In Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone, the reader is shown the life of those in the Ozarks. Through Ree the reader gets to really understand how this community is run. The clear ruler throughout the community is drugs, specifically crank. Still in this divided and drug-run community there is still a clear emphasis, especially on Ree’s part, on family.
In the very beginning of the novel the reader is introduced to Ree’s immediate, yet physically and mentally divided family. Her father is physically not present, her mom has mental health issues that keep her from truly being present, and then there are her brothers, who she raises on her own. The division seen in her family foreshadows the division the reader later sees throughout the entire family. In this community everyone is related to each other in some way or another. It is this bond that Ree puts a lot of emphasis on when she goes to search for her family. She believes that, since she is a Dolly and the people she turns to are her family, they have an obligation to help her find her dad and be honest with her about what they know. As stated before though, everyone is very divided and doesn’t think the same. This is discussed when Ree goes to Uncle Teardrop and mentions asking around Hawkfall for her dad. After Ree brings up their relation Teardrop says, “Our relations get watered kinda thin between this valley and Hawkfall. It better’n bein’ a foreigner or town people, but it ain’t nowhere near the same as bein’ from Hawkfall” (25). Still Ree doesn’t head this warning and is faced with this reality when she goes to Hawkfall and tries to see Thump Milton. When turned away despite being a Dolly and distantly related she says, “So, come the nut-cuttin’, blood don’t truly mean shit to him. Am I understandin’ right? Blood don’t truly count diddly to the big man” (63). To Ree being family, even distantly, comes with a sense of loyalty and duty to help, but it is clear not everyone sees it the same.
The only person who seems to show a similar train of thought is Uncle Teardrop. In the beginning he is rough with Ree and tells her not to go after her dad, but he does give her a bit of money to help. The next time he shows up he makes a comment, “You think I forgot about you” (110). The fact that he says this, even sarcastically shows that he does care and worry about her. Then he truly shows how much he cares when he shows up in Hawkfall after she’s beaten despite wanting to stay out of things and says, “She’s my niece and she’s near about all the close family I got left… If anybody lays even just one finger on that girl ever again, they better have shot me first” (137-138). He proves here that family means a lot to him too.
I think your post is intriguing with the connection between the division within her immediate family and the division between the greater family of Dollys. I never thought about describing Ree's immediate family as divided. Her father is gone and her mother is ill, and her brothers are too young to understand the true meaning of family. Ree is the one holding the family together as she is being the mother and father in the family. It seems like her most important value and motivation in life is keeping her family together. She takes the role of being the parent at age 16 and teaches her brothers how to shoot and even how to kill and skin a squirrel. She even tells “Harold [to] put your hand in there’n yank out them guts” (106). She’s teaching her brothers life skills normally taught by their parents. Even though her father’s gone she still is holding him a spot in the family because she continues to defend his name. When Blonde Milton comes and is rough with her and her brother she brings up her father as a defense. Later she also exclaims “‘You never whipped him as a man in your life! Not when he wasn’t too fucked up to punch.’” ( 73). Even though he’s disappeared and put their house up for bond, she still will defend him regardless. It may seem like their family is divided, but because of Ree, their family is still close together.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your point about family. I think that this story really looks at family from a different view than most as it shows this division you talked about not just within the immediate family as well as the extended family. I think that Ree really is the exception to this rule throughout the story because of the fact that she is still very much a part of her brothers lives and takes care of them and because of the fact that she still seems to have an idea that her family should be looking out for her and helping her with her situation. Ree is a very strong character who does her all to try and protect her brothers from this division, but at times, she can even feel a little stuck within it herself. At one point in the story, Ree says to her mother, "Mom, I need you. Mom - look at me. Look at me, Mom. Mom, I'm goin' to need you to help. There's things happenin' that I don't know what to do about" (Woodrell 118). This moment shows how young she is, and how much she needs her family but how they really are not there to help her.
ReplyDelete