Salvage the Bones is narrated by a teenager named Esch. She is the only girl in an all-male family, since her mother is dead, and her father is an alcoholic. Isolated and alone in this savage town (the towns name Bois Sauvage and the fact that their homestead is called The Pit says a lot about how rural this place is), she seeks of a way to escape. She shifts between the present happenings of her life and often alludes to classical Greek literature, particularly the story of Jason and Medea. The allusion becomes allegorical as more and more Greek characters are compared to the people in her life. In this way, she could escape briefly, pretending to be Eurydice or Daphne, her favorite goddesses from the Greek myths. She may be stuck in a predominantly black Mississippi town in the direct path of Hurricane Katrina, bu
t her imagination runs wild. As a narrator, Esch is observant and poetic, often given to reminiscing about her mother who died in childbirth. She notices the inherent violence of this place in brutal details. A lot of the metaphors and similes she makes are often compared to something of the earth, nature, and the human bodymeat, sweat, and blood. Most of her problems came to a head when Esch, pregnant and tomboyish as ever, has sex in a toilet stall with her lover. Manny, the father of her growing baby, would not look at her after he found out about her pregnancy. However, Eschs love of the Greek myths has made her unsurprised at his treatment of her, though it still hurts her deeply. There is a reason why she relates to Medea the most, and it is not only because they both fell in love with a guy who betrayed them.