Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones as Apocalyptic Fiction

Abstract

This research looks into the text Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward's from the perspective of apocalyptic.This novel,Salvage the Bones tells the story of the Batiste family in Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, in the twelve days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. Claude Batiste’s wife, mother of Randall, Skeetah (Jason), Esch and Junior, died a few years ago, right after Junior was born. The kids still live with their father, in an area called the Pit. They are a poor, black family, who mainly survive on what Claude can make by salvaging and then selling scrap metal. He is an alcoholic and not much of a presence in the story; the children are left to fend a lot for themselves, with Randall acting as a parent for Junior.At the same time, meteor shower also occurs to add more misfortunes to the already degraded conditions of mankind. Due to the foolhardiness, shortsightedness and over-ambitious plan of a few coteries of researchers and scientists, environment declines disastrously. Soon human world degenerates into living hell. Entire prospect of human survival becomes dystopian as environment continues to decline catastrophically. Thus, this research explores how the hope for scientific progress has turned the world into toxicity leading to apocalyptic dystopia.