Salvage the Bones is a fiction novel, which is considered a novel about Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi. However, I think this book should be characterized by how each member of the family deals with the adversity and problems of their own life without money or the guidance of a mother. The main character, Esch, tells the story in a personal, affectionate, melancholy, reflective, sentimental, and sympathetic tone. Esch is maltreated by the power of being a young woman and her experience of being a pregnant teenager out –of- wedlock. Her energetic, diligent brothers (Randall, Skeetah, and Junior) are very protective of her like China’s puppies but, she is a contradiction of emotions in her vulnerability and asset. When Esch learns mythology, …show more content…
she compares these stories to her personal struggles and the understanding of love. Throughout the book, the story correlates to the themes of survival, femininity, family, love, mythology, attitudes toward women, strengths and weaknesses, and nature’s harsh and life-giving power. As I read the book, I thought of it as a poem bursting with literary devices such as simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, parallelism, foreshadowing, and mythological allusion.
As a whole, the book is an extended metaphor of the myth about Medea and the quest for the Golden Fleece through Esch‘s perspective, which links to Hurricane Katrina, her relationship with Manny, and China’s motherhood (the dog). For instance, “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 meeting in the middle” (32). This statement about Medea’s relationship with Jason relates to Esch’s love life and pregnancy. Esch states, “When Medea falls in love with Jason, it grabs me by the throat. I can see her. Medea sneaks Jason things to help him: ointments to make him invincible, secrets in rocks. She has magic, could bend the natural to the unnatural. But even with all her power, Jason bends her like a young pine in a hard wind; he makes her double in two. I know her” (38). In this quote, Esch sympathized with Medea because she can relate to how Medea’s supernatural abilities cannot rescue her from a heartbreak, which Esch experienced with Manny. Thus, she understands her own power as a fighter, mother, and a lover, which she often identifies with China to fuse love and violence, will remain defenseless to her
despair Esch’s father states, “The Strom, it has a name now. Like the worst, she’s a woman. Katrina” (124). Living in a man’s world, Esch ponders about the relations of violence and destruction to womanhood like Hurricane Katrina. In her mind, her dad alluded to the outcome of the pregnancy as her feminine power destroying things like Katrina. Furthermore, she continues to find her perseverance through her tortured relationship with Manny, the myth of Medea, and her observations of China’s violence toward her love and children. In the end, Esch thinks of Hurricane Katrina as Medea and “the murderous mother who cut us the bone but left us alive, left us naked and bewildered as wrinkled newborn babies, as blind puppies, as sun-starved newly hatched baby snakes” (255). After analyzing literature in English class, this book contains a lot of figurative and poetic language, which m¬¬¬¬akes the book unique in its narrative and structure. Overall, I really enjoyed Ward’s use of figurative language to make the book come alive.
The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat Talking about the culture brought throughout this book, you’re looking at Latin American culture, specifically the Dominican/Haitian cultures. As I read this book, beyond the many numerous ways she worded her sentences and how the characters spoke, they often spoke with a definant difference than you would hear here in common U.S. language. They would constantly use inferences to what they were talking about, rather than being direct to what they were saying. Things like, “they say we are the burnt crud at the bottom of the pot.” –Amabelle, this is Amabelle talking to her lover, Sebastian, about how there’s talk about the field workers and the housemaids to the Dominicans, and them being “nothing”, inferring that they are poorer than the Dominicans.
Edwidge Danticat novel, The Farming of Bones, provides readers with an understanding of the relations of Haitians and Dominicans by chronicling the Haitians escape from the Dominican Republic following the parsley massacre and emphasizing the importance of remembering the past. Though it is a work of fiction, Danticat is able to present characters and plot points that illustrate the racial and ethnic relations between Haiti and The Dominican Republic that led to the spread of antihaitianismo. The main themes of the novel explores the impact of nationalism and the formation of ethnic/racial formation through the characters actions which allows the reader to understand the ethnic/racial tension occurring at the time on a much personal level,
The genre is “fiction, a supernatural thriller, and a bildungsroman” (Key Facts, 1). The Lovely Bones is written in first person. The novel is said to be complex, a distant place, and then a time of grieving from a loss of an innocent child who was murdered (Guardian, 1). The view of Heaven presented in The Lovely Bones is where you do not have to worry about anything, you get what you want, and understand why you want it. In this novel, Suzie teaches her family what she had learned from her life. The climax of the novel is when Suzie is able to achieve her dream to grow up when Heaven allows her to inhabit Ruth’s body and then make love Ray (Key Facts, 1). One fact about the novel The Lovely Bones is that the beginning of the book is famous for its intense descriptions on Suzie Salmon’s rape that she had to endure. It has been said from many people that The Lovely Bones is the most successful novel since Gone with the Wind (Spring, 1). The Lovely Bones was on the best-seller lists for several months in 2002 (Alice,
In the story of Medea, the author, Euripides, addresses the topics of foreignism and female roles in the ancient Greek society. In the play, Medea, a foreign born woman, marries Jason, a Greek man, and moves to Greece to be with him after leaving her homeland with death and devastation. Then, when their marriage fails, Medea lashes out against Jason, causing her own exile and murdering her children, to which she has no love connection, and Jason’s new wife in the process. The main character, Medea, confirms many of the alleged Greek prejudices against foreigners and creates some prejudices of her own in return. Medea’s foreign roots and misconceptions, as well as her familial and societal atrocities,
With no husband, no country to turn to, and no one she can really depend on for rescue, Medea is trapped by her circumstances. Instead of becoming crushed, however, Medea turns it against those she hate. She attacks the weaknesses in her enemies’ character. Knowing Jason would feel guilty about his abandonment, Medea sent her own children to deliver the poisoned gifts, despite the certain death her children would face being involved in such a plot. Knowing the princess would not resist flashy gifts, she cursed the dress and crown. Knowing the king’s love for his daughter would cause him to rush to her aid, Medea formulated the curse to spread to those who touched the daughter as well. As each facet of her plan had to be executed perfectly to succeed, Medea demonstrated the full potential of her capabilities. She proves that when a society completely scorns and devalues women, everyone will pay as women are incredibly strong.
The book the “The Bonesetter's Daughter” is by author Amy Tan. The book genre is fiction. The setting of the book takes place in two different eras. One is modern and the other decades before. The book takes place during the Civil War era, which took place during the 1840s in China. The main characters are Ruth, her mother Luling, Art, Ruth’s her husband, Kaijing, Luiling’s husband, and Precious Auntie. The story is about how a mother and daughter never had the best communication of their relationship, they always had trouble getting along. Later as she got older her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. As she's going through these obstacles she found her mother's
Medea is one of the most fascinating and most powerful women in Greek mythology. Medea is a woman of extreme behavior and extreme emotion. For her passionate love for Jason, she sacrificed all, committing unspeakable acts on his behalf. But his betrayal of her has transformed passion into rage. Whether divine or mortal, Medea was a priestess, a woman wise in herbal lore, a healer, a powerful, numinous, and luminous woman. What lends tragic literature its proximity to human nature is that the border between being a tragic villain and a tragic hero is extremely thin.
One world up above where they can watch over the ones below. Susie in The Lovely Bones she has restricted use and effects on earth, because she is in heaven up above. Alice Sebold portrays these events through the view of Susie Salmon, Susie have the ability to know what everyone is thinking. Sebold shows that young love have many differences to those that are also in love, but mature. Susie the narrator, attitude toward the lover of young and old also is different. There is also a unique character in the novel, his name is George Harvey, and his view on love is extremely different.
In Medea, a play by Euripides, Jason possesses many traits that lead to his downfall. After Medea assists Jason in his quest to get the Golden Fleece, killing her brother and disgracing her father and her native land in the process, Jason finds a new bride despite swearing an oath of fidelity to Medea. Medea is devastated when she finds out that Jason left her for another woman after two children and now wants to banish her. Medea plots revenge on Jason after he gives her one day to leave. Medea later acts peculiarly as a subservient woman to Jason who is oblivious to the evil that will be unleashed and lets the children remain in Corinth. The children later deliver a poisoned gown to Jason’s new bride that also kills the King of Corinth. Medea then kills the children. Later, she refuses to let Jason bury the bodies or say goodbye to the dead children he now loves so dearly. Jason is cursed with many catastrophic flaws that lead to his downfall and that of others around him.
In Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward parallels the mythological story of Medea to highlight her representation of women. The use of Medea, who is embodied in various aspects within the three main female characters, allows Ward’s work to obtain a sense of universality from Greek mythology. Also with the incorporation, Ward is able to change the view of “blackness” that has plagued southern literature written by African-American authors. Salvage the Bones occurs in Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, following Esch,who has just found out she is pregnant, and her poor family just days before the catastrophic Hurricane Katrina. Complimentary to the tension with the looming natural disaster, love is in the air between some of the characters. Medea, an anti-hero,
Because of Medea’s strange way of thinking, the reader is able to identify with her. Although she wishes to harm Jason, Medea does not care who else gets hurt along the way. “Ah, lost in my sufferings, I wish, I wish I might die,” (pg. 692, line 97-8). She is able to convince the reader with her first line that her suffering has been so awful, that there is no longer any point in living. Before truly understanding what is going on in the game, Medea is able to get many people on her side.
Medea’s illegitimate marriage and the betrayal of Jason drive Medea to extreme revenge. Medea chooses to act with her immortal self and commit inhumane acts of murder rather than rationalize the outcomes of her actions. Medea see’s this option as her only resort as she has been banished and has nowhere to go, “stripped of her place”. To create sympathy for Medea, Euripides plays down Medea’s supernatural powers until the end of the play. Throughout the play Medea represents all characteristics found in individual women put together, including; love, passion, betrayal and revenge. Medea’s portrayal of human flaws creates empathetic emotions from the audience. The audience commiserates with Medea’s human flaws as they recognize them in themselves. Medea plays the major role in this play as she demonstrates many behavioral and psychological patterns unlike any of the other Greek women in the play; this draws the audience’s attention to Medea for sympathy and respect.
The stories characters, Medea and Jason, can be seen as representations of two different responses to life. For hundreds of years, society has judged each others actions and reactions based on just cause. This story, to me, has a type of underlying theme that drags the reader into a moral debate, which forces you to really question your own belief system.
This mutual suffering between Medea and the Chorus raises issues such as the treatment of women at the time when this play was written. When Medea married Jason, she married herself to him for life. She was expected to be totally obedient and to accept whatever her husband willed. For her to look upon another man other than her husband would have been totally unacceptable. Whereas Jason marries another woman while he...
Medea is a tragedy of a woman who feels that her husband has betrayed her with another woman and the jealousy that consumes her. She is the protagonist who arouses sympathy and admiration because of how her desperate situation is. I thought I was going to feel sorry for Medea, but that quickly changed as soon as I saw her true colors. I understand that her emotions were all over the place. First, she was angry, then cold and conniving. The lower she sinks the more terrible revenge she wants to reap on Jason.