Character Analysis: Esch, Truth and Survival in a Bleak Situation I am writing this paper about Esch because she was the main character of this story from the book of Salvage the Bones. Esch is a little girl in this poor family in Jesmyn Ward’s fictional tale Salvage the Bones. She was only girl in the family, and living with her alcoholic father and three brothers. My point about this book is the poverty of this character. I am understand their situation because they almost similar from where I come from (part of Africa). Dealing with the poverty day by day is not glory and the way they whole family living is a pity. The character of Esch is the most impoverished member of the family because she is a girl in a family of boys and men. …show more content…
If I look the situation in this reading book, they used China to make money by dog fighting and when was sick, they doesn’t have money to take care for, and that is one of my reason I believe they don’t need a dog because normally a dog is like another person in. A lot of time the dogs are sick, and needs care for. However, the family does need Esch, as she is their only female person. So she is more important than a dog. My first reason of her poverty; One of the challenges of her poverty situation is the death of her mother in childbirth, and leaving behind four children. “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” (Ward, p. 2). My second reason of her poverty; The last part of her poverty is the pregnancy. Esch had a boyfriend name Manny who hang up with and later she got pregnant. Her main conflict was a pregnancy because she doesn’t want anyone know in the family. However, her father has a feeling about it because she got sick and throw up, but kept playing and dealing with her pregnancy day by day. Also she determined to hide her crisis pregnancy as long as she can “until none of us has very choices” later she had a baby. My third reason of her
The children in this book at times seem wise beyond their years. They are exposed to difficult issues that force them to grow up very quickly. Almost all of the struggles that the children face stem from the root problem of intense poverty. In Mott Haven, the typical family yearly income is about $10,000, "trying to sustain" is how the mothers generally express their situation. Kozol reports "All are very poor; statistics tell us that they are the poorest children in New York." (Kozol 4). The symptoms of the kind of poverty described are apparent in elevated crime rates, the absence of health care and the lack of funding for education.
Esperanza tries to be a good friend to Sally, but ends up appearing immature and silly. Esperanza feels shame, as she “wanted to be dead”, to “turn into the rain”, and have “my eyes melt into the ground like black snails” (Cisneros 97). With sensory-rich imagery, the author uses similes and metaphors to describe Esperanza’s feelings of utter mortification as she embarrasses herself in front of Sally. Esperanza becomes confused about her newfound sexuality and her loss of innocence when she begins acting strangely, yet awkwardly around boys. She doesn’t know whether to act like a child or an adult because although she wants to be mature and glamorous like Sally, and she gets exposed to the harsh nature of society. The disillusioned view of becoming mature and having boys notice her is especially realized by Esperanza when she gets raped at a carnival. Through detailed imagery, Cisneros describes the dirtiness of the boy, elaborating on “his dirty fingernails against my skin” and “his sour smell again” (Cisneros 100) and the confusion and anger from Esperanza. After this experience, Esperanza blames Sally instead for covering up the truth about boys and is heartbroken about the real truth of sexuality and men. It is clear that Esperanza vividly remembers this awful experience, and just reflecting on this experience causes her thoughts to
As often claimed that love runs out, this book shows a different story. Love is challenged, but will not run out. In Salvage the Bones, Esch is challenged with the hard decision of keeping her baby or not due to many reasons. Some of these reasons would include, her mother passing away, her age, and lastly, her love for Manny.
However, she never really experienced the actual life of living in poverty as the majority of people living in poverty experience. Barbara, an educated white women had just that on other people living in poverty, because of the color of her skin and education level that is more often than not restricted from people living in poverty. She was able and more qualified for jobs than other people living amongst the status she was playing. She also was able to more readily seek better benefits than people living in poverty. When she first start her journey in Florida she had a car, a car that in most cases people living in poverty do not have. She was also able to use the internet to find local jobs and available housing in the area that many people living in poverty are restricted from. Another great benefit she had was the luxury of affording a drug detox cleansing her of drugs deemed bad. Many people living in poverty do not have much extra cash laying around much less fifty dollars to afford a detox for prescription drugs. She also had the luxury to afford her prescription drugs, another option that many people living in poverty do not have. Another element that made Barbara’s experience not that genuine was the fact that she was not providing for anybody other than herself. Twenty-two percent of kids under the age of 18 are living below the poverty line (http://npc.umich.edu/poverty/#5) , Barbara did not have to provide for pets or kids which would of changed her experience altogether of living in poverty. Not to belittle Barbara’s experience, but many factors of what life is like living in poverty were not taken into consideration during her
Esperanza is the type of person who easily trusts others which makes her susceptible to betrayal. Her naïveté and inexperience is a common recurrence throughout the book as she begins to mature. Esperanza finds a friend in Sally, whose promiscuity often make Esperanza uncomfortable and what ultimately puts her in danger. It is presumed that she gets raped by a group of boys while waiting for Sally at a carnival. Esperanza encounter was not what she had thought it would be. She feels betrayed by how the storybooks and movies depict it (sex) but most importantly she feels betrayed by Sally whom she trusted the most in to come and save her.
Life is like a ginormous puzzle, ergo, as we learn and grow our perspective changes. Clary is taught about the mystical being around her, while trying to save her mother. Resulting in Clary’s mindset to expand as her character changed. For example, on page 422, while Luke and Clary are talking, she claims, “ About Gretel being just a Downworlder. I don't think that” (Clare 422). Whereas, just hours earlier, she was extremely nervous about being in contact with downworlders and other demons alike. Actions such as these represent the prospective change of characters throughout the book City of Bones. Thus proving, that the bigger picture helps us grow into the person we are meant to
Mary Karr is the daughter of laconic Texas oil worker that her family was not really wealthy. She had difficult life but the major theme of the memoir can be how the characteristics of working class family portrays. Even though they were not rich, the “love” of family reveals in the worst of circumstances. Her childhood was very difficult compared to other kids. She was raped multiple times, but she did not tell anyone. Her parents got divorced but they went back together. Her mother was alcoholic, she got addicted to diet pills and she also tried to kill her children and her new husband, Hector. Mary Karr’s siblings did not like Hector, but when their mom tried to shoot him, they protected him. This again shows the family bond that they do the things that they think is right. Pete Karr, Mary Karr’s father, reveals as ideal working class father. He treated his children warm and likes to indulge them. He is also thrifty that does not like to waste money. As a father of family, unlike Malachy McCourt from “Angela’s Ashes” he knows what to do and tries to keep the family. He flew all the way to his children when they called him. Mary Karr constantly fights with her sister, Lecia. However, throughout this memoir, it shows that she cares her deeply. When Lecia got serious injured by a jellyfish, she was very worried about her that says “I wrapped my arms around my knees, bowed my head, and prayed to a god I didn’t trust a prayer that probably went something like this: Please let Lecia not die… Don’t let them chop off her leg either…” (Carr 115). Later in the memoir, she started to hate again. Not only just the family bonding of working class were discussed in this memoir, but the friendship of working class people were also discussed. The unofficial club that her dad goes to is the group of working class men father together and drink, talk, and discuss exaggerated stories. Mary Karr
Estevan and Esperanza’s sacrifice involved a major part of their lives. Both Estevan and Esperanza sacrificed their daughter for the lives of seventeen other people. Back in Guatemala, they were part of an secret underground teachers union where important information was passed by word of mouth.
In The Working Poor by David K. Shipler, Shipler analyzes the effects of poverty and the accountability of working poor in America. Chapter six of the book focuses on traumas of childhood that affect the later life of a person. In this chapter, Shipler speaks of sexual abuse within families, neglectful parenting, and other factors that contribute to a poverty-stricken life. He gives real-life experiences and the effects that an individual’s childhood has had on his or her life. Although his examples are based on real lives of the poor in America, it appears as though he has found the most extreme cases. While these situations are horrible, not all poverty-stricken people are classified under these extreme conditions. Shipler offers excellent points and facts involving the traumas of childhood affecting the future, but fails to acknowledge that not all children will succumb to the struggles of poverty nor does he offer plausible solutions to his criticisms.
Connie was born into a very poor family. She described herself as living in poverty for the first eighteen years of her life. She often went without food, shelter or financial support. Connie’s mother worked extremely hard to support the household; she worked shampooing hair for only $50 a week. Connie’s father did not work at all, he was in charge and demanding yet put no effort into any aspect of the family. Connie was the first in her family to graduate from high school. It was more common for women to become pregnant, and marry young than finish high school. College was not even an option for Connie because of a lack of means. Subsequently, she followed in her mother’s footsteps; and the cycle of poverty and worked low paying, unfulfilling jobs for many years. "All Americans do not have an equal opportunity to succeed, and class mobility in the United States is lower than that of the rest of the industrialized world " (Mantsios 200). It is very difficult to get out of the cycle of oppression, when the system is created to keep the poor in the same socioeconomic status. Connie stayed very poor until she was about eighteen years old.
Esperanza faces many experiences that lead her to believe that to be a woman in her world is not a positive attribute. One telling experience is when she is talking about her grandmother whom she is named after. After denying her grandfather's advancements, the grandmother is kidnapped by him, carried away with a sack over her head to her marriage bed. Esperanza greatly admired her grandmother for her strength and said that her grandmother never forgave her grandfather because "she couldn't be all the things she wanted to be" (Cisneros 11). Esperanza also sees the economic dependence that marriage creates for many women. While one woman cries everyday because her husband left "without leaving a dollar for bologna or a note explaining how come" another is miserable because the husband gets kicked out and is always let back in, regardless of the abuse she suffers at his hands (Cisneros 29, 85). Both domestic and physical abuse is also rampant in the lives ar...
The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.
Overall, Esperanza experienced multiple events that shaped her into the person she is. The experiences she had built the foundation for what she values by exposing her to the world around her. By moving to the house on Mango Street and experiencing the traumatic events along with the social norms Esperanza became the person she wanted to be even when the circumstances weren’t in her
Esperanza is a very strong woman in herself. Her goals are not to forget her "reason for being" and "to grow despite the concrete" so as to achieve a freedom that's not separate from togetherness.
To begin, Celie, the protagonist resembles the perfect wife of this time she listened to what she was told; she cleaned, worked, and took care of everyone around her no matter what the circumstances. “Her strength, unlike that of Sofia or Shug is not physical or artistic, but it is the strength of integrity. She remains honest and compassionate, caring for everyone she comes into contact with” (Litnotes). Reader often become frustrated with Celie because she remains so loyal and loving for the people who mistreat her. For example, Celie was often beaten on days her husband, Albert, was in a bad mood; she did not even have to do anything wrong to be mistreated, but above all she would continue to work like his slave and never once complain. The problem of this novel is the woman have absolutely no power over anything, including themselves; therefore the women begin to bond together and have an uprising.