Desperate times can call for measures so extreme that obeying the law and following society’s standard of morality become an afterthought. In the book Salvage the Bones, author Jesmyn Ward reinforces this idea by showing readers how the Batiste family must battle their way through the brutalities of poverty with hard work and putting their family above all else. The children of the Batiste family struggle against an assortment of conflicts while keeping the best interest of one another at the forefront. Each of them takes on the roles of being providers, care takers, and substitutes for their lack of parental influence. With their mother being passed away and their father falling victim to alcohol abuse, Esch, Randall and Skeetah each assume
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Jesmyn Ward presents how Skeetah’s dog China is symbolic of the Batiste family’s frustration toward their neighbors where she writes, “China grips him and arches her back, digs in as her whole body jerks towards the other dog. It looks like she is giving birth again. Twist’s scream turns into a squeal. She has him by the neck. Skeetah is smiling” (Ward 81). Skeetah allowing China to dismantle the white man’s dog shows the frustration he has toward his more privileged neighbor. Skeetah could have easily called China off Twist as soon as they began to fight, however he thoroughly enjoyed watching China hurt Twist. Skeetah is living out his frustrations against his neighbor through China. Reinforcing this idea, the text “Income inequality, poverty and crime across nations” goes into detail explaining the correlation between people of a contrasting socioeconomic status and how it can play a large role in the crime committed between the two. Pale and Felson give evidence proving this idea where they say, “Poor people compare their outcomes to the outcomes of their reference group and if their own outcomes are worse they feel deprivation. The effects of relative deprivation on crime are often attributed to the experience of frustration” (Pale and Felson 436). This statement further upends the claim that Skeetah’s crime has an underlying meaning of the poverty he experiences versus his white neighbor’s privilege. Skeetah experiences feelings of this deprivation knowing that his neighbors can afford the cow wormer and other things that he
Jesmyn Ward presents how Skeetah’s dog China is symbolic of the Batiste family’s frustration toward their neighbors where she writes, “China grips him and arches her back, digs in as her whole body jerks towards the other dog. It looks like she is giving birth again. Twist’s scream turns into a squeal. She has him by the neck. Skeetah is smiling” (Ward 81). Skeetah allowing China to dismantle the white man’s dog shows the frustration he has toward his more privileged neighbor. Skeetah could have easily called China off Twist as soon as they began to fight, however he thoroughly enjoyed watching China hurt Twist. Skeetah is living out his frustrations against his neighbor through China. Reinforcing this idea, the text “Income inequality, poverty and crime across nations” goes into detail explaining the correlation between people of a contrasting socioeconomic status and how it can play a large role in the crime committed between the two. Pale and Felson give evidence proving this idea where they say, “Poor people compare their outcomes to the outcomes of their reference group and if their own outcomes are worse they feel deprivation. The effects of relative deprivation on crime are often attributed to the experience of frustration” (Pale and Felson 436). This statement further upends the claim that Skeetah’s crime has an underlying meaning of the poverty he experiences versus his white neighbor’s privilege. Skeetah experiences feelings of this deprivation knowing that his neighbors can afford the cow wormer and other things that he