Conflicting Characters

Skeeta and Manny have been conflicting characters throughout most of the novel, even if they were not aware of it. The conflict between the two stemmed from the different ways that each of the boys embodied their masculinity. Skeeta embodies a “classic” type of masculinity where “being a man” is defined as caring for women, being a worthy friend, and being a supportive father. We see that Skeeta possesses these traits when he constantly protects Esch and China, when he remains loyal to his friends, and the when he cares for China’s puppies like they were his own children. However, in recent decades, we have seen a type of masculinity, that vastly differs from what was previously thought of as masculinity, grow. Many men now show their “manhood” by being disrespectful to women, not being loyal in relationships or friendships, and abandoning fatherhood. We see Manny embody this type of masculinity. Manny sleeps with Esch with no respect for her feelings or health (when she becomes pregnant), he crosses Skeeta and Randall by sleeping with Esch, and he does not care to be a respectable father to his own child that is soon to come. It is quite unfortunate that this is the way in which many “men” in our modern society choose to act. Ward shows the light that comes from the classic form of masculinity and the darkness that comes from the more modern form of masculinity quite well.

I believe gender roles in Bois Sauvage are not as one would expect given the southern rural setting. Being a Southerner, I am well acquainted with how gender usual functions in the South (especially rural environments). Growing up in New Orleans, Men usually did the handy work around the house and other physical labor while the Women would do activities inside the home such as housekeeping, food prepping, shopping, etc. In Salvage The Bones, one does not really see that with Esch's circumstances. Although she is the only woman in the house, her gender does not exempt her from activities her brothers would do. For example, when Esch has to help her Father with the dump truck. In this instance, her Father could have told her to send for her brothers to come do this physical, masculine-like labor. However, he makes her get involved in helping him defying expected gender roles in this setting. A good question now would be why does he defy them? I believe that Esch's mother has a lot to do with this. Esch's father has to be dominant parent now and in doing so he's molding all his children to be like him. There is no mother figure to sort of take Esch into that feminine world and show her how to do all the feminine things expected to be done by a woman in this book. Being under her father's care she is exposed more to masculine things and activities. In sum, I think gender doesn't work how one would expect it to given the setting and Esch's circumstances.

Gender Roles in Bois Savage: Will Blount

In the book, Ward writes about gender in an interesting way.  Bois Savage appears to be a place dominated by men and male roles.  For example, Ward writes, "We all share clothes, so its mostly men's T-shirts for me, loose jeans and cotton shorts." Esch even thinks her daddy sometimes forgets she's a girl.  Men have expectations to be strong and to work hard, while women are left to take care of young children and have a seemingly less "important" role.  Esch is left  alone in the family with only China as a maternal figure after her mother died.  She does not understand her role completely and is scared of the pregnancy because she does not know who to talk to.  The absence of the mother is clearly taking a toll. She feels alone in her stress of having a child because Manny, the father, appears unstressed and will not even look at her.  She loves him, yet despises his actions and the position she is in.  She is also worried that Manny thinks of her as weak because she is a female.  These pressures make it a rough time for Esch in the book.  

Gage Counts: No gender performance for Junior

In Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward creates a cast of characters which defies gender roles. For example, Esch is shown as doing every task that her brothers do, and no character attempts to change that. Randall was the primary person to raise Junior. While the novel is tinted with a criticism of gender performances, Ward lets us know the complexity of the situation, and that gender roles might be necessary.

Randall is shown to have raised Junior more than anyone else: "When he was a baby, Randall held him [Junior] the most, and I did the rest of the time" (91). This is meant to demonstrate that the world of Salvage the Bones is set up to defy traditional gender roles. Ward shows that this situation could have consequences which aren't easily resolved.

Esch recalls that when they all went to school, and Papa to work, Junior was left with Mudda Ma'am, who ran an informal day care. Esch says that Junior "never talks about her, never says her name even when we walk down to the park and see her wandering..." (ibid). She adds that she sometimes wonders if he remembers anything, "or if his head is like a colander, and the memories of who bottle-fed him, who licked his tears, who mothered him, squeeze through the metal like water to run down the drain..." (ibid). A possible explanation for this is that there was no dominant female, motherly gender performer in his life.

Gender roles are often hoisted onto others, but Ward shows that it might not be good if they're abandoned. Junior is the only child who didn't have his mother raise him, and a consequence of this is that he mentions nothing of his upbringing. We're led to believe that he mentions nothing because he remembers nothing. A failure to remember one's upbringing could be destructive to the growth of a person. While Ward seems to be a critic of gender (her writing at least allows that possibility), she also cautions that some roles - which are missing in Bois Sauvage - could be worth performing.

Blog 3: Gender Roles

In Bois Sauvage, gender roles are viewed differently by family and friends. In Esch's family, female roles are often preformed but with a masculine quality. Males are defiantly thought of as the dominate gender, but females can hold their own. The women of the pit (Esch and China) have been tough and strong, able to handle misfortune and death. Motherhood especially is not considered weak; Skeetah considers motherhood as, "when they come into they strength. They have something to protect."  Randall even takes on a motherly role toward Junior and sometimes Esch. He took care of Junior as a baby and still watches out for him now that he is older. Unfortunately, Esch thinks that her father even views her as a boy because she takes on her brothers masculine qualities of bravery and strength and even wears the same clothes. However, to friends like Manny, he looks down on females. He thinks that, " Any dog (human included) [that] gives birth...is less strong after...[it takes] a lot out of an animal to nurse and nurture." He thinks while they are able to care for their off spring it becomes difficult for them making them weaker. This even makes Esch wonder how Manny views her: “Does [he] think I am that weak…” 

Gender in "Salvage the Bones"

There are many ways that gender is portrayed a binary split between women and men, but there are also many other times when this line is blurred. Our protagonist, Esch, is surrounded by many male figures including her brothers, her father, her "lover" Manny, as well as many of her brother's friends. This in conjunction with the fact that she has no close female connections has caused her to take on many male roles and mannerisms. She does the same tasks her brothers do around the Pit and she wears the same clothes that her brothers wear. Esch even remarks that her Daddy forgets that she is a girl sometimes. Esch also does many tasks that are traditionally feminine like cooking and doing the laundry (but these tasks are shared also.)

This duality isn’t just seen on the female side, Esch’s brother Randall does tasks that are traditionally feminine. When their youngest brother, Junior, was a baby Randall and Esch took on the role of “mothering” him. Randall fed him, changed his diaper, and held him the most. Even now that Junior is bigger, he is always around Randall or being held by him. Randall who is seen as a basketball star takes the nurturing for little brother. Other characters perform gender in a very straight forward way like Manny and his girlfriend Shaliyah.

Manny, like Randall, plays basketball and is a notorious womanizer. He is holds strong views about it means to be to a man or a woman. He is described as expecting his girlfriend Shaliyah to do many of the household task in the trailer they share like doing the laundry. He also tells Skeetah that he thinks the act of motherhood is what makes females (human or feline) weak. His girlfriend Shaliyah presents herself in very feminine ways like in the way she dresses and acts (and even when she fighting other girls over Manny, I would argue.) She also does the things Manny expects of her like doing the laundry.

Gender Roles

Something I found interesting that helped portray Esch’s upcoming motherhood was how she acted towards skeetah with bandaging him up after he’d been cut up. I felt like this was to reflect herself in a motherly way, also as being the only girl it was somewhat a “duty” to act in this manner. There are definitely different expectations as far as gender goes in this book. Daddy specifically seeks out the boys while working on the truck, while only asking Esch to sit in the seat and start it when told. Esch was also thrown into the motherly position of the family after her mother died, seeing as next to Randall, she was taking care of Junior the most out of the rest of the family.  In Bois Sauvage, it seems that with regard to gender the female role is to do as told and manage the children while the male role is working and controlling the family.

                At this point Manny is obviously not meant to be a favorite character of the book. While trying to give China this special mixture that Skeetah had to fix, I found it interesting how Manny said that he didn’t want to come in because China didn’t like him, to which Skeetah replied that China likes everyone. Dogs are said to be a good judge of character, so I’m not sure if this was meant to continue to depict Manny as not the greatest person or just something in the story.