Salvage the Bones

The novel is narrated by the character Each. Having lost her mother and being the only girl in the family beside China, Each is desperately trying to find herself. Each began having sex at an early age and now is pregnant believing the father to be Cheetah’s friend, Many. The relationship is obsolete, Many uses Each as a sex object. She’d like him to love her or at least notice her more. But he is with another throughout the novel. Ward uses metaphors about Greek goddesses to describe Each and her conflicting feelings. Each looks to the women in Greek mythology for power and strength in her femininity and sexuality.
These are things she is missing in her life. Each has been sexually active since the age of 12, she is always looking for love in sex. “The pulpy ripe heart. The sticky heart the boys saw through my boyish frame, my dark skin, my plane face. The girl heart that, before Many, I let boys have because they wanted it, and not because wanted to give it. Lid let boys have it because for a moment, I was Psyche or Eurydice or Daphne. Was beloved” (Ward 17). Although when it comes to Many, Each thinks she knows what she wants. ” But with Many, it was different; he was so beautiful, and still he chose me, again and again.
He wanted my girl heart; gave him both of them” Ward 17). Ward has created a character so conflicted within herself. Each is always looking to the goddesses for help in defining the way she is feeling. Aphrodite, goddess of romance and passion, known for her numerous affairs of the heart. Also known as the roman goddess Venus, Aphrodite had one gift and that was to make love.