Salvage the Bones

Salvage the Bones

• Genre: Fiction; coming-of-age
• Originally Published: 2011
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 890L; adult; suitable for mature teens
• Structure/Length: Divided into chapters; approximately 288 pages; approximately 9 hours and 22 minutes on audio
• Protagonist/Central Conflict: Salvage the Bones is a coming-of-age novel set in rural Mississippi in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. The central conflict follows Esch, a pregnant teenager, and her three brothers as they navigate poverty, family struggles, and the impending disaster. Esch’s world is shaped by the absence of their mother, the looming hurricane, and her unexpected pregnancy. The novel explores themes of family, survival, and resilience in the face of both natural and personal storms. Jesmyn Ward’s lyrical prose vividly depicts a family’s struggle for survival on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Themes of poverty, family struggles, misogyny, animal cruelty, and natural disasters

Jesmyn Ward, Author

• Bio: Born 1977; American novelist and essayist known for her powerful explorations of race, family, and the American South; celebrated for her distinctive voice and storytelling; won the National Book Award twice 
• Other Works: Where the Line Bleeds (2008); Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017); Men We Reaped (2013)
• Awards: National Book Award for Fiction (2011)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Guide:

• Nature’s Destructive and Life-Giving Power
• Attitudes Toward Women
• Renewal, Re-Birth, and Its Inevitable Pain

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Teaching Guide, students will:

• Reflect on the influence that music has on writers and their artistic purpose and consider the historical and social context to better understand the experiences of characters in the novel.
• Study paired texts and other resources to make connections to the text’s three themes of Nature’s Power, Women, and Re-Birth.
• Analyze the documentary Trouble the Water to synthesize its themes and messages with the novel’s.
• Analyze and evaluate theme, narrative structure, symbolism, and other literary elements to draw conclusions in structured essays regarding familial relationships, motherhood, the power of nature, and hope and renewal.