Themes In Salvage The Bones

The novel “Salvage the Bones” started with the bible verse “See now that I, even I am he, and there is no god with me; I will kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, neither is there any can deliver out of my hand.” As the novel started with this verse, readers could expect to see a lot of painful experiences that involve life, death and painful events in the characters in the novel. The theme of loss and tragedy is one of the prominent themes that is being portrayed in this novel. The two characters that are affected badly by the theme of loss are Esch and Skeetah. Esch losing the love of her life: Manny, while Skeetah losing his precious dog, China. Through the loss and tragedy event, the readers could see how the characters develop and

They have an atypical, unique type of love. Skeetah loves China more than anything else. He does not just love her, he is obsessed with her. Skeetah and China’s relationship can best be shown up in the phrase “China is as white as the sand that will become a pearl, Skeetah black as an oyster, but they stand as one before these boys who do not know what it means to love a dog like Skeetah does.” (p 162) This is very contradict with the description of Skeetah’s personality in “those little firecrackers [you] get on the Fourth of July that throw out sparks from all sides” (p 73) The uses of the word firecrackers in this context can be interpreted as Skeetah is rigid and intense. But, the readers could see the compassionate side of Skeetah whenever he is with China. Skeetah is willing to do anything for China. The novel stared with the scene of Skeetah helping China to give birth to her first litter of puppies: “Skeetah crouches even closer to help [China]. He lays his hands on her” (8). During the birthing scene, the reader could see the soft, caring, compassionate side of Skeetah’s personality. Skeetah is very concern of the puppies. “Skeetah kneels behind China… [and] cleans the puppies” (9). Not only that, his love towards China and the puppies is so great that he is willing to steal from the neighboring White family that he knows has the medicine he needs for the dying puppies. ). However, Skeetah’s dogfighting does bring up conflicted feelings. But people fighting dogs usually do it not only for the money, but for the honor and pride. Another evidence of Skeetah’s love for China is, when China actually goes as far as killing one of her puppies, but Skeetah still loves China unconditionally though he needs the money by selling the