Essay On Esch's Coming Of Age In Salvage The Bones

Esch Batiste in Salvage the Bones, Estella in Great Expectations, and Mami in Drown all undergo a coming of age in which they overcome a feat that renders greater self-determination for their own benefit and that of others; Esch, however, undergoes a more complex coming-of-age because of the specific challenges her socioeconomic status presents her with, specifically that of early motherhood and preparations for a Category Five hurricane.
The layers of Esch’s unique coming-of-age story are characterized by toughness and independence: she is left motherless but must also formulate her own definition of motherhood in the wake of her teen pregnancy. As the only girl in the story, she is forced to make difficult and adult choices and thus decipher her own identity; should she hit herself “really hard in the stomach” to “bring a miscarriage” or keep “what is inside” her
Esch’s coming of age is complicated in that she must develop not only for her own sake, but for the sake of her baby and family as well. Esch’s unique circumstances in gender pose challenges such as not being able to talk about birth control because she does not have a motherly figure; Daddy sometimes “forgets that [she is] a girl,” so when she is faced with “narrow to none” options, she must confront the situation head on (102-3). A level of maturity is necessary for this decision, causing her coming of age to intensify at a much more rapid pace than Estella in Great Expectations, for example, who successfully comes of age only until she is a grown woman. She essentially lives her whole life through the eyes of Miss Havisham, marrying Bentley Drummle and then realizing the pain she has wrought on Pip; her experience contrasts the modern, twenty-first-century coming-of-age process for those in