Challenging Conventions: C Period

I scramble throughout the streets trying to find someone or something to help me understand where I am. One minute I was talking to Skeetah about our dog China and the next I find myself in an area that I have never been in before. My hair was sticking to my face because of the humidity and balls of sweat were dripping down my face. As I wander I see a couple bickering. The girl has gorgeous curly hair that covers her face and long tan legs. She looks as if she's been crying, her mascara's been smudged, her big, chocolate brown eyes are red and puffy, and her voice keeps shaking whenever she talks. The boy rolls his eyes every single time she speaks. He's tall and muscular.  All of a sudden, I hear her scream, "WHY DON'T YOU BELIEVE ME? WHAT DID I DO TO MAKE YOU NOT BELIEVE ME?" "IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE A WHORE THAT'S WHY THE BABY ISN'T MINE! YOU'VE BEEN SCREWING AROUND WITH OTHER GUYS!" "NO I HAVEN'T! YOU'RE ...

I thought that only once in a lifetime I would break my life down to the bones, forced to rebuilt the skeleton. I thought I was strong - and I am. But not strong enough. Not strong enough to do it all over again. I moved to Houston, Texas to escape the Pit. I have lived here for almost eight years, happy and free. The world will shape you if you let it. It will show you all its' secrets, but sadly some are dirty. I thought I left my old life and bad luck behind, but I came to find out that it follows me. Never had I thought that Houston would have a hurricane too. Twelve years later, irony or karma has come back to get me. Texas is notorious for being in drought, so why would flooding ever be an issue? I had I life for myself. A job, a place to call home, and I was happy being free. My life was built around my desires. Oh yes, and my daughter. She will turn nine next week. She is the reason we left the Pit. I want her to be strong, to live a life of freedom and accomplishmen...

Chris P.O.V I am surrounded by these buildings, lights everywhere. I do not understand what this huge glowing 'M' is doing in the area where the trees were. Is this not where I was in 1992? the beautiful trees have been cut down and replaced with machines asking us for our orders. People drive their cars on the smooth pavement where the dirt and crisped leaves used to fall. I walk into the Mcdonalds that took over nature, the stench of stale nuggets and fried food consumes my nostrils. What happened to the beautiful aroma of the wildflowers? I leave the building to follow a trail of sidewalk along the side of a road, there I see it. The trees, the flowers, the dirt. As I walked closer to it, thats all it was, some trees, some flowers, and a little bit of dirt. Where did the beautiful big wild go? Cut down and left for dead. They  took over the people, and the whole wild. Nothing else to escape to, we are stuck in the norm. They trapped us to stay in the single mindset of soc...

     I can't believe it Charlottesville, I just can't believe how you are treating your own people. How could a place that is so close to where I grew up be in such peril. White supremacists preaching their hate, our president not taking any action to punish those who attempt to murder others who are different. These religious and governmental institutions are the reasons that I set out into the wild all those years ago. One man thinking he is better then another because of the color of his skin. Has Thoreau taught us nothing? Has no one listened to him speak about whats on the inside not out. The truth in people can't be found in the pigment of their skin. These confederates who are dominating these protests must learn peace. Driving a car into crowds of people is not peace! Who is responsible, the KKK?  The closeted confederates who decided to ban together to prevent the destruction of racist statues? In my travels I have learned how to deal with others and their ...

In 2017 the men and women pull crowns out of afros. I see Angela Davis reading a speech from her iPhone. I see Jimi Hendrix mixing songs on Garage Band. The most beautiful people all balance crowns of black on their heads. I see girls that do not exist outside of the grip of the city–skin like chestnut, mahogany, obsidian, brown sugar. All dressed up in flesh and bone. Brooklyn unfurls like the wet tongue of a sweating dog, flops out pink and long like China’s, sunlight licking at the streets, coating bodies in a thin, glossy sheen. This is Afropunk Festival, where the people face the sun. Where people look up at the night sky, see themselves, and smile. No one is afraid of the rays eating away at their light, spitting out arms and faces darker, darker still. Like I am. Like the darkness I see on me.   There are parties on the main stages disguised as concerts. Legs bend, stomp; hips wind around corners as far as a mile down the block. People sing and people listen. The noise ...

I know I wasn't the happiest person and most welcoming person towards the beginning of my journey, but this is ridiculous. I am currently in Charlottesville, Virginia and something terrible just happened yesterday. There were these people standing in front of a statue of some sort, I think it was because the statue represented a confederate man in some place of power, and of course they were protesting the idea that it was racist. Anyway, as they are standing out protesting loudly, but peacefully, a man in a car begins to drive into these protestors! He was a confederate man himself, I believe he was part of the KKK but I am not sure. But it was just terrifying to me because trust me I know what it is like for many others not to agree with your opinion, but to feel that the other person is so wrong that you want to hit them with a car and potentially kill them, seeing that made me sick to my stomach. I like how the people were protesting though, I like that a lot. Everyone should b...

Hurricane Katrina was a catastrophe and now history is repeating itself only this time in Texas with Hurricane Harvey. Water flooded through the streets and families were being pulled from their homes by boats. It reminded me of when we had to leave our house because of all the water flooding it during Katrina. I never thought I would see another storm like Katrina and thankfully this time I knew to evacuate. Watching the news show images of kids and families in the storm takes me back to Katrina. I know how they feel and I know what they've gone through. I empathize with those who lost their homes and I wish I could help them all. Who would think just twelve years after Katrina another devastating hurricane would hit. Nothing pains me more than seeing people who were in my exact position all those years ago.

Present day New York City From Chris' Point of View New York city is horrendous. There are way to many people. The "hustle and bustle" of the city is appalling. Everyone has their heads down on their phones. The smell of weed and ammonia permeates my nose. There are lights everywhere and a constant hum of engines and machines. The streets are crowded with people walking, so absorbed in their lives and jobs to pay attention to their surroundings. The conformity of it all is heartbreaking. All of these people trapped in the routine of city life. This city is overflowing with people, cars cause traffic jams in every street, yet the city offers more than just grueling routine. It is full of shops and restaurants. The consumerism a plague on the city. Even the suburbs of Virginia were better than NYC.

Twenty-five in the future, nothing, and everything has changed. People still live every day of their shitty lives the same, doing the same thing every day until they die. Everyone talks to people they don't like so they can get the money they don't want so they can buy things they don't need, and for what? Some sense of validation? Some bizarre need for approval? Sounds fun.     There are more ways to be complacent with life these days. Everyone has access to a constant flow of information, and everybody knows everything about everyone else. No mystery, no secrets, people put their whole lives out there to judge. I respect them not caring what others think, but why leave your entire personage where everyone can see. There's no adventure anymore, no secrecy. At least the kids I'm sitting next to are sharp. Kingswood Oxford Students, actually. I respect their education and them becoming knowledgeable, but the principle of the institution is dumb. Pay a lot ...

It is 2017 and I have just arrived from 1992. Although 25 years have gone by it seems that I haven’t changed in the slightest. Not even my appearance, I still looks like a gaunt, bushy hair 24 year old. I has arrived into one of Kingswood Oxford’s Form 4 English classes and right off the bat I notice that everyone is dressed up because it is picture day. I gets very angry because everyone is wearing the same thing and conforming to one arbitrary rule. I also sees a book that each student has… it is called Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer . After just a few minutes of class I realize that the book is about me! I am outraged! Although I admire Jon’s experiences as a mountain climber I know that Jon can only speculate what I was thinking during my adventure. I am also outraged by the fact that Jon used my story to create a book that killed trees. On an even higher level I am annoyed because this book that is about me challenging conventions is being taught and used in conventional schools...

Civil discourse and mass construction. The world of 2017 is one in which I do not want to live. People protest basic human rights and ideologies in the streets, while rich men stay in power oppressing others. Society has evolved far beyond the toxic world I lived in. People are born free and should be entitled to live outside the arbitrary rules of society. Forests are being destroyed to make room for land to be exploited by businessmen, the only true beauty in the world is being eradicated. It disgusts me how people are able to do this. Nature is the only true gift to man, it is the only space in the world where a man can be left alone with his thoughts and obtain the thrills of adventure. Fewer stories emerge of adventurers and more stories of researchers who discover solutions for the evils they produce. Simplicity is key, if everyone were able to be an individual, life would be better for all. Those who oppose individualism simply haven't felt the thrills of self-sustainment. T...

If I could put Chris' McCandless in a time machine and transport him anywhere in 2017, I would bring him to Beverly Hills. Everything in Beverly Hills is material and fake, which are the things that Chris hates most. All Chris would see is money, and people living in a society where nature is unknown and few people are truly happy. As Chris states in the book, people should look for happiness in the natural world, not people or material objects. In Beverly Hills, the closest to nature he will be is the palm trees on the sidewalk. He would see cars that cost more than his college education, but he would drive his beloved yellow Datsun over any other car on Rodeo Drive. Although Chris would hate this setting, he could relate to one thing; people trapped in their own lives. He would think of all the kids with wealthy parents who want to control their entire lives. Those kids were Chris before he left for the wild.

Present day New York City If Chris was placed in NYC he would be a outcast in a society of sellouts. He would be a redneck in a society of lawyers, bankers, and business men. Every type of person that my father wanted him to be is in this NYC. And he would hate it. Judgment lurks behind every single corner, and soul less men and women walk around aimlessly every single day without purpose. Doing the same thing every single day. He wouldn't think that is life. What new experiences are their in a place where the world is stuck in a standstill? He would view NYC as a place where no people are worth talking to, since they are all zombies that have been drained by society. He would need to escape, to get away from society. This is no place for him, to many people would be looking at him, judging him when they don't know him. He would think that society today has all these expectations, of what it is like to be normal, what you should be like to live a happy life. He would think...

Back in my time, it was Katrina.  Now, it's Harvey.  Winds as strong as can be roar through the city of Houston, and rain keeps pouring and pouring until the water level reaches the sky.  Although I am farther east, I feel like the storm is directly outside my window and I am trapped.  I see on the television that this storm is stronger than what I previously experienced, but it doesn't feel any worse.  I suspect that's the case because I've already faced my natural disaster.  Now they say another one of them is coming up the east coast, the highest recorded storm in the Atlantic Ocean.  As I look around, times have not changed too much; people are still not prepared or aware, a mistake Papa, Randall, Skeet and the rest of us made.  There are still hurricanes, families like us, and not much has changed at all.

If Esch was transported to Huston Texas (After Hurricane Harvey) today, she may not see much of a difference between it and Hurricane Katrina. It would be like she was simply in another place where Katrina hit. She would be in the shelters along with many people who also have had their homes drowned under water, and their lives ripped away in the wind. She would be outraged that after 12 years, not much has changed about how hurricanes are dealt with. (Evacuation or preparation, then damage control afterwards) She would also hate knowing that another more powerful hurricane is headed for Florida, named Irma. Esch would not like Texas and Florida right now, and going through the aftermath of a category 5 hurricane again, knowing that another place has one coming.

       This depiction of Medea by an unknown artist shows her at the height of her jealousy, plotting the death of Jason's wife. She is shown as a scorned woman, filled with anger and hatred. She wears jewels because according to her social status, she theoretically should live a comfortable and luxurious life. The background is blue to demonstrate the sad, depressing world she lives in. This photo by an unknown artist represents Esch by the end of the book because she has the strength to pick herself up (and her dress) and walk through the water instead of letting herself float away. By the end of the novel, Esch has the strength and self confidence to face her challenges instead of running away from them or letting them consume her, much like the water could have.

This artistic rendition of the myth of the Golden, painted by Nona Hyyiten in 2008, depicts the three central characters to the legend: Jason, and his assumed wife-to-be, the daughter of the king of Corinth, reflecting in a glass held by Medea. Hyyiten intentionally added a yellow coloring to the painting to create a self-ascribed "True Crime feel". From Hyyiten's perspective, Medea is " one of the strongest and most fearful women in Greek mythology." The painting attempts to convey the situation that led her to unleashing that  strength.  This pencil drawing by Shen Long (2004) is actually a representation of Medea, with a snake sticking out of her mouth. I chose this image because it demonstrates the transformed person Esch is by the end of the novel–she identifies with a new part of Medea, the part that insults and brings destruction. Esch's Medea moment happens when she finally lashes out at Manny for using her, for rejecting her, and her wo...

Esch and Madea Jesmyn Ward draws many connections between Esch and Medea, but the one that stuck out to me the most was in Chapter 10, on page 205 when Esch tells Manny that the baby is his. Manny completely denies it and this sets off Esch which causes her to lash out at him. ""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." I think that this mythological allusion is important at the point in the text because it's a very intense moment for Esch. She's telling the boy that she allegedly "loves" (I am only saying allegedly because I think that she loves the idea of being loved - although that sounds cliche - and loving someone back, but that is something for another blog post) that he is the father of her baby and him denying it just sparks something powerful inside of her that makes her react in the way that she did. Although, you c...

" In ancient Greece, for all her heroes, for Medea and her mutilated brother and devastated father, water meant death. In the bathroom on the toilet, I heard the clanking of metal against metal outside, some broken machine tilting like a sinking headstone against another, and I knew it was the wind pushing a heavy rain." (pg. 216)     Jesmyn Ward draws many connections between Esch and Medea, one of them being water as a motif for fatality. For Medea, water in the form of seas and rivers was what caused her demise. However, for Esch, water represents impending fate. As she and her family prepare to survive hurricane Katrina, the symbol of the water rising is used to show their impending fate and their uncertainty of the outcome, much less survival. To Esch, the rising water is threatening to take everything away from her, even her family - much like how the water impacted Medea's family.

This is a painting of Medea by Anthony Frederick in 1866. She is making the potion that she gave Jason to protect himself. It was rejected from being on exhibition at the royal academy and that caused a lots of protest. The picture also shows Medea in a trance of love for Jason. This bolt of lightning resembles Esch at the end of the novel because it is by itself yet fierce and mighty and powerful. It is also complex with many different motions just like Esch is becoming at the end of the novel.

Quote: “‘I love you!’ ‘Esch!’ The skin on his throat is 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 pg. 204) This happens near the end of Salvage the Bones as the facets of the story are resolving themselves. Esch opens up to Manny about her pregnancy and her feelings for him. She is getting her revenge on Manny by harming him, just as Medea got her revenge on Jason by killing his wife. Esch is trying to end her and Manny’s relationship with herself on top, the winner. She wants Manny to walk away feeling as though he is a lesser person and that Esch is stronger. The mythical Medea was in love with Jason and did many things to help him including murdering her own father and brother and leaving her home country. Esch does not pay attentio...

"Manny kneels next to Rico, whispers. 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. Manny's mouth moves and  I read She ain't shit, ain't got no heart. He looks at China when he murmurs, but it feels like he looks at me."(Ward 172) This instance of Greek Mythology comes at a pivotal point in the novel Salvage the Bones. Before this, Esch came to support Skeetah and China in China's most important fight yet, where she sees Manny(her "lover").  This point in the book marks a change in Esch's perspective on who Manny really is. In the earlier sections of the novel, our main character sees Manny as her Jason, seemingly perfect and flawless. This is not the case, as Manny is incredibly flawed(shown through his actions) but Esch chooses to overlook them and ...

    Esch makes many references to Medea and Jason's relationship when referring to her situation with Manny. Manny plays a large role in Esch's life. He is unknowingly the father of her child and seems to be the love of her life. Unfortunately for Esch, Manny has a girlfriend, one who is described to be "skinny, light skinned, and crazy" (Ward 56) . Esch feels possessive over Manny even though he was never her boyfriend, "I loved him before that girl. I imagine this is the way Medea felt about Jason when she fell in love, when she knew him; that she looked at him and felt fire eating up through her rib cage, turning her blood to boil, evaporating hotly out of every inch of her skin" (Ward 56). This quote demonstrates both of these woman feelings towards love and how it basically tore each of them apart.      Esch loves Manny full heartedly and he does not even realize how she feels. This rejection must have driven her to insanity, which lead to th...

At this point in the novel, Esch has told Manny that she is pregnant and that it is his baby, in which he responds with denial and shakes off the information that she has just given to him as if it wasn't important or it was her problem, following this Esch attacks Manny when she states, "I love you!' 'Esch!' The skin on his throat is 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) By Esch both making this attack on Manny and making a clear statement that this is "Medea wielding the knife," this allusion is showing that these two specific women feel as if they need to be with the men they love, and when these men try and walk out of their lives as if they were never there, the women do...

In the novel, Salvage The Bones, Esch lives within a small impoverished town where education is almost foreign. Fueled by her kindred relationship to the Greek goddess, Medea, Esch falls in love with Greek mythology. A particular part of Medea's story that Esch relates to is Medea's dissociated love with Jason, "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). Despite being disastrous, Esch connects the relationship between her and Manny to that of Medea and Jason--foreshadowing the end of their relationship. Esch initially falls deeply in love with M...