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. 

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 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. 

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.