Salvage The Bones Character Analysis

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, is a coming of age story of a young girl in a world of men. We first see her as a quiet and maybe even weak individual but by the end of the novel, Esch has this sort of transformation that allows us to see her very differently. In this novel, we are given the opportunity to follow the Baptiste’s as they live their daily lives in the poor town of Bois Savage in the coming days of Hurricane Katrina. Postmodernism is a theory described as the divergence from modernism that doubts the reliability of grand theories and Jesmyn Ward does a good job incorporating characteristics of this theory into the novel. Salvage the Bones uses postmodernist techniques like, fragmentation, magical realism, pastiche, intertextuality and irony to create different aspects that then work very well together. Though sometimes very different from one another, these techniques come together and contribute to why the novel is such an interesting read.

This is used to let us in on so much in so little time. Things are kind of broken up throughout this novel and never really in any sort of order. We often times see a sudden jump from events happening in reality to a thought in Esch’s or another character’s head. We get to know all about what is happening within the lives of the characters for the twelve days we know them. In addition, we also get the chance to learn about past experiences of multiple characters as well as being introduced to Greek mythology by