Gender Roles In Salvage the Bones

In the fifth day of Salvage the Bones, we see that Esch begins to feel very lonely. This is extremely evident when she feels as if she cannot share that she is pregnant, as well as unable to talk over her options with anyone. At one point she begins to think that she might be able to tell Skeetah, but after some deliberation she realizes she cant tell Skeetah something that she is unable to admit to herself. She begins to mull over the thought that killing her child would be much easier. She thinks about drinking bleach, taking a months worth of birth control, and even hitting herself in the stomach so hard this it will cause a miscarriage. This is all because she feels trapped. She is the only female in this story and feels as if she has no one to talk to. she says “Who would bring me to the health department, Daddy, who sometimes forgets that I am a girl? Big Henry, One of our only friends who can drive? Manny? Teeth-in-the-dark-Manny?” I believe Esch’s gender makes her feel trapped and that she has absolutely no one to talk to. She is letting this responsibility of a child rest on her shoulders; it is too much for a child her age to handle alone. Manny should equally share responsibility of the child, and because of her gender role in the story, the lack of female influence or even presence and her feelings of being trapped, she is unable to take care of pregnancy properly.