Woman’s Best Friend: Esch’s Responses To China In “Salvage The Bones”
Jesmyn Ward emphasizes the change and growth of Esch throughout Savage the Bones. This is an interesting focus because almost always, Esch’s development is directly related with China. Esch’s transformation into womanhood is a good example. I will demonstrate in this essay that China is Esch’s direct guide throughout the novel. Esch can relate to and learn from China’s paradoxes.
On the first page, we can see how China’s influence is felt in Esch’s life. Esch immediately links China’s birth of puppies with her mother’s demise. Esch’s Mississippi mother also gave birth to the four children she had in that house. Her mother is a fighter, just like Esch and China. Esch relates herself to China and compares China with her mother. Esch tells how, when she was young, her father would often compare her to the mother she had, calling them both fighters. (Ward 2, 2) Later, Esch described China’s childbirth as being a fight. Esch can easily let China fulfill the role of mother in her life after her mother has passed. Esch presents fighting as a trait that runs in her family. She believes both China and her mother share the same traits.
Esch demonstrates this notion when he personifies China in the moment of her birth. Esch notices how Skeetah makes China more feminine, especially in the area of needing help. Esch remembers that her father told her that they were “no assistance” when preparing to give birth to Junior. This is the same as Skeetah guiding China through her delivery in the way a husband might. China can be compared with Esch’s own mother. Esch realizes that she can compare China to her mother and take similar actions.
In Chapter 2, we are given a more detailed description of China’s guidance of Esch in discovering the joys that come with pregnancy. Skeetah, the author, describes her as a miracle. Esch recalls her mother’s search for eggs, which is another joy of motherhood. Ward uses Chinas actions as a way to connect Esch with her mother. This allows Esch to discover new things about herself. Esch’s quest for hens in her yard symbolizes the confusion that Esch feels about her own body and an unborn child, which she is unaware of. Ward suggests, by having Esch look at China’s’miracles’ (Ward 21,) just before she remembers her mother helping find eggs, that Esch is missing her and wants to fill the void left by her absence. Esch’s pregnancy is revealed at the end. Rather than trying to hide it or fix the issue, Esch embraces what she has discovered for the very first time. Esch’s exploration of motherhood is guided by China because China has recently become a mother and she recognizes some of her mother’s traits in China.
China’s guidance to Esch is also directly related to health and illness. Esch mentions being “Sick” in Chapter Three, (Ward,37), just before she reveals that China will not allow her puppies, who are sick, to nurse. Esch brings up the fact that China does not want her puppies to get the virus. This is just one example of how Esch has a feminine connection with China. Esch has learned that being a mom is not easy and that sometimes she must sacrifice herself for the sake of her children. Esch has to fight to keep food down and endure the nausea that comes with smells. China shows her support in this chapter as well by snarling Skeetah. Skeetah snarled at Skeetah, showing her solidarity in this chapter. China demonstrates how a Mother must be her mother, regardless of the circumstance. Manny rejects Esch by the pond. Esch imagines she is a foetus trying to get deeper into the womb. China’s exterior is comparable to her puppy refusing food after China rejected him. Esch said that her “eyelids were droopy and she looked tired.” She is tired goddess (Ward). Esch is forced to face the reality of being a single mom, just like China. China and Esch appear to be trying to get away from the stress of motherhood. Esch is like China, who tries to put on a brave front and lets the puppies “pull her swollen chest” (Ward, 40).
In chapter five, Esch recalls hearing girls at her school list ways to force a miscarriage and considered the “throwing yourself on something hard and metallic.” (Ward 102) option. Esch recalls that she heard girls in her school discussing ways to induce a miscarriage. Esch considered this option, “throwing oneself on something metallic and hard.”(Ward 102). Esch thinks that she could jump on something like a rotting washing-machine or the hood from a dump truck. Ward, 102) In the following chapter, a puppy dies. China snaps at her puppy and slashes at its neck. The puppy becomes mangled. The bloody “pulpy” puppy in China’s mouth is symbolic of the father’s mutilation. Esch confirms this symbolism when Skeetah asks, “Why?” Esch again looks to China as a guide, and personifies China by saying that she is “bloody mouthed and bright eyed as Medea,” ( Ward, 130), before asking, “Is motherhood like this?” (Ward. 130). Esch affirms that China wants to teach her, and not just learn. China showed Esch the brutality of the death of a child and how to be a mom was hard, but one can’t stop trying. China’s killing of her puppy is only one example. Her brother also mutilated the father to prove that children can be just as hurtful.
China affects Esch again. In chapter eight, China fights both her puppies father, and, what one might consider as a lover of Esch’s, Kilo. Esch thinks that China is speaking to her, but it also sets up the important events of chapter 10. China helps Esch see that she does not need Manny’s love, approval, or presence in her world. Esch relates and compares China to her throughout the book. Esch also feels that Manny is referring to her when he tells Rico, “She doesn’t have any heart, or shit” about China. China then rips part of Kilos’s neck with a vicious vengeance, showing Esch that, despite being the father and lover of Esch’s children, their relationship is not important. They are also strong mothers who can overcome anyone, including those involved in the birth of their child. China made Esch see that Manny wasn’t what she wanted or needed anymore. Esch finally sees her father’s, China’s, and her own mother’s strength when she says in chapter 10 that she is “on [him] like China”(Ward, 203). Esch, like China, attacks Manny in full force, raking her nails into his face. Esch has a full understanding about the power she has as a woman, and by stating that “tomorrow…everything will be washed clean” (Ward, 205), she acknowledges that she will follow Chinas lead and go through childbirth without the father, because she doesn’t need him. Esch learns through physical violence that China is not a bad person, if you can learn from the past and move forward. China’s actions of ripping out the throat and walking away from her lover made Esch realize she had feelings of anger, jealousy, and envy. Women who are angry and ragging can’t get over their pain. They hurt themselves. Esch wants China to be strong, so she moves on and improves herself.
Katrina arrives after Esch makes his last reveal. It is violent, but it also washes away an old Esch. Ward killed China in a similar way to Esch’s mom, but unexpectedly. This was essential because Esch needed to know that she wasn’t alone in facing the world, and if need be she could do it. Esch sought advice from her dog after the death of her mother, believing that she could not face the world alone. Esch loved China, but she had to realize that the best mother for her child was herself. Esch realizes, after all of this has happened, that China’s family will always support her. Skeetah, who was China’s friend and lover throughout the entire book, is similar to Esch’s loving family. This essay shows how Esch finally matured and grown in the right way. She is now ready to embrace motherhood. Manny was defeated, and Esch has realized she isn’t the only mother in this journey. The reader is reminded of China’s presence in the last image, where Esch imagines China returning and thinks “She will call me sister and bark at me.” . . “She will understand that I have become a mother.” Esch acknowledges China’s motherhood and is ready for it.
