a concerning love when upon breaking the bottle Esch immediately tells Junior to move (presumably not to get injured from the glass). Familial love is displayed the most in this chapter. Examples of familial love include Esch's father making sure they had enough to eat during the storms, Randall helping Esch when she was injured, and Marquise and Randall's relationship and how they address each other. 

In sum, I think chapter 1 was more about love and it's different forms or aspects. The power of love was one of these aspects that was discussed and is significant. However, the author seemed to discuss love as a theme rather than illustrate it's power. 

Love in Salvage the Bones

BLOG 2: Chapter 1 of Salvage the Bones is full of various kinds of love—love for China, China’s love for her puppies, familial love, and the relationship between Esch and Manny. What is Ward trying to tell us about the power of love in this first chapter?

With the many different types of love presented, what I believe Ward is trying to do is simply provide us with a realistic human landscape. Love is at the root of everything we as humans do, love of others, love of self, love of objects. Presenting love as something multifaceted with different incarnations is then, realistically portraying the human condition. The romantic love Esch may or may not feel for Manny comes first for me because of the lesson it implies; Esch is learning about romance, she is just beginning to feel her way around the world in a romantic way and she finds Manny attractive. That's a very normal very common thing in youth. China on the other hand offers an example of the opposite; the unlearned love, the intrinsic instinctive sort that lives inside all living things for their offspring. It does not need to be taught or learned. Protection comes hand in hand with this kind of love but China literally being a dog rather than a human person adds another level to this specific example - it speaks to the primeval animalistic nature intrinsic in this kind of love - the kind of love Mama felt as she squatted and pushed out Junior while, as a long time mother, she had to have know the pain she felt was not normal - that the pain might mean the end of her. Ward is then, through all these examples, trying to make us understand that, to borrow the phrase, love is a many feathered thing. It is different in all it's incarnations but at once the same. It's the root of all things.

BLOG 2: Love in Salvage the Bones

Jesmyn Ward explores the depths of the word love frequently throughout “Salvage the Bones”, through the narrator, Esch’s family and family friends. From the beginning of the novel, the profound love between Esch’s brother, Skeetah, and his dog China, penetrates almost every page in the first chapter. Skeetah’s defiance towards his father, negligence towards others, and tenacity to provide the best resources for China portrays a love stronger than any love formed between human characters in the novel, however, Esch seems to experience this love through Skeetah’s touch. The touch is so powerful, Esch undeniably knows that is how Skeetah touches China.

Familial love in this chapter is portrayed as an indication of protection, security, and guidance. As Esch shares details about her family we learn they have been through rough times, such as the death of their mother and their father’s alcoholism. Due to these circumstances, Esch and her brothers have created a bond in which their unconditional love for one another shows. For example, when Esch slices her hand open with a glass bottle she immediately tells her younger brother to move from beside her for his safety while her older brother comes to comfort her just as her mother once did. Ward uses this accident wisely to demonstrate how love can take over any fear or pain, yet, she goes on to introduce the crucial relationship between Esch and a family friend, Manny. 

The relationship between Esch and Manny seems to be a different relationship compared to the prior examples. I believe love is no longer powerful, but questionable. There becomes a thin line between love and lust. Esch describes seeing Manny as “[breaking] the cocoon of [her] rib cage, and [her] heart [unfurling] to fly” while Manny does not even reciprocate any genuine emotions at all. I wonder if Esch truly loves Manny or if she hasn’t learned to love herself.   

Love - Salvage the Bones

I feel as though ward informing the readers just how powerful love can be, in the sense of being able to get through tough times. The way I interpreted this was kind of a small indication, by China. While China was in labor she apparently wouldn’t allow anyone near her besides Skeetah, to me I took this as her being protective over her puppies. Dogs care greatly about their litter of pups, I myself have seen it first hand with my own dog. China is suffering a lot and is in a lot of pain, and Junior is actually allowed to see the process, due to the Dad saying he was old enough. I feel the Dad in a way gave Junior a small right of passage in the sense of him “coming of age.” By this I mean his father clearly loves him enough to think of his son not as just a boy, but as a young man, who can process and understand the concepts in of labor. In away I can get a sense that Ward also sees that love can bittersweet. While in the process of giving birth, China does in fact has a small miscarriage. One of the puppies is dead from the labor as it leaves China’s body. It’s a great thing being able to understand life and all the benefits that come with it, but at times not everything is capable of being given the opportunity. Although the puppy was dead, with its tongue sticking out and all, it is also a wonderful moment to see that there were in fact six other puppies born. Love can also be a little bit comical, because even China believes that she is done giving birth when in fact as empties herself from the labor, there is one last puppy born. Overall this chapter was a nice read, and does show a lot of messages besides my own interpretations about love.

Salvage the Bones and Love

Chapter one of Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones focuses on the family dog China as she gives birth to puppies. As each puppy emerges into the world the main character and narrator Esch reflects on an aspect of her life, fifteen years in. Ward is introducing all the types of love in Esch's life and the power of those different forms of love.

Esch is the only girl in her family since her mother died birthing her youngest brother Junior. Although Esch was young when her mother died she loves her fondly and knows they have a lot in common. China's labor is almost a reflection of Esch and her siblings. The second to youngest puppy has the same coloring as China just like Esch is the second youngest and resembles her mother. Throughout the first chapter Esch compares China's labor to her last memory of her mother, giving birth to her youngest brother Junior.

As a single Dad, Esch's father utilizes his children in the "pitt" to make ends meet. With a family of all boys you can sense the love that glues their family together in the first chapter. Junior hides behind his older brother during the puppies's birth. Randall forces Junior to bathe. They all work together to prepare for the hurricane even though they have not seen a strong storm in years. Even without one of their captains the team continues pushing forward.

The absence of love Esch has for herself over shadows the last part of the chapter. After introducing forms of strong hidden love that keeps a family running Ward introduces that the of absence of  love for one's self is more powerful then being loved by others.

Strength from Strong Relationships

Humans were intelligently created or have evolved to form tight social groups where the interest of the group is greater than the interest of the individual. Today we call these relationships loving relationships. I believe that two or more people who truly love each other will be able to overcome any task that they are presented with. Throughout the first chapter of Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward gives many examples of the loving relationships between Esch’s family, neighbors, and even her family pet. Through these loving relationships that they share, they become extremely loyal and to each other- this is what makes them strong. An example of this love is shown when Esch cuts her hand while washing an old moonshine jug. The boys come to tend to her wound and offer moral support. This shows how the make-shift family acts when confronted with a crisis. Of course this is on a much smaller scale than what is to come (Hurricane Katrina) but the “family” has shown their unitedness and loyalty. Having lived through Hurricane Katrina, I know that it takes strength and loyalty for one to overcome such a disastrous event. Although Katrina was known to destroy both families and individuals, Esch and her “family” seem to have the right network of support and love to overcome the many challenges that Katrina will bring towards them.           

Maci Bates: Love in Salvage the Bones

Love is a prominent theme in Salvage in the Bones seen in the first few chapters. First we see her talk about her home and the people that she considers the closest to her in life. She discusses the different types of love, one being Skeetah’s love for China, and how and China and her puppies, and the Esch’s family all together. It’s touching to see that Skeetah took on a job cutting grass just so he could buy her the most expensive dog food. Also, important to note that, China’s love for Skeetah is special because he is the only one she will let near the puppies, even though he has a horrible future planned for the pups. China’s love for her puppies, is a motherly instinct type of love that comes automatically. It is her job to nurture and protect them. Skeetah is known for fighting but changes her attitude around to soft and gentle when it comes to her new offspring.

Another type of love is Manny and Esch, we see that Manny doesn’t really love Esch; he takes advantage of her and uses her for sex, and she stays with him. At one point she gets cut and avoids screaming or making a noise over it because she doesn’t want to make herself look like a pansy in front of him.

Blog Post 2: Love and Motherhood

In Salvage the Bones, Ward used the theme of love to introduce the relationships of each character. Skeetah,Randle,Junior and Esche all have a close nurturing connection with one another. The union started to develop after the passing of her mother while giving birth to junior. They all look out for on another and fill the void that there mother left behind. Randell helps clean the cut on Esche hand just like mama, and Esche uses vocabulary that was said by mama like the word "ordinary" on Junior. Which he mistook as the word "horny". Motherly themes of love echoe the pages of Chapter one and two. We have the relationship between the pregnant dog China and care taker Skeetah. China is in the process of delivering her first set of puppies and Skeetah is the only person China let's close to. The bound of Skeetah and China is something of complexity. To different species sharing a supportive based partnership  during the procedure of birth. Motherhood plays an important role later on in chapter two. Esche wants to be sensational like the women from her mythology. She wants to garner the attention of the young man named Manny. Who she feels isn't really getting her advances. She wants to build a stronger relationship with this person. While she has had plenty of sex, she doesn't feel satisfied, because of how hollow the circumstance turned out to be. Esche learns that through circumstances she becomes pregnant. "Something is actually living inside her" she states. Which closes out the chapter, introducing a whole new dynamic of love to the story. Hopefully we will see the strengthening of this family as the story progresses. Dad is preparing for a Hurricane, a weather anomaly that will test the love of these characters. Pregnancy is a big deal in the south, it's almost like a passage to adulthood. No longer will Esche love just herself but, now she has to keep in mind the well being of her own blood.

Alison Towell: Love in Salvage the Bones

In the first two chapters of Salvage the Bones, Ward writes about different kinds of love. There is familial love between the siblings.  The siblings stick together and had to step up because of the loss of their mother and their father’s drinking problem. There is Skeetahs love for China.  Skeetah loved China so much that he got a job cutting the grass at a graveyard so he could afford to buy her the most expensive food. When China is in labor, the only person she will let near her is Skeetah. The way Skeetah loves China is also expressed through touch, “When he touches my back with the puppy-free hand, I know this is how he touches China (Ward 26).” There is China’s love for her puppies, which is her new motherly instinct. This is a new instinct for China because she is widely known for her fighting abilities. There is Esch’s love for Manny, which is unreciprocated. Manny takes advantage of Esch and only uses her for sex. Manny has never even kissed Esch, “he had never even kissed me except like this, with his body, never his mouth (Ward 16).”  Manny’s actions are out of lust not love. Esch is commonly pushed around and does not have the ability to say no. Manny isn’t the only male character that treats her poorly, her father does as well. It seems as if the themes of love in this novel are not the traditional style of love portrayed in other stories.

These chapters leave me wondering what life was like before they lost their mother. Was their father a more caring man? Did Esch have more self-confidence?