Typology - Book Report/Review Example

Book Report/Review, Literature Topic: TypologyEsch was a compulsive moody girl, and she was denied the balanced growth in the circumstances and the familial traditions that she was brought up. She was altruistic, narcissistic and the blend of both depending upon the given conditions and the sufferings that she underwent and as such she defies the philosopher’s exclusive classifications. Poverty is good if it is a passing experience. But being compelled to go deep and deeper in to the pit of poverty and the ancillary sufferings that go with it, is a grim and cynical experience and Esch develops into an exclusive mold as a complex and hardened personality unresponsive to normal human emotions and sensibilities.

Esch was not to mature enough to stick to one of the abovementioned types of philosophy and live by those rules. I doubt whether she thought of any philosophical approach about her day to day dispositions. She just lived life in the ordinary course, challenging the vicissitudes as they fell to her lot. Right from her birth she was compelled to fight the small and big challenges of her life. As such struggle was the part and parcel of her life and she was habituated to accept them with a tough mental attitude.

What type of character Esch is! Certainly she thinks much about having sex with her young friends. She recalls her association with Big Henry, thus: "When we were little, Big Henry used to let me ride on his back in the deep part of the pit, the part that was lined with oyster shells. He used to carry me so my feet wouldnt get cut, even though his feet were as bare as mine."(p.26). Is she whimsical, careless or irresponsible? Why she is sex-starved or whether she is novice about the dangers involved in teenage sex?

No definite answer can be given to the above questions but sex is sex and even if it is done without any planning, one is liable to face the inevitable results. The same thing happens with Esch. Irresponsibility does not exempt one from the rules of the game of sex. Esch soon pays the price for her careless sexual adventure and becomes pregnant and bemoans how problematic is the experience of pregnancy. One has to just surrender to the circumstances and lose the will to fight back. From the moment she opens her eyes every day in the morning, she used to stare vacantly at the plaster ceiling and make efforts to come to terms with her existence and why she is obliged to carry on with her miserable living.(p.34)She is on the family way, even before she has discovered her own identity.

Another life is growing within her womb; as such she owns multiple responsibilities. All her responses become two dimensional, one from her individual point of view and the other one from the point of view of the growing fetus within her. Thus Esch is compelled to live by protecting her dual identities of herself and the child growing within her. It is incorrect to bracket her personality within any of the three abovementioned classifications of the philosopher. She is too young and carefree to be measured in the yardstick of the philosopher.

Pregnancy has added a new dimension to her relationship with the family members and a sense of gravity grips the entire family. A complex reality has emerged that baffles definition. With each advancing stage of pregnancy Esch is shaping more and more as a multi-layered personality. The financial condition of the family adds to her individual misery and her apprehensions about the possible problems with the addition of the child. Conclusion Personality of Esch and the plight of her existence go beyond the classifications of the philosopher, as she is part of the cornered family from the societal point of view.

All segments of life, all domains are challenging as such Esch’s coming of age is different and the family lives in doomed circumstances being challenged from all ends. Work CitedWard, Jesmyn. Salvage the Bones. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2011