Although Junior in Salvage the Bones is only 10 years old, his character is not only complicated but also brings complexity to the rest of Ward's novel. His birth resulted in Mom's death, leaving the rest of the family motherless and alone to fend for themselves in the Pit. Without a mother or even friends close to his age, the youngest of the Bastiste siblings was forced to grow up faster than the average 10-year-old. Despite this, Junior's brothers and sister still view him as a baby and never seem to acknowledge that he experienced horrors that forced him to grow up well beyond his years. Throughout most of the novel, Junior constantly tries to prove to Randall, Skeetah, and Esch that he is in fact mature enough to be involved in their lives. However, when Katrina reaches the Pit, there is a clear retraction of the brave and mature boy that Junior revealed himself to be, leaving the reader with a frightened shell, traumatized by the stormy waters. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay. Junior has a much deeper understanding of his surroundings than his siblings are aware of. When all the Batiste siblings decide to go to the basketball game to support Randall, for example, Junior quickly realizes Esch's distress after the incident in the bathroom with Manny. At this point, Esch describes Junior's actions: "I want to let Junior get ahead of me in the building to the gym, so I walk slowly, but then he walks slower so he doesn't leave me, and it takes us 10 minutes. walk forward” (147). She continues by saying, “He puts his arm around my elbow as if he were escorting me” (147). Although Esch expects Junior to run off with the other kids into the gym, leaving her alone, this is not the case. He is fully aware of the pain that Manny put him through just minutes before in the bathroom, and although Esch does not consider him mature, he is clearly capable of understanding what is happening around him. faced adversity, as he was exposed to much more than the average 10 year old boy. Dad, who is often drunk and uninterested in Junior's education, places the burden of his youngest son's life on the older children. As a result, Junior has not been protected from many of the more mature activities his older siblings participate in. As the family and Big Henry are on their way to Randall's basketball game, Esch says, "I'm happy to be sitting in the backseat by the car window, Junior's bony rump wiggling on my knees, Skeetah puffing on the blunt, Marquise next to him at the other window, opaque through a cloud of smoke” (140). Esch's nonchalant description of events seems to obscure the strange reality that, rather than protecting Junior from illegal substances, they are willing to smoke marijuana just feet away from him, in a closed car. Despite all this, Junior is still seen as the baby and is treated as if he is oblivious to what is happening in the pit. In one of the novel's most telling moments, after Junior finds Dad's severed finger with his wedding ring still in place, he exclaims, "'I know his hand and the beer and his medicine...I saw him. when he broke it. I found it... I see things!' » (185). It is clear that this moment results from growing frustration on Junior's part due to his family's belief that he is simply a naive child, without ideas or concerns about what is happening around him. Hurricane Katrina.