Esch's Coming of Age

In Salvage the Bones, Esch's position as the narrator places her perfectly for us to understand her and  her growth through the novel as the most important theme. We see her from the beginning struggling with the notion of womanhood an femininity in a world with no real female role model. This starting point is pivotal to understanding where she is left at the end, having learned a lesson through trial and error rather than through the advice of more wise women who might know better. Because she was never taught the things a mother teaches her daughter, like how to compose yourself around boys who might do what these boys did to Esch, (using her for sex) she is left at the end with one of these very same disrespectful boys continuing to disrespect her. Ignoring how titular and heart breaking this epiphany proved to be, this is a lesson she needed to learn; that people are not always the way you want them to be, that people you love will hurt you, and that giving someone all your love does not ensure that they will return it.

Choice of discussion: Katrina

After reading Salvage the Bones, I was left with this unnerving feeling of desolation for Esch and Batiste family. There was no way they could have prepared for the events that would unfold. Hurricane Katrina was a symbolic harbinger of destruction that left millions homeless and helpless. At the same note, the beauty of the formation was iconic. Katrina was a category five hurricane that topped record charts like a european exotic model. A Hurricane of class and a true work of natural art. She exhibits the unrelenting power and majesty of mother nature. Katrina is both a creator and a destroyer. The feminine imagery doesn't stop there. The symbolic link between motherhood runs throughout the subtext of the play. Being a mother takes sacrifice. It's damaging physically and mentally on a women, let alone someone who is as young as Esch. On the same note, it's one of the most awarding experiences in life. Hurricane Katrina is the symbolic incarnation of motherhood and a mirror to the inner nature of Esch's psychology towards her struggle through pregnancy. One can say the same chase for China. Being a mother isn't all pretty, but the reality of the situation is simple. You can prepare all you want for having a child. The process of child bearing can be unpredictable at times, it doesn't matter. The birth can arise from out of nowhere. Action is the only cure through childbirth. After that it's a whole new ball game, reconstruction. Building a family and making sure that child is feed. The problems with Katrina lasted for years. Motherhood doesn't stop at delivery. Esch's job has only began. Hopefully throughout all the destruction left in the wake of Katrina, the Batiste family will find a way. Just like they have for hundreds of years before. To salvage a new life, a fresh beginning, after she took it away from them.

Thoughts about Salvage the Bones

      One of the most interesting aspects of the books to me was how Esch adapted to the world around her. Since she had lost both of her parents, she started to look at Skeetah's dog China for guidance. This starts early on in the novel and when she decides to steal a pregnancy test from the store. Esch says that, "maybe its China that made me get it (Ward 30)." She had been throwing up every day and had become irregular. During an interaction with Manny, Esch remembers something Skeetah said to China. During a dog fight, he told her to make them know. Esch emulated this with Manny after telling him she was pregnant. She started repeatedly slapping him to the point that he bled all while thinking," make them know (Ward 203)". In the final chapter of the book, Esch makes more connections between herself and China. She states that China will come back and know that she is a mother. Because of the fight Esch endured, China will return and call her sister.

     Another part of the book that really stuck out to me was one of Big Henry's quotes. He had just found out Esch was pregnant and asked her who the father was. She replied back that the child did not have one. I'm not sure why she said this but his response was one of the greatest in the book to me. Big Henry replied that the "baby has plenty daddies (Ward 255)." Though Esch may be in a hard situation, she will have plenty of support from her family and friends. If Manny would be absent in the child's life, there would be plenty of guys who can step up and take his place in Esch's life. 

Esch's development and Katrina Connections

Throughout Salvage the Bones we watch Esch take steps to becoming a woman and coming to accept that she is a mother.  At the beginning of the book Esch is taken advantage of by her family and her brother’s friends. She slowly realizes that she is important and should not be over looked. A big development in this idea is when she forces many to look at her when they are having sex. “He will look at me,” Esch thinks, when she finally gets Manny to look at her she believes that he truly sees her (145-146). Throughout the book Esch went through a lot of changes and experiences that will help prepare her for both womanhood and motherhood. She also finds she should not be over looked.

Katrina can be seen as both a destructive and cleansing force.  Katrina can also be seen as a feminine power. You can see the way the male characters think of women through the way they address Katrina. Motherhood was an important theme in the book and while reading I made the connection between motherhood and Katrina.  Katrina can be seen as a mother-like character because it is part of Mother Nature. The Batiste family was nowhere near ready for Katrina even with how hard their father had tried to prepare. I believe that a connection between this and Katrina can be used to show you are never truly ready for motherhood no matter how much you try.

Gentlemen vs. Cad

Starting this post I was very torn with where to go in discussion. The reason being is that Salvage the Bones was well written and honestly there is plenty of room for reading between the lines and analyzing not only characters, but as well as milestones for individuals. Having said this I feel that I myself am more in tune with being able to speak about the conflicting characters such as Skeetah and Manny. While having read Salvage the Bones, it is truly apparent of how gender roles affect the characters both directly and indirectly. The cad of the novel, without a doubt in my mind, is Manny. Well more directly Manny is an ill-bred man, just an individual whom does not know how to treat women properly. Besides treating Esch rudely as she feels the need to care for him with everything she has, he is dishonorable to her. Not only is he dishonorable to her but as well as being completely disloyal to his friends, when he intentionally sleeps with Esch, throwing her into a pregnancy. Manny's character from my perspective was just the douche-bag of modern day society. I say this because I feel as though society has lost its touch with having gentlemen. I simply mean that now in day, gentlemen are not as apparent. Instead we have men whom make woman cry, cause women issues and anxiety beyond belief, simply because of gender roles. Salavage the Bones however does not only address this from our modern day society in men, but it also takes in the gentlemen aspect as well. The novel portrays this aspect through Skeetah. From the begining of the novel, ward wrote Skeetah as the loving care giving brother. He cared for China immediately we saw this from him taking care of her during her pregnancy in the first chapter then later as he care for her puppies as his own. In addition you see the amount of attention and care he as for Esch. Instead of being loved by someone who is willing to give their everything, and birth a child, Manny wants doesn't care as he should especially knowing that he is the father and he has responsibilities. While reading the novel I continuously felt as though the conflicting charcters was well written and portrayed through Skeetah the gentleman and Manny the cad.

Katrina As Motherhood

I know that motherhood is a major theme in "Salvage the Bones", and I was thinking how Hurricane Katrina was what caused Esch to have a major revelation. Hurricane Katrina is obviously an outcome of mother nature (coincidentally motherhood being another prominent theme of the book), and we see how mother nature nurtures life on earth, but on the other hand can completely destroy everything in sight. So it's a metaphor for an angry mother murdering all of her own children, even though Esch's family, with the exception of China, make it out alive. In the end we see how Esch no longer associates herself with Medea and begins to come to terms with motherhood. The final page (259), e see how the circle of motherhood is complete, and Esch's sweet quote to China.

Savage and Salvage Go Hand in Hand

(These are every rough thoughts for the paper) The words salvage and savage go hand in hand. depending on which way you look at the words. Salvage can be seen as thrifty or using your resources well instead of wasting them. It often has positive connotations and you were thought highly if you can salvage something. Now the word savage, is though to be rough, grizzly, and aggressive, at times, an overall bad trait, but for the Batiste family, it is one of the ways that they survive and they really can't afford to think of it in a bad light. For the main character Esch, she betrays both attributes interchangeably. She salvages things like relationship with men she sleeps with. and She salvages food out of the pit like the eggs her mother told her to find. Skeetah is both savage and salvageable. He's savage in that he fights his dog, other people at school, his own family for that matter. He hides blades in his teeth and is not afraid of blood or pain; he wants to be like China. He walks around in the nude in front of his family, swims in the pit, sleeps in the shed with his dog some nights, runs with China for hours and trains her to be vicious. He's also salvageable he knew even have medicine so he broke into in a local wealthy white farmer's house to steal cow worming medication for China. He took linoleum flooring from his grandparents house to provide a better floor for the puppies. He broke the puppy's neck knowing that it was suffering already, so he took it from it. He had cuts all over his body after breaking through the glass in the hurricane and yet he still ran out in the rain while it was pouring down looking for China; pain doesn't seem to bother him.