“In Mythology, I am still reading about Medea and the quest for the Golden Fleece. Here is someone that I recognize. When Medea falls in love with Jason, it grabs me by the throat. I can see her. Medea sneaks Jason things to help him: ointments to make him invincible, secrets in rocks. She has magic, could bend the natural to the unnatural. But even with all her power, Jason bends her like a young pine in a hard wind; he makes her double in two. I know her.” (Ward, 38)

In this passage there is a very clear connection between Medea and Esch because of the common theme of Jason and Manny. Medea and Esch are both in love with Jason and Manny so much that they will help them in whatever way they can; however, Jason and Manny do not feel the same way about them. The boys in both of these stories use the women for what they want sexually and for other non sexual favors. In this passage Esch also states that Medea is very strong, but still feels powerless when it comes to Jason which is how Esch feels. Esch relates to Medea and connects to her situation which shows us that Esch knows that she is helpless when it comes to Manny but still does nothing about it. Medea and Esch are clearly both extremely strong and independent women, but for some reason they feel so weak when it comes to Jason and Manny that they allow themselves to be mistreated.

This picture, photographed by Michael Brosilow, is a modern version of Jason and Medea in a play at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theatre. The two actors photographed are mexican immigrants trying to make a better life for themselves and their son in Chicago. This photograph was taken in 2013. 

These dirty work boots symbolize Esch by the end of the novel because they show all of the struggle she has been through. The scratches on the boots symbolize how even before the book starts  Esch has already lost her mother and has to take care of her family because her father is a drunk. Later, she gets pregnant and has even more worries and struggles which symbolizes the extra dirt on the boots. These boots have scratches and are very dirty; however, they are supposed to be like that because they are work boots. Also these boots are probably not very old and have been through a lot just like Esch who is just a teenager. These boots are made for hard work and struggles and just like esch they get through the muddy times,

Zachary Waskowicz

"I changed my shirt...the walls thin and uninsulated, peeling...at the seams.  Made me feel like manny could see me before I even stepped outside.  I wondered if Medea felt this way before she...[met] Jason for the first time.  Like a hard wind...set her to shaking" (7).

      This quote is the first time mention of Medea is introduced to the narrative.  Esch is struck with the same kind of sudden anamourment that Medea felt after cupids arrow hit her.  They both share a level of unfamiliarity with the person who their affections are directed at.  Both the caracters who have Esch's and Medea's affections share the same manliness.  The parralels in the begining are very solid. The first quote sets the tone for the rest of the times when Medea is mentioned, making "The Quest of the Golden Fleece" a template for those events.  Both Manny's and Jason's love interests betray their respective partners around the time of conceiving or bearing a child.  Both Esch and Medea attack their lovers due to their rage.  At one point Medea kills her two children, which gives her valid revenge on Jason.  Esch considers doing the same thing, but decides not to.  This is when the two stories break off and Esch begins to realize her own strength as a person.  She doesn't let fate or poor luck stop her in the end, wheras fate and the will of the gods influences all Greek myths.

      This painting depicts a love drunk Medea using her powers to make a potion for Jason.  This potion allows Jason to complete the trials set forth by Medea's father.  The painting was created by John William Waterhouse in 1907.

      This picture comes from the last panel of a webcomic I read called Homestuck (written by Andrew Hussie).  This particular character (known as Calliope) shares similarities to Esch in terms of struggle and eventual empowerment.  Esch faces the forces of a her father's abuse, manny's abuse after he realizes she is pregnant, and an oncoming storm.  Esch's motherhood is frowned upon by Manny, and he casts her aside as a weak charater. She finds power to persist through her emotional torment through her brothers.  She acts as a mother figure for her siblings and she recieves respect and emotional support in turn.  This empowers Esch to persist through her tough times and come out a strong female character immune to her torment.

      Calliope faces her brother's abuse which she can never escape.  Her role in Homestuck is that of the Muse, making her (at face value) weak.  She is predetermined to die due to her role in order to insipre the main characters.  This makes fate, which is regared as a force of nature, another struggle she faces.  Her brother Caliborn, who has the most powerful role of Lord within Homestuck, overpowers her and constantly torments her for lacking any strength.  However, she is able to interract with the main characters and watch out for them, warining them about her brother and doing whatever she can to keep him away from them.  The main characters regard her as a helpful and almost motherly figure who gives them adivce and in turn gains their respect.  At the end, despite her fate and the odds of winning, she gains power from the characters she's inspired, and uses that to seal off caliborn for good.  Though entirely different settings, this is similar to Esch's emotional power that is gained from her siblings.  Both characters find strengths within themselves through the people they protect.  Their newfound self-confidence allows them to overcome the abuse and misfortune that they face.

Charlie Coxon Homework 8/31/16

Esch is reading Edith Hamilton’s Mythology for her summer reading, and she continually makes references to the story of Medea. After reading this story and poring through Ward’s novel, choose a moment in the novel when Ward draws a connection between Esch and Medea either implicitly or explicitly. Type out the passage from the novel and explain why you think this mythological allusion is important at that point in the text. What does the allusion reveal about character, setting, central themes?

“In the beginning, she is known by her nephew, who tells the Argonauts about her, for having power, for helping her family, just like I tried to help Skeet on the day China got sick from the Ivomec...It is like she is under the covers with me, both of us sweating to water.” (154) This is a very explicit comparison between Medea and Esch. I think this is very important in the text because this is at a pivotal part in the book where Esch is struggling with her pregnancy and her falling out with Manny. Feeling that she relates to something shows that she actually isn’t alone in the world even when the world looks grim. This reveals a lot about how she as a character functions, because she has had a lack of female role models in her life. Having one through her book gives her strength, and reminds her that she is strong enough to face the challenges life has thrown her. The setting of this book is also revealed, because the strength that she gains from reading about Medea will help her weather the storm later in the book. Themes in the book are also highlighted, as the non-conventionality of her behavior for the stereotype of her gender is a major theme. The fact that she has lived her entire life with men who she can’t relate to as well as she could to a woman shapes her as a character. With her relating to Medea, she now has someone to relate to and guide her after her mother’s death.

This is an artistic representation of Medea when she is about to slay her children. It was painted in 1862 by Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix. The reason that she is murdering her children is because she is taking revenge on her husband, for he left her to marry Glauke, the princess of Corinth. This was done on the journey of the Golden Fleece after the Argonauts had claimed it from Medea's father. After the slaying of her own children and of Jason's new wife, he had only cursed her for the actions, but never reflected on his own.

The image that I have chosen is a Middle Eastern refugee with her children at a camp surrounded by the ruins of what was her home. This image represents Esch at the end of the novel because her home has been destroyed by Katrina and she is a mother to her child. That, at least, is what the image is on the surface. However, there is deeper meaning to it. The woman in the image looks determined in my opinion. She looks like she is brave enough to bear the tragedies that have astruck her and her children's lives. At the end of the novel, Esch is ready to accept her motherhood and anything else that life will throw at her, because the experiences she has had have made her strong enough to deal with anything.

“I’m trying to read by the oil lamp, but the sound of the words are not coming together over the sound of the wind and the rain relentlessly bearing down on the house; they are fragments. Jason has remarried, and Medea is wailing. An exile, oh God, oh God, alone. And then: By death, oh, by death, shall the conflict be decided. Life’s little day ended. I shut the book, don’t even mark my place, and sit on it. I am cold.” (225)

In this passage, Ward is creating a parallel between Esch’s life and the book she is reading. Esch is experiencing her own exile (to the living room) at the same time that Medea is experiencing an exile in the book, and she is also facing the imminent possibility of death at the hands of Katrina. When Esch says that “the sound of the words are not coming together over the sound of the wind and the rain…” she is saying that her own problems at the moment are louder than the problems Medea is facing in the story. The parallel shown in this passage is important at this time in the book because it shows how strongly Esch relates to Medea at that time. In addition, it shows that she is feeling desperate, like Medea was. It also reflects on the central theme of desperation by showing the climax of the mythological allusions; it shows that Esch’s feelings of heartache and anxiety are peaking at this moment.

This image is of a quilt made by Marilyn Belford. It is titled “Medea Escaping” and depicts Medea making her escape at the end of the myth. At this point, she has already been betrayed, and she has exacted her revenge on Jason’s new love. She has also already killed her two sons, so that they would not have to die at the hands of anyone else. This image shows the amount of power that Medea has, and that she cannot be controlled by anyone. She is surrounded by fire to show all the hardships she went through, but she is in control of the dragon, which shows that she is still as powerful as ever.

This image represents Esch at the end of the book to me because I see Esch’s spirit as being similar to a fire. Sometimes, it rages, and she is strong and powerful, like she is at the end of the book. Other times throughout the novel, her inner fire is weak and it is reduced to only coals. However, her fire never goes out, it only fades. By the end of the book, Esch has gained fuel and strength from her impending motherhood; from the experience of the hurricane; and from being surrounded by people who care about her (Randall, Big Henry, Junior). This picture shows Esch's inner fire burning bright at the end of the book.

"In Mythology, I am still reading about Medea and the quest for the Golden Fleece.  Here is someone that I recognize.  When Medea falls in love with Jason, it grabs me by the throat.  I can see her.  Medea sneaks Jason things to help him: ointments to make him invincible, secrets in rocks.  She has magic, could bend the natural to the unnatural.  But even with all her power, Jason bends her like a young pine in a hard wind; he makes her double in two.  I know her"(38). 

In this part of the book, Esch explains the relationship between Jason and Medea; how he uses her to succeed in his quest.  Esch brings up how she recognizes this section, for it seems familiar to her.  Esch is in the same situation as Medea, helplessly in love with someone who is using her for his own benefits.  Esch is a very strong, independent girl like Medea.  Her mother died when she was at a very young age, leaving her as the maternal figure of the household as she looks after her brothers and raises Junior.  Even though she is strong, she still allows Manny to take advantage of her, which is similar to the situation Medea is in.  Medea is a strong girl who has this magic power practically making her invincible, yet she gives them to Jason, allowing him to "bend her like a young pine in a hard wind"(38).  This passage shows that Esch realizes she is allowing Manny to take advantage of her, but she allows it anyway.  She knows Medea because she feels her pain, the pain that comes from loving someone that only uses you for their own benefits.




This oil painting depicts Medea giving Jason the magical ointment that would make him invincible while facing her father's challenges.  It was painted in 1907 by an English Painter named John William Waterhouse. 


This picture is of a beautiful white pit-bull, just like China in Salvage of the Bones.  Pit bulls are often seen as vicious fight dogs due to their strong built, and also that they are often bread for fighting.  Even though they are seen as vicious, put bulls are actually one of the best breads for families and make the best family dog.  They are protective, loyal, and look after every member with the same amount of care.  A pitbull represents Esch at the end of the book because she is strong to go through the challenges she faced throughout the book, all while caring for her family acting in the place of her mother. 

“I know that whatever Manny is saying is showing the meanness in him, that he is Jason betraying Medea and asking for the hand of the daughter of the king of Corinth in marriage after Medea has killed her brother for him, betrayed her father.” (172)

In an indirect manner focusing on comparing Jason and Manny, this quotation also shows the connection between Medea and Esch. Both Medea and Esch have fallen in love with a person which makes them, "feel a fire eating up through [them]," (57) while also, "[bending them] like a young pine."(38) In the end they are both disowned or "exiled" by the people they once loved. Jason marries the daughter of the King of Corinth, leaving Medea in exile with their two sons. Manny stays with Shaliyah, while pushing Esch to the side. When Manny realizes that Esch is pregnant, he leaves her their refusing to believe it. Both Medea and Esch are left as a single mother in betrayal. The one difference at the end of their stories, is that Esch moves on and becomes stronger taking on the responsibility for herself and the baby. While on the other hand Medea acts out with violence killing her two sons and running away.

This is an oil painting by Carle van Loo. Van Loo was born in France in 1705 and died in Paris, where he lived, in 1765. It was made in 1759 and titled Jason and Medea. The painting depicts the scene, in which Medea has killed her two sons, and is leaving, from the roof, in a chariot led by dragons. Jason has made his mind to kill her, but it is already too late. This painting currently hangs in Musée des Beaux Arts in France.

I think this picture represents many different aspects of Esch by the end of the novel. The wreckage directly symbolizes the troubles Esch has gone through both with the hurricane, her mom, dealing with Manny, her dad, and her pregnancy. Although her past may still be there, the sun rising represents a new day, how Esch is starting a new chapter in her life. Overtime her troubles may not be as prominent in her life as they were at the end of the novel, but the memories will always be there. The water in the foreground of the picture also represents Esch in that, water represents the source of life. It shows how Esch is a new mother bringing a new life into the world, even with her troubles still prominent in her life, but a new chapter is beginning.

“I tried to read this morning, but I stopped in the quest for the Golden Fleece, distracted again by Medea, who can only think of Jason, her face red, her heart aflame, engulfed by sweet pain. The goddess struck her with love, and she had no choices. I could not concentrate. My stomach was its own animal, and thoughts of Manny kept surfacing like swimmers in my brain; I had my own tender pain.” (Ward, 109)

Ward uses this passage to draw similarities between Esch and Medea through both of these characters strong emotions for a significant other in their lives. In the case of Esch, Manny is the one boy who she would do anything for; however, he does not return these feelings for her. As seen in this novel, Esch can have almost any boy that she knows, and many of them she has slept with, but when Manny starts showing an interest in her, she gives up all the other boys for just him. This sacrifice is similar to Medea’s love for Jason, and her willingness to do anything for him, including killing her own family, her brother. Furthermore, Esch feels stuck in love; Manny doesn’t return her feelings, and she feels as if she can tell no one of her pregnancy. Similarly, Medea is also so much in love with Jason that she can do nothing but help him; she, therefore, has no choices, like Esch, because “the goddess struck her with love”.

This painting, titled Jason and Medea in the Temple of Jupiter, was painted by artist Jean François de Troy in 1714. A French artist, Jean François de Troy was asked to create sketches for tapestries of the Greek myth of Medea and Jason for a series of cartoons. However, he then painted them in 1742 and 1743 and were displayed in 1748. This painting in the series depicts the return of Medea and Jason in a temple that they went to to pray and thank the gods for helping them on their journey.

I think that by the end of the novel, Esch had become a strong woman who was capable ad ready to raise a child as a teenage single mother. Whereas towards the beginning of the novel, Esch was acting as the mother of the household and the “mom” who took care of everyone, in preparing for hurricane Katrina, she acted as a strong individual. Losing her home and deciding to keep her baby also make me think that throughout all the ordeals Esch went through, she came out the other end a stronger woman than she was when she began.

“‘I love you!’

‘Esch!’ The skin of his throat red, his scar white.

‘I loved you!’

I hit his Adam’s apple with the V where my thumb and pointer finger cross. He chokes.

‘I loved you!’  This is Medea wielding the knife.  This is Medea cutting.  I rake my fingernails across his face, leave pink scratches that turn red, fill with blood” (Ward, 204).

This quotation is an apparent instance wherein Esch is directly compared to Medea.  As Medea did after learning of Jason’s remarriage, Esch unleashes the full torrent of her fury, her frustration against Manny, his cold, callous responses and the burden he forced Esch to bear.  The repeated exclamations of “I loved you!” indicate Esch prior enthrallment with Manny; her love, very much alive and fiery, explodes–converting in a second–fueling her assault.  Her love, unreturned and unacknowledged as it is, builds throughout the narrative, and like Medea she strikes–or perhaps like China.  This scene, in particular, exemplifies the connections between Medea and Esch emotionally.  They are, at first, utterly in love, then they turn to anger and violence when their proffered love is waved away–Medea, when Jason remarries and Esch, when Manny continues to ignore her.  Perhaps the greatest difference between the two situations is that Esch seeks to hurt Manny directly whereas, Medea kills Jason’s new bride; the level of violence is also an obvious difference.    

This painting, by Jean-François Detroy (who lived from 1679-1752), is officially called Jason Swearing Eternal Affection to Medea.  It was made from 1742 to 1743 and is oil paint on canvas.  This painting is one of seven made by Detroy about the Jason.  It currently hangs in the National Gallery in London.

This white pitbull–obviously representing China–connotes power, strength and assurance.  Esch, having weathered the brutal might of Katrina is finally prepared to embrace motherhood.  Supported by the ‘many fathers that her baby will have,’ Esch is ready to attain all of the power that motherhood gives–and has given both to China and Katrina.  At the very end of the narrative, Esch remarks, “China will bark and call me sister...She will know that I am a mother” (Ward, 258).  It is fitting that the novel begins with China becoming a mother and ends with Esch becoming a mother. I think that Esch's overarching development was to become similar to China. Ward makes many comparisons between the two strong female characters. Esch says, "I am on him like China," (203) when she attacks Manny. Esch was mirroring China's attack against Kilo. China "claws at [Kilo] with her paws, her jaw wide, and tries to eat his eyes" (173).

"In Mythology, I am still reading about Medea and the quest for the Golden Fleece. Here is someone that I recognize. When Medea falls in love with Jason, it grabs me by my throat. I can see her. Medea sneaks Jason things to help him: ointments to make him invincible, secrets in rocks. She has magic, could bend the natural to the unnatural. But even with all her power, Jason bends her like a young pine in a hard wind; he makes her double in two. I know her" (Ward, 38)

I feel like this represents Esch when she talks about Medea because she herself has fallen in love with somebody (Manny) and she sees how they are so similar. And when she talks about how Jason "bends her like a young pine" I feel like this represents how Manny has control of Esch even when he does not know it. Esch feels a real connection with Medea and realizes that they have a lot more in common then she thought. She believes that she "knows her" because of how they act and how they both are strong but the people in their lives (Manny and Jason) can push them right into the ground. 

This is an oil painting of Jason and Medea and was created by John William Waterhouse in 1907. In the painting, Medea is creating a potion for Jason so he can complete the tasks that Medea's father has set for him. The facial expressions of Medea show that she is very concentrated on making this potion for Jason. Jason's expressions show that he is very anxious and desperately needs the potion to make sure Medea's father likes him. 

I think this image symbolizes Esch because of all the hard times she went through in the book with her baby, the storm and not having someone to guide her through life. The storm and lightning symbolizes the hard things that she has experienced and even though these things have struck her and have brought her down, she is that rainbow. She is the rainbow that will push through the clouds and shed a little light on a time that might not be happy or clear. 

“I will tie the glass and stone with string, hang the shards above my bed, so that they will flash in the dark and tell the story of Katrina, the mother that swept into the Gulf and slaughtered. Her chariot was a storm so great and black the Greeks would say it was harnessed to dragons. She was the murderous mother who cut us to the bone but left us alive, left us naked and bewildered as newborn babies, as blind puppies, as sun-starved newly hatched baby snakes. She left us a dark Gulf and salt-burned land. She left us to learn to crawl. She left us to salvage (Ward, 255).”

This passage does not reveal the similarities between Esch and Medea so much as their increasing differences. There is a theme of birth and death as intertwined opposites to living, to fighting, to surviving, throughout Salvage the Bones. Esch and Medea begin their respective tales in a comparable place. They have power over others, but then someone comes along and gains control over them. Esch wonders, when in Manny’s presence, if “Medea felt this way before she walked out to meet Jason for the first time, like a hard wind come through her and set her to shaking” (7). Esch, smitten with Manny, desires only for her love to be reciprocated, but it never is. Manny becomes more detached from Esch, and Esch is distanced from her family by her pregnancy, alone, “an exile” (225) like Medea once Jason abandons her. Maternity is typically viewed as warm and kind, whereas Ward presents a harsher, lonelier view on motherhood, particularly in this passage. Esch no longer needs Medea as her maternal role model, her “murderous mother” was Katrina, bringing a new dawn, a new life, while Medea remained caught in the past. Esch overcame her challenge and looked forwards; that was her power. Her path deviates from Medea’s as Esch fights past her isolation to live, to survive. Esch is stronger for having fought and endured and accepted. The only way to move forward is to look to the new horizon and “salvage" what is left. 

This oil painting is titled Jason swearing Eternal Affection to Medea and the artist’s name is Jean-François Detroy. It was painted in 1742-1743, depicting Jason vowing to stay true to Medea forever and requesting her help, after she was visited by Eros, son of Aphrodite, to compel Medea to fall in love with Jason, since the Golden Fleece would have been impossible to obtain without her. The illustration was made by Detroy for a cartoon for the Goeblins tapestry works in Paris. 

I thought this image seemed symbolically resonant with Esch’s character on multiple levels. Firstly, I think the sunrise is representative of moving forward, surviving, which is Esch’s mindset at the end of “Salvage the Bones.” The colors of the sunrise, to me, seem reminiscent of fire, perhaps an indicator of the hardships Esch and her family have faced, or that she has been made who she is by forces of nature. I think the tree is a symbol of strength, facing the new day bravely. I based the tree on images of “mother trees,” not only because, aesthetically, it gives the impression of a bygone storm, but also as a mark of Esch’s acceptance,   so that the audience “will know that (Esch is) a mother” (258).

Welcome to the Class Blog!

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