ENG-102: Essay #3

Essay#3

Winter’s Bone is a story by Daniel Woodrell seen through the eyes of a sixteen year old girl named Ree Dolly.  This story portrays the economic struggle and social class of the people in the small towns in the Missouri Ozarks, which involve the gender roles and the over-all mentality of the majority of the people struggling through poverty, drug addiction, and domestic violence.  Some of the themes that stood out for me in this novel were how the people of Rees’ town and neighboring towns adapted to their living conditions, gender roles, and the outlooks of the characters view of their futures.  The hopeless position Ree was experiencing really gave the reader a broad view of how hard it would be to escape the life that she had grown up in, and how many generations of her relatives fell into the same lifestyle depicted in the novel.  Ree has obligations to her family that she has no other choice but to abide by, and the responsibilities many of the women in her family and in their surrounding towns have had to endure for generations.  Ree is a very strong individual with a determination to provide for her family that few people I have encountered have the strength, courage, and will to do.  Although Ree attempts to do whatever is necessary to see that her family is taken care of, she also has strong intentions to leave.  Woodrell makes continuous assertions of the overbearing role of male dominance in this story, and his purpose in writing this story seems to be the difficulties and struggles that everyone has to face in their lifetime no matter whom you are and where you come from.  But, what one can accomplish through self-sacrifice and determination is what is at the heart of this story.  It is my intention to point out the struggle of a sixteen year old girl with little education at best, and the social class and gender discrimination she was described as experiencing.

  The setting of this story was in the deep winter of the Ozarks.  “Woodrell has brilliantly played out the hillbilly landscape — its weather, its wilderness, its lack of culture and its primitive tongue: grated Parmesan is “sprinkle cheese,” given names are “front names” and sanity is described as a condition in which one’s “parts are gathered.” His Old Testament prose and blunt vision have a chilly timelessness that suggests this novel will speak to readers as long as there are readers, and as long as violence is practiced more often than hope or language.”(“The New York Times Book Review”)  Rees’ father is a well-known methamphetamine cook that has a court appearance, and Ree is told by a sheriff that unless he shows up for the court appearance Ree, her mother, and two younger brothers will lose their house on account for their father putting their house up for bond.  Ree is faced with finding her father through many different dangerous associates of her fathers including her relatives.  Ree has no job or income on account that she is only sixteen taking care of her mentally ill mother, and two younger brothers.  Ree has only a few days to track her father down with no transportation in the dead of winter with no vehicle, warm clothes, or people she can count on to look after her family she was left in charge of.  Ree seems like she knows how to handle herself and knows how cautious she must be in questioning people about her father’s whereabouts.   She knows that they are all somehow involved with the drug distribution in her town, and that nosing around in their business could bring about dire consequences to her and her family.  Ree puts herself in great danger in trying to save her family’s house and find her father.  The men of her family and town in general do not seem to respect women at all.  The women are all scared of the men in this story, and this makes Rees’ quest for information very difficult.  Woodrell goes into great deal of imagery throughout the book that makes the book seem slow at times, but it also gives the reader a real sense of the scenery and the struggles that Ree is facing.  This excerpt describes Ree in a way that gives the reader a good description or picture of what she has lived through and how she has been shaped by it.  Ree herself is described as “brunette and 16, with milk skin and abrupt green eyes. ... She stood tall in combat boots, scarce at the waist but plenty through the arms and shoulders, a body made for loping after needs.”(Woodrell page 3)  Woodrell seems to point out in many ways the heart of the main character Ree as being a young girl with all of the dreams and emotions that a sixteen year old girl should have, but have to put her own feelings and ambitions aside in order to do what is right or what is expected of her.  This description of Ree gives the reader an idea of the manual labor Ree has been shaped by her hard work, and the attire she wore as representing the daily work she has been expected to do.

  The men in Rees’ family were described as very hard-nosed, dominating, and violent country folk.  The wives of all of Rees’ uncles, cousins, and distant relatives all seem to share the same qualities of the men as being hard-nosed and tough.  Ree described one of her relatives that lived near her as having a permanent frown somehow chiseled into her face after all of the harsh winters and tough upbringing the women had in their family.  Ree described her Uncle Teardrop as “scary”.  She described him as having a look that seemed to stare straight into her soul, and a wife that did not dare to talk back to him in fear of being beaten.  Ree also had a friend named Gail that she knew since she was little that had a husband that cheated on her, and was usually always verbally abusing her.  These characteristics of the men and women seemed to be almost described as normal.  Ree seemed to view men as being very brutish and unattractive.  Some of the ways Ree described Teardrops wife and her friend Gail almost made her seem as if she had homosexual tendencies, but that was never mentioned or clarified in the book.  But, the way Ree would describe how she loved the way Victoria smelled and the relationship she had with Gail made it seem like she favored the company of women over men.  Ree had also described in the book how one of her relatives had drugged and raped her when she was very young.

  Ree described how she wished she could get away from the life that she lived by joining the military.  Ree would often escape her troubles and life in the form of listening to music.  These descriptions gave the reader the idea that she was not happy with how she was living, and wanted to be far away from everything that was going on with her family.  Ree loved her little brothers very much and was scared for them that they would grow up to be just like the rest of the men in her family.  She would describe how the boys were always getting into fights and getting into trouble at school, and she would always be trying to teach them things so that they would be able to take care of themselves once she had left. “This is the basis for literally every encounter Ree has in the first three quarters of the movie.  It’s so schematic that after a while it begins to feel like a fairy tale about the female solidarity.  Even Ree’s two younger siblings play into this, although in a slightly different way.  Both kids do violent things in the film.”(Overthinking It. Website)   

  Ree is described as a very dedicated family member who only wanted the best for her family.  Woodrell went into great detail how she took care of her mentally ill mother, and showed a kind of patience with her family that really gave the reader a real sense of patience and love that she had for them.  This book really inspired me to rise above in situations that seem hopeless.  This was in no way a happy story, but it was the kind of story that really made you ask yourself what you would do if you were in her shoes.  Woodrell really put that question to the test for me a number of times throughout the book.  The overall theme or point that I got from this story was that family is very important right or wrong.  That sometimes a person needs to put the benefit of others before their own wants.  I think that is what makes a person have real substance to their character.

Works Cited:

Woodrell, Daniel. Winter’s Bone. New York: Back Bay Books, 2006. Print.

Overthinkingit, ”Winter’s Bone, Film Noir, and Feminism” Web. 2 May, 2011.

New York Times Review of Book.  ”Winter’s Bone” n.d.  Web.  11 March, 2012.

02: Essay #3ENG-102 Essy #3: http://ryan-seaton.blogspot.com/ /