Salvage The Bones Esch Quotes

Society has come a long way in the concept of gender roles and femininity in the past few decades. Even so, there are still places in this country and even the world where women are not viewed and respected as equals to men. Sometimes not even in the traditional setting, where a woman is to start a family and honor her husband, but where if a woman cannot provide anything she is seen as useless. The fictional novel Salvage The Bones, written by Jesymn Ward, portrays this twisted reality. Set in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina, the story follows teenage Esch as she struggles through poverty, violence, and an unwanted pregnancy. Esch constantly expresses feeling less than her brothers, and the men in her life validate it, even if indirectly.

The few examples she has are her own mother and grandmother, who both passed away when Esch was really young. Without stable parental figures raising the family, their gender roles contrast what is typically seen in a household. Esch’s older brothers both step in as mother figures. Skeetah to his dog; Randall to Junior. This further affects Esch’s view of her own becoming a mother and where she stands as a woman. To begin, Esch has major self-esteem issues and struggles with feeling like she has little to no value. After her mother passed away, she is kind of left to be the only girl around and she expresses feeling alone. Esch easily gets dismissed by her brothers and their friends; the only friend that ever shows any care and pays attention is Big Henry. He is said to have stepped in as a father figure for Esch since her own is not of much reliance. Ward portrays their bond as something different and special as opposed to how Esch feels about all the other guys in the neighborhood. She hears them when they talk negatively or selfishly and it upsets her. Even her father shows distaste towards women, and though it is indirect, it still hurts

She hears every little thing that the people in her life spit out and she holds onto them. Whether it is a nasty insult or an unintended remark, she feels either attacked or just plain unsafe. This, in no way, helps Esch feel any better about herself or the idea of her own womanhood. Another fact that askews Esch within her femininity is how easily objectified she gets. She spends the majority of the novel yearning for just some simple intimacy with Manny, the father of her unborn baby. He never gives it to her, even when all she wants is for him to look at her and show the slightest amount of care for her existence. “Esch. Manny says it like he’s disappointed, like he doesn't know who this girl who reached out to touch him is. Naw Esch, you know it ain't like that, he says, and the pain comes to me all at once, like a sudden deluge.” (Ward 55-56) Esch states very early in the book that she is undoubtedly, irrevocably in love with Manny. She has loved him since she first ever saw him making love to a girl, which was so passionate and true. She longs to get loved like that, but her need for him is not satisfied because it is only sex for