“Salvage the Bones" is a young woman's coming-of-age story in the face of the devastating hurricane, written by Jesmyn Ward. Esch is a fifteen year old pregnant teenager, who lives in poverty in a rural town in Mississippi, and has no parental guidance or structure in her life. Esch's coming- of-age narrative is complicated because she is pregnant, has no relationship with the father of her child, and the reality she lives in. Author Jesmyn Ward gives us a different perspective on the bildungsroman. Esch not only has to come of age for her own identity, but she also must learn to mature and grow up more quickly for the sake of her child. The result is a difficult narrative where the development of herself not only affects her, but also her …show more content…
unborn baby. Esch, by being the narrator, places her in the position for us understand her personal growth and development through the novel, which is really an important theme throughout the entire novel.
From the very beginning, we notice her struggling with even the thought of womanhood (the thought of wanting to self-abort the baby) and as well as femininity in a world, being surrounded by only men and not having any female role-models or elders. This beginning start is the focus point to understanding where we see her at the end. Esch has learned through herself through trial and error rather than having the advice of wise women who could pre-warn her and know better. Esch’s experiences with the father of her child go beyond the typical “coming of age” infatuation. The reality of their relationship and Esch’s perception of it: “I wonder if Medea felt this way before she walked out to meet Jason for the first time, like a hard wind come through her and set her to shaking." By comparing herself to Medea of Greek mythology reflects a difficult reality and ambiguity. This reality makes her story more intricate and goes beyond the traditional coming of age vision. The condition of the pregnancy causes Esch to introspect and view her world through her own eyes and the eyes of “the other”. It is for this reason that she is multi-layered and far from …show more content…
simple. Another reason why Esch’s narrative is so complex and different from traditional “coming of age” stories is because of the reality in which she lives.
The world of the Baptiste family live in, presents many arduous challenges to the protagonist. Esch is an African American young girl who lives in an economically challenged world of Bois Sauvage. After living in “The Pit” with her family which consists of only men, Esch comes to associate a sense of toughness and gritty brutality that underlines her reality. In disparity to customary coming of age set ups where childbirth is purely simplistic, life is brutal and extremely hard, all of the time; Which is the reason as to why toughness and determination is needed to endure the conditions. This can be seen in the perception of mother and child, where toughness and a sense of determinism is required and sometimes, at times probably not
enough. The financial predicament that Esch's family is in, enhances their struggle and only makes things more difficult for them. Entering into their world and “the pit” is filled with struggle and challenge to survive with basic necessities. This reality is another example of what makes Esch's coming of age a challenging one, and gives her the strength to grow. There is nothing unchallenging in this life of her’s and her family's, little in way of a protective realm where comfort can be experienced. Being in her situation is similar to Hurricane Katrina that is coming frantically on the individuals who can least afford to take on its fury. Adding to this difficult life is the roles of gender and gender norms. Esch is not a traditional teen. For all practical purposes, she is a woman who is facing an unexpected pregnancy, and must deal with the consequences of her actions. This is shown throughout the novel, in her pregnancy, and wrestling with the difficulties that this brings. Esch is also not not a regular teenager in how she goes about understanding her own emotions, her current situations and issues, along with her place in the world. When she speaks of Manny, the father of her child who barely acknowledges her and denies their child, it shows the issues of yearning and of something larger. Esch shows this with statements like “He makes my heart beat like that, I want to say, and point at the squirrel dying in red spurts” and “In every one of the Greeks' mythology tales, there is this: a man chasing a woman, or a woman chasing a man. There is never a meeting in the middle.” This gender-based world where women undergo a difficult view with the world around them intensifies Esch's coming of age narrative. Her thoughts and inquiries are not the basic teenager asking questions about their own being. Esch’s thoughts reflect a young girl whose encounters with the world have caused her to hold little other than questions about who she is and where she fits in with the world.
Diane Urban, for instance, was one of the many people who were trapped inside this horror. She “was comforting a woman propped against a wall, her legs virtually amputated” (96). Flynn and Dwyer appeal to the reader’s ethical conscience and emotions by providing a story of a victim who went through many tragedies. Causing readers to feel empathy for the victims. In addition, you began to put yourself in their shoes and wonder what you would do.
The themes explored in the novel illustrate a life of a peasant in Mexico during the post-revolution, important themes in the story are: lack of a father’s role model, death and revenge. Additionally, the author Juan Rulfo became an orphan after he lost
Sanchez voices her fictional narrator with precipitous diction. As her tone fluctuates, she guides listeners into the narrator’s mind, granting them a second hand experience of the occurrence and aftermath of trauma. As the characters are humanized, they are recognized as victims of systemic violence rather than condemned and typified as weak or criminal. Finally, the consequences of addiction culminate when the child is sold, raped, and stripped of her sense of security. Surely, it would be absurd to hold her accountable for these acts.
Life for young Elva Treviño Hart was less than ideal and in her autobiography, Barefoot Heart she vividly explains the back-breaking work, financial hardships, and emotional struggles a migrant worker faces. Influenced by the struggles of day-to-day life, migrant work, school life, and society, Elva was shown over and over again what life would be like if she did not make an effort to change her predestined life. All too commonly people like Elva Treviño who are born into poverty will remain living in such conditions for the rest of their lives; however, growing up in poor conditions will have a great positive influence the life decisions someone like Elva makes.
Modern society believes in the difficult yet essential nature of coming of age. Adolescents must face difficult obstacles in life, whether it be familial, academic, or fiscal obstacles. In the House on Mango Street, Esperanza longs for a life where she will no longer be chained to Mango Street and aspires to escape. As Esperanza grows up on Mango Street, she witnesses the effect of poverty, violence, and loss of dreams on her friends and family, leading her to feel confused and broken, clinging to the dream of leaving Mango Street. Cisneros uses a reflective tone to argue that a change in one’s identity is inevitable, but ultimately for the worst.
There are multiple reasons why a book can be banned or challenged. Book banning causes the removal of materials in schools and libraries due to “inappropriate” content. The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, was banned due to sexual content and language.
Several encounters shape how the author sees migrants and increase his disagreement with the ideals he learned in the academy. As he tries to help a mother looking for his son, the idea of a humanized man evokes. He understands that people care for the migrants and he feels identified with the woman’s attitude, as he has seen it in his
From there on she continues to talk about her adolescence where she quickly learned about the threat of physical abuse and molestation towards young girls. She did not continue with school pat the age of 9 and in her small job of working in the local market she was confronted with true and absolute poverty on a daily basis. She got pregnant at age 15. At 16 she had her first fist fight with her abusive physically brother. And at 17 met the father of her other future children. While with this man, Rafael Canales, she learned first hand the hardships of poor domestic life. She also learned to assert herself even towards her own husband.
Familial influence can have a great impact on a protagonists’ life decisions and future, whether it be a lack of paternal guidance or cultural expectations. This can be seen in the life of Yunior, the protagonist in Junot Diaz’s Drown. Yunior immigrated to the USA from the Dominican Republic when he was little shortly after, his dad left the family and went to live with another woman. This lead to Yunior’s mom becoming a single mother and the breadwinner of the house. The focus of this essay will be on the chapter in the book called “Drown”. In the chapter Yunior remembers his adolescence with his friend Beto and their life in their Dominican dominated neighborhood. The chapter showcases the financial struggles of Yunior and his family along
As often claimed that love runs out, this book shows a different story. Love is challenged, but will not run out. In Salvage the Bones, Esch is challenged with the hard decision of keeping her baby or not due to many reasons. Some of these reasons would include, her mother passing away, her age, and lastly, her love for Manny.
In the age of industrialization when rural life gradually was destroyed, the author as a girl who spent most of her life in countryside could not help writing about it and what she focuses on in her story - femininity and masculinity, which themselves contain the symbolic meanings - come as no surprise.
...ed by the ancient symbol of fear, conveys the child's panic. The mother's approach is a source of terror for the child, written as if it is a horror movie, suspense created with the footsteps, the physical embodiment of fear, the doorknob turns. His terror as 'he tries to run' but 'her large hands hold him fast' is indicative of his powerless plight. The phrase, 'She loves him...' reiterates that this act signifies entrapment as there is no reciprocation of the ‘love’. It is ironic that her love is deemed 'the frightening fact'. Clearly this form of love will destroy his innocence, his freedom to think for himself, his ability to achieve emotional fulfilment. We sense the overpowering, suffocating nature of this form of love, but also the nature of American cultural imperialism, which is similarly stifling to the development of national identity and fulfilment.
Family is one of the most important institutions in society. Family influences different aspects of a person’s life, such as their religion, values, morals and behavior. Unfortunately, problems may arise when an individual’s belief system or behavior does not coincide with that of family standards. Consequently, individuals may be forced to repress their emotions or avoid acting in ways that that are not acceptable to the family. In the novel The Rain God, written by Arturo Islas, we are presented with a story about a matriarchal family that deals with various conflicts. One major internal conflict is repression. Throughout the novel the characters act in strange ways and many of the family members have internal “monsters” that represent the past that they are repressing. In his article, “The Historical Imagination in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God and Migrant Souls”, Antonio C. Marquez’s implicitly asserts a true idea that The Rain God is a story about repression. Marquez’s idea can be supported from an analysis of secondary sources and a reading of the primary text.
Challenges for women such as childbearing and childbirth are exacerbated for women whose role as child bearers can be dangerous in such extreme conditions. Chapter 6 is where Agnes voices the story of one of the most traumatic events in the novel. Agnes describes in gruesome detail her foster mother
Belize has some of the same social hindrances today as they did in the 1950’s, almost 63 years later, such as gender inequality. Beka, the protagonist, has a best friend name Toyce who is a seventeen year old girl attending school with Beka. Both of them attend a Catholic Private school, until Toyce became pregnant during her last year of school and is expelled. However, Emilio, the boy who impregnated Toyce, did not face any consequences. Toyce’s pregnancy, abandonment of Emilio, and expulsion from school led Toyce to her own demise after suffering mental issues. The chain of events which led to Toyce’s death is prevalent because it displays that gender differences in Belize, which also affected Beka. Toyce was left alone, pregnant and uneducated while Emilio continued his education to become a success in Belize. Toyce was Beka’s idol at the beginning of the book, but her death caused Beka to reevaluate her life and decisions. In fact after Toyce’s death, Beka won a writing contest, which gave her a feeling of accomplishment and relief. Beka realized that she could be more than a Belizean living in poverty and living her life thoug...