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.