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Leora Rochel
Professor Robionson
English 2
10/30/2023
Essay #2 Rough Draft
Salvage the Bones narrates the experiences of a fifteen-year-old girl whose family
survives multiple events, highlighting their bravery and commitment to each other. It narrates
these experiences through the eyes of Esch, the family’s teenage daughter who undergoes
life-altering events outside of her family’s collective issues, giving insight into various social
issues plaguing families within the United States. Some of these experiences include sexual
abuse, poverty, toxic relationships, and Hurricane Katrina. Salvage the Bones features multiple
characters, including Esch and Daddy, whose journeys are the primary focus for this discussion.
Esch is the primary protagonist in the book, narrating her experiences and perspectives
about her family and others around her. Her journey throughout the book is rooted in various
events that shape her conduct and perceptions. First, Esch talks about losing her mother when
she gave birth to Junior, her youngest brother, earlier in her childhood. “…she said she didn’t
want to go to the hospital. Daddy dragged her from the bed to his truck, trailing her blood, and
we never saw her again”. This event shapes her life significantly and affects her view of the
world. For instance, due to her mother’s death, she is left to live with her father, whom she
fondly refers to as ‘daddy,’ who seems alienated from her and her siblings. The absence of a
mother, who is typically the family’s primary caregiver, leaves her and her siblings to fend for
themselves because their father struggles with alcoholism and tends to prioritize his habits over
his children. His alienation from her and her siblings can be a justifiable reason for her
relationships with other men as she seeks the love and warmth of a father because he cannot
provide it. For that reason, she easily lets men use her sexually, knowingly allowing them to
indulge in ‘her heart,’ which she uses to refer to her sexuality.
Furthermore, this lack of love leads her into Manny’s hands, a boy who is her brother’s
friend and she has a crush on. However, Manny does not reciprocate her love and instead uses
her sexually, resulting in her ill-timed pregnancy. “I was bold as a Greek; I was making him hot
with love, Manny was loving me”. Thus, her relationship with Manny is another significant
event that alters her life and builds the plot. For instance, upon realizing she is pregnant, Esch
ponders on life and the lack of positive female or maternal influences, fearing she wouldn’t know
how to raise her child. Instead, she believes that life presented her with violent mothers like
China, Skeetah’s dog, Medea, her heroine, and Hurricane Katrina.
As the story progresses, we grow familiar with Esch’s struggles with loneliness, unworthiness, a
life-altering pregnancy, family finances, and poor relationships with men. At the end of the book,
Esch has accrued many lessons that would improve her life, including getting respect from men,
sexual responsibility, and that her family would stick by her regardless, including Daddy. She
also vows to do better as a mother than the ‘mothers’ she’s had.
Esch’s father is another central character in the novel’s plot because his absence
significantly impacts his children and heavily influences the plot. From Esch’s perspective, a
reader can tell that Daddy struggles with alcoholism due to various stressors in his life, which
translates into how he views and treats his children. The first significant event that shapes his
journey is the tragic loss of his wife during childbirth, leaving him to fend for their four children
as a single parent. The frustration of raising children who do not fully adhere to his desire for
them is enough to push him further into alcoholism, hoping he can drown his sorrows. “He
hasn’t changed a thing here since mama died; there are small glass candle holders with tall peach
candles…that mama placed at both ends of the dresser”. This statement refers to Esch’s
realization that her father was still stuck in time when she was caring for him.
However, we only learn about him from his teenage daughter’s perspective, meaning she
perceives him as a deadbeat and poor parent when he tries his best. For instance, since his initial
introduction, he has been concerned with the family’s well-being during Hurricane Katrina. He
tries to involve his children in the process, although they are too self-absorbed to realize his plan.
Losing his wife and his descent into alcoholism eventually distances him from his children,
leading them down other paths as they seek love and companionship, including Esch, who trades
her body for nuggets of affection. Another significant event that affects Daddy is losing his
fingers as he prepares the family’s shelter for the hurricane, forcing him to take many
medications and live with disfigurement, although it improves his relationship with Esch.
However, it doesn’t influence his addiction because he continues to be an alcoholic. If anything,
his injury pushes him further into his habit because he wants to escape the physical and
emotional pain of letting his family down. As the story progresses, we learn about Daddy’s
problems, although from a warped perspective, including his struggle with loneliness, addiction,
single parenthood, finances, and other problems.
Daddy also struggles with guilt since his wife’s death, which could explain his alcoholism,
“Daddy said she told him she didn’t need any help.” However, unlike the reader would expect,
Daddy’s alcoholism habit does not change as the plot progresses; instead, he sinks deeper into his
addiction. However, he marks a transformation in how he treats his children upon discovering
that Esch is pregnant, promising her that he will help raise the baby. However, there is a
conclusive faith that the family will be okay, just like it had persevered through other issues.
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