The Murderous Mother

Motherhood and death are key concepts in Salvage the Bones. In many instances throughout novel, motherhood led to death. The protagonist, Esch, has to deal with motherhood and death many times. She witnesses the death of her mother and grandmother, watches China give birth to her first litter and kill one of her puppies, and then discovers that she herself is becoming a mother to her own child. Motherhood is shown as a complex and even violent role. Esch frequently brings up the mythological character Medea, who kills her own children, and endures the violence of Hurricane Katrina. Esch has very extreme examples of what it means to be a mother. On one hand, her mother and grandmother are dead. The other maternal figures that she knows—Medea, China, and even Katrina—murder their own children. It seems like Esch has two choices: kill or be killed by this child in her belly.

This catch-22 manifests itself in Esch’s denial and avoidance of her pregnancy especially with all the other issues she has to deal with. As the only girl in a family of men, Esch has no one to show her what else motherhood could be. She was also living in a poor and “wild” setting in rural Mississippi. Her child’s father, Manny, is very manipulative and doesn’t treat her very well. She is ignored a lot as everyone else has their own things to deal with. Esch is also not particularly nice to herself. She feels like she has few good qualities including her hair and her physicality—whether it’s sex, swimming, or running. As Esch experiences more throughout the book her idea of what motherhood begins to shift. When she has come to accept her pregnancy and see her child’s father for who he really is she begins to become stronger and sees the strength in motherhood as not only a murderous quality.

Being a mother is incredibly hard and sometimes the consequence is death. But the strength that comes from survival is also an important result of motherhood. In the aftermath of Katrina, Esch, finds that are many more dynamics of mothering. Randall holding on to Junior and comforting him throughout the storm and Big Henry’s mother helping her Dad are also what a mother can be. In the end it seems as though Esch furthers herself from Medea and begins to form her own definition of what it means to be a mother.