Caroline Condon Ms. DeDeo English 9 20 May 2024 Lil’ Tike Trauma In Jesmyn Ward’s novel, Salvage The Bones, the narrative strategy of ruthlessness is used to unveil the inner world of the characters, exposing their vulnerabilities and strengths. Set in rural Mississippi, the story follows the Batiste family as they navigate the challenges of poverty, love, and survival in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. Ward’s depiction of 7-year-old Junior, the youngest of the Batiste family, reflects the profound impact of hardship on someone at such a young age. Being the youngest in the family, Junior is desperate to be included in his siblings’ lives, despite their large age gap. His innocence and naivety are evident as he navigates the world …show more content…
Junior's eagerness to participate in the event stems from a desire to feel included, even though he is too young to attend alone. However, when Junior finally attends the dog fight with Esch, he is overwhelmed by fear and shock. As the showdown persists, Junior hides and “squats in the mimosa, still, his hands white on the branches, jerking as if he would break the wood” displaying his newfound sense of genuine fear, a quality unexpected in that of a 7-year old boy (176). However, this experience at the dog fight and the devastation of the following hurricane shaped his emotional and psychological development in significant ways. Junior becomes hyper aware of the dangers in his environment, especially after experiencing the violence of the dog fight. The morning after the fight, Esch walks up on Junior and to her surprise, “he jumps. there are bruises under his eyes, so he looks like a little brown nervous man” revealing the imprint the dog fight made on him (184). This heightened vigilance leads to a constant state of fear and anxiety as Junior navigates the uncertainties of his
First, Junior confronts the dreariness of the Wellpinit school system by deciding to transfer to the Reardan school system. Junior initiates this decision when he throws a book across the room upon discovering his mother’s name inscribed inside the cover. His outburst signifies Junior’s recognition of Wellpinit’s misery and desire to achieve. This ambition drives his decisions throughout the novel and defines his unique character. In addition, Junior discloses his decision to his parents with fearlessness and trepidation. Junior confesses, “I want to transfer schools... I want to transfer to Reardan” (Alexie 45). Junior’s bluntness highlights his fearless personality and validates his ability to confront his problems and tasks head-on. In complex situations, Junior possesses the skills to navigate his future. Finally, Junior’s ability to overcome problems appears in his ability to navigate his way to Reardan each day for school. With the uncertainty of gas money in his family, Junior often finds himself walking or hitchhiking to the school, however
One of these moments of loss of hope is when his grandma died by a drunk person on a motorcycle. His grandma has been his one savior in his life. When she died, Junior was really depressed and felt like giving up, but he still persisted because he remembers her final words “forgive him”. Junior’s sister, whom he loved dearly, also died in a house fire while she was passed out drunk. At this point, all hope was lost for Junior. However, he had courage and found a little bit of hope. That hope was Rearden. At Rearden, Junior learned many things. Junior found a new friend, Gordy who teaches him a lot about life, and was very wise. Junior also found love there too. Penelope was his love interest “almost girlfriend”, who really cared about him. Many people at Rearden were supportive of Junior and that inspired him to become the best person he could be. Junior’s coach was especially encouraging to Junior, he even went with Junior to the hospital and stayed up with him all night. An example of Rearden’s support was at two basketball games, one on the rez and one at Reardon. At the rez, all of Junior’s fellow tribe members were booing him, but at Reardon, all of his teammates cheered him up and told him he was going to do great. Junior realizes that he is the only one on his reservation that still has hope, his hope was hope for everyone on his
Courage and determination directed by passion make Junior a very admirable character. By sympathizing with Junior, the reader feels that Junior is inspiring. An early example of when the reader pitied Junior was when his dog Oscar was shot, who Junior considered to be “a better person than any human [he] had ever known” (Alexie, 9). Oscar had been sick, and since Junior’s family did not have enough money to care for him, Oscar was euthanized. Furthermore, Junior felt defeated, saying, “A bullet only costs about two cents, and anybody can afford that” (Alexie, 14). Everyone, especially poor people, can be plagued with death and despair. From the very beginning of the story, where the reader learns that Junior had a brain disability to the dreadful way he experienced poverty, the reader sympathizes with him because they are truly sorry for him. The reader wants him to succeed, to grow, and, above all, to inspire the readers themselves. Junior becomes a hero to the reader for soaring above what his life entailed for him.
Analyzing “How to Read Literature like a Professor” is easy, but on the other hand, to analyze “The Bonesetter’s Daughter” is a consuming task. The difficulty doesn’t lie in the grammar or the structure, but in employing the skills employed by Foster’s book. An unskilled reader would assume that Amy Tan’s novel: The Bonesetter’s Daughter, is just another novel written for entertainment purposes. To an untrained reader, there seems to be no author’s intent to use literary devices that would contextualize the deeper meaning that is usually found in fiction, mythology, and folklore. Instead the novel would seem nothing more than entertainment, but for a reader that isn’t just reading but also searching through the text for the literary devices
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
Junior and his grandmother are close. He appreciates spending time with his grandma because she always knows what to say. Junior becomes frustrated when she dies because she
Junior continuously persists and tries to make amends with Rowdy in order to save his friendship. This contributes to Junior’s maturity because he learns to never give up on the people he loves and cares for about so easily. Even when Junior realizes that the cartoon he draws for Rowdy does not help him think of how good of a team they are, this does not stop Junior from being committed towards their friendship. As Junior leaves Rowdy’s house after handing the cartoon to Rowdy’s dad, Junior observes, “I stopped at the end of the driveway and looked back. I could see Rowdy in the window of his upstairs bedroom. He was holding my cartoon. He was watching me walk away. And I could see the sadness in his face. I just knew he missed me, too. I waved at him. He gave me the finger…. But then i realized that Rowdy may have flipped me off, but he hadn’t torn up my cartoon. As much as he hated me, he probably should have ripped it to pieces” (Alexie 103). When Junior realizes that Rowdy still respects and cares about Junior’s cartoons, Junior still has hope in their friendship. Junior’s dedication to their friendship helps him mature because his perseverance towards making amends with Rowdy helps him learn to be more understanding and empathetic. This helps him conquer any obstacle with more patience and sensitivity. Not only does he never give up on his friendship with Rowdy, but also with his dream of becoming a basketball
Over the summer, after taking a break from reading a novel just for entertainment, I sat down to read How to Read Literature like a Professor and it was the exact novel to refresh and supplement my dusty analysis skills. After reading and applying Foster’s novel, How to Read Literature like a Professor, towards The Bonesetter’s Daughter I found a previously elusive and individualized insight towards literature. Although, The Bonesetter’s Daughter is full of cryptic messages and a theme that is universal, I was able to implement an individual perspective on comprehending the novel’s universal literary devices, and coming upon the unique inference that Precious Auntie is the main protagonist of the novel.
In the novel Lovely Bones written by Alice Sebold, relationships are put to the test when Susie Salmon is brutally murdered and taken away from the hands of her family. The author explores how the grief and pain felt from the death of a loved one impacts relationships in both positive and negative ways.
Overcoming grief is more than a theme in the book “The Lovely Bones,” written by Alice Sebold; it is something we all, as humans, have had to experience. In “The Lovely Bones,” the occurrence of Susie’s death caused her family, her friends, and even herself to become overwhelmed with great anguish. Whether it be running from it, dwelling on it, drowning it out, or living through someone else, each character has a different way of handling their problem.
He knows that he never wants to be like his father when he grows up. Alcohol also causes a lot of deaths in Junior’s life. His sister died in a terrible fire because she was too drunk to escape her burning RV. Junior was let out of school early because of his sister’s death. He has to wait for his father to come get him, and he laughs and he cannot stop laughing at the thought of his dad also dying on his way to pick Junior up, “.it’s not too comforting to learn that your sister was TOO FREAKING DRUNK to feel any pain when she BURNED TO DEATH!
The way that the funerals and deaths that happen to Junior impact him in an emotional way because he has to go through the funerals of loved ones many times that sometimes he doesn't know how to react. With the emotional impact, it shows how Junior deals with it. By emphasizing the funerals, it hooks readers to know more and keep turning the page.
One of the most meaningful drawing in this novel is the drawing of Junior himself. The obvious factor of Junior considering himself to be abnormal is very prominent in this drawing (p.5) Instead of his body parts being normal, they’re not
“Trauma is the psychoanalytic form of apocalypse, its temporal inversion. Trauma produces symptoms in its wake, after the event, and we reconstruct trauma by interpreting its symptoms, reading back in time.” (Berger 20) James Berger uncovers just how literary scholars have turned to notions of trauma as tools to examine historical catastrophe. The effects of catastrophe, as he claims, “may be dispersed and manifested in many forms not obviously associated with the event” this is a recurring theme in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. This dispersal happens when traumatic effects transpire that may seem unrelated to a traumatic event. Although it cannot be adequately contained or comprehended when it occurs, its impact is not felt until many years later. These repressed and unresolved effects will continue to haunt the present because the traumas have the ability to permeate throughout a person’s life events (past, present, and future).
The world has all different types of technology right now. Technology has influenced the world in some many different ways. There are multiple reasons how and why technology has influenced people in a bad way. Technology changed society from how it used to be to how it is now and will more in likely change again in five years. Technology is creating a society where people are dependent on technology and are taking over people and changing them completely.