Salvage the Bones Lesson Plan

What are your thoughts on the heavy presence of dogfighting in the novel? How is it portrayed?

After winning the National Book Award for the novel in 2011, Ward stated that she wanted to write about poor, black, rural Southerners "so that the culture that marginalized us for so long would see that our stories were as universal, our lives as fraught and lovely and important as theirs." With the dogfighting scene, Ward tackles a controversial topic head-on. It is a topic that is part of the story of many Southern black communities. Growing up, Ward's father had pit bulls, her brother and many men in her community owned them as well. Sometimes they were fought for honor....