Mallory Topel
Rolf Samuels
VUSM 260
7 December 2018
Motherly Knowledge in Ward’s Salvage the Bones
Many people, when considering what qualities a mother should have, consider words such as nurturer, provider, or instructor. The mothers in Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones maim when they should nurture, take when they should provide, and confuse when they should instruct. Esch, who has recently found out that she is pregnant, is left to navigate what maternal care looks like. Since her mother died when she was young and her father has not remarried, she is left without a mother figure in a world dominated by male presence. When children do not have a mother figure, they look to other women in their surroundings to determine what it is to be a mother. With no mother figure to learn from, Esch’s violent concept of what it means to be a mother was created by observing China, Medea, and Hurricane Katrina.
When girls don’t have a human mother – biological or otherwise, they must look to other female figures in their lives to determine what it means to be a mother. In Esch’s case, her mother died while she was a young girl, and her father has not remarried. Studies have found that “attachment bonds with mothers . . . typically date from birth” (Marks). In this way, all of the Baptiste children were affected by their mother’s death, even Junior, who was born just before her death. Esch’s attachment is different from that of any of her brothers in that she is old enough to have some memory of her mother, which is different from her younger brother, but too young to have vivid memories like her brothers. It has been proven that “caregivers must be present and accessible in order for their children to become attached to them” (Howard). In this way, Esch is affected by her mother’s absence in a different way than Junior is. This separation at an early age has been proven to be “linked to insecure/disorganized attachment and subsequent mental health problems” (Howard). This insecure / disorganized attachment is definitely shown in Esch’s obsession with Manny and her multiple sexual partners by the age of fourteen. It also also been found that “the degree to which a separation affects child outcomes likely depends on the reason for the separation.” (Howard). Since Esch’s mother does not choose to abandon their family, she passes away, it is likely that Esch does not hold any animosity towards her mother, leaving her grieving years after the death.
Because Esch’s mother passed away, her father has not taken another wife, and none of her brothers seem to have any girlfriends of any kind, Esch and China, Skeetah’s fighting dog, are the only feelings in the Baptiste household. China becomes pregnant before Salvage the Bones begins, and in this way, China becomes Esch’s first model, or at least the first model that we hear of in the story, of what a mother should be like. At the beginning of the story, China violently gives birth to her first litter of puppies. Esch mentions that one of the puppies is “her mother’s daughter” and that she is a “fighter” (ADD PAGE NUMBER). From the very beginning, we see that Esch sees China as both a mother and a fighter, which are not things that most people would put together. When Manny and Skeetah are discussing China fighting soon after she gave birth, Manny remarks, “Any dog give birth like that is less strong after. Even if you don’t think it. Take a lot out of an animal to nurse and nurture like that. Price of being female." (ADD PAGE NUMBER). Following this line, Manny looks over at Esch, and it can be assumed that Manny may have been directing some of the comment at her. This implies that Manny believes that women are weaker once they have become mothers. While, he does not know that Esch is pregnant yet, there is an implication that Manny believes that females are the weaker sex anyways, mother or not. However, Skeeth rebuffs, while glancing at Esch, that women are stronger after giving birth because they now have “something to protect” (ADD PAGE NUMBER). From China, Esch learns that being a mother does not make someone weak; as Skeetah puts in, once women become mothers “they come into strength.” (ADD PAGE NUMBER). Later, Skeetah remarks, “To give life . . . is to know what’s worth fighting for. And what’s love.” In this way, China serves as a way to show that females can be both strong fighters and caring mothers. Throughout the rest of the novel, China maims, devours, and deprives several of her puppies. In one case, China violently grabs one of her puppies by the neck and throwing it across the room. In this specific instance, Esch compares China to Medea, saying that she is “bloody-mouthed and bright-eyed as Medea” (ADD PAGE NUMBER). This leads Esch to ask the question “Is this what motherhood is?” (ADD PAGE NUMBER). Yet again, Esch is taught by the closest living thing she has to a mother figure that motherhood is related to violence. Esch takes this knowledge and uses it later against the father of her baby. When Manny denies that the baby is his, Esch attacks him, saying that she is “on him like China” (page number). Having learned from China that one must do what one needs to to protect one’s young, Esch attacks her baby’s father in order exact revenge against him.
Stories can be influential on young persons’ lives as well; many times, storie are used as a way to teach children morals and how people should act. In order to escape her poverty stricken circumstances, Esch often thinks about the Greek myths she reads about and is fascinated with, specifically the story of Jason and Medea. Medea, a Greek mythological figure, is mother to two children whom she ends up murdering to exact revenge on her cheating husband. Esch ponders on this cruel action quite often throughout the novel. Esch seems to relate her unstable relationship with Manny to Medea’s relationship with Jason. She says, “Here is someone that I recognize.” and that when Medea falls in love with Jason “it grabs me [Esch] by the throat” (page number). She goes on to talk about how helpful Medea is to Jason, but in the end, he leaves her for another woman. When Esch remarks “I know her [Medea]”, one can assume that Esch does not actually know Medea (page number). Instead, she means that she knows how it feels to give your all to a man and have him toss you aside anyway. Esch reacts similarly to Medea when Manny crosses the final line for Esch, saying that the baby is not his. While she does not murder him, she attacks him violently. In regards to her method of attack, Esch remarks, “This is Medea wielding the knife. This is Medea cutting. I rake my fingernails across his face, leave pink scratches that turn red, fill with blood” (page number). There is something remarkably feminine in the way that Esch fights with Manny. She does not punch him or kick him; she uses her nails to scratch him. In this way, Medea has taught Esch that it is okay to attack someone you loved who has hurt you.
Specifically in Salvage the Bones, Esch looks to the coming storm as a guiding motherly example. While this may not be an event that is related for most people, it shows just how desperate Esch is for mother figures. Because the storm has a female name, Katrina, Esch begins to think of the storm as yet another motherly figure to her. Esch’s father even seems to think that because the storm has a female name that it will be a worse storm. He comments, "The storm, it has a name now. Like the worst, she's a woman. Katrina." This may also be in reference to the other bad storm we learn of in the novel, Elaine. Yet again, the reader sees women represented as beings that can cause irreparable damage. Hurricane Katrina is a notoriously catastrophic Category Five hurricane that killed thousands of people. At a first glance, Katrina appears to be the exact opposite of what we would consider motherly. However, in keeping with the other mothers in the novel, Katrina is just another representation of a murderous mother. Esch herself feels the dangerous arm of the storm. When Esch is pushed into the water, she mentions that “the hurricane slaps me [Esch]” and that “it is a fanged pink open mouth, and it is swallowing me [Esch]” (Page number). Despite the hurricane taking the China and her puppies away from the Baptiste family, Esch does not speak bitterly of the storm. Instead, she decides to “tell the story of Katrina, the mother that swept into the Gulf and slaughtered . . . the murderous mouth who cut us to 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. She left us a dark Gulf and salt-burned land. She left us to learn to crawl. She left us to salvage.” (page number). This mirrors her own biological mother telling them of the storm named Elaine. In telling her unborn child the story of Katrina, she hopes to prepare him or her for the next storm, “the next mother with large, merciless hands, committed to blood…” (page number). One can also infer that she would like her child to share the idea that she has learned, that mothers can be ruthless when they need to be.
INSERT AMAZING CONCLUSION HERE
Works Cited
Howard, Kimberly et al. Early Mother–Child Separation, Parenting, And Child Well-Being In Early Head Start Families. 2018, http://US National Library of Medicine. Accessed 1 Dec 2018.
Marks, Nadine et al. Death Of Parents And Adult Psychological And Physical Well-Being: A Prospective U.S. National Study. 2018, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2638056/. Accessed 1 Dec 2018.