“But a girl loses her leg, and somebody gives her a new one. In this world where so few things are given, how can you not be in awe at what you’ve got?”
In the novel, Dresden is a character who happens to have a fake leg. When I was growing up, there was a fake leg left in the old farmhouse from the man who had lived with my paternal grandparents. I would see this leg and hear the stories about the man and his life. It seemed he always had to prove that he could work just as hard as other men with two legs, so I wanted to create a character like Dresden who received much of that same treatment. She receives this treatment even from her own mother. Both Dresden and Sal are victims of abuse.
I wanted to show both a white character experiencing this, as well as a black character, to illustrate that childhood abuse does not discriminate. Such abuse happens to children every day, regardless of if they are wealthy, poor, white, or black. And for those in similar situations as these characters, I wanted to inspire those readers to see that the abuse can be survived. Dresden certainly overcomes it to show that she is just as important, strong, and capable as everyone else.
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