Kristen Grimmett
March 25, 2012
English 102
Ms. Cline
Literary
Analysis of Daniel Woodrell's “Winter’s Bone”
In
“Winter’s Bone”, Daniel Woodrell tells a story of a difficult time for a young
girl in a run-down country town. She is faced with many hardships while trying
to take care of her family and provide them with a home to live in, all without
the help of her father. Woodrell describes his characters with raw depictions
of how people think and behave in the Ozark Mountains. Ree Dolly has grown up
in the harsh and corrupt poverty of the Ozarks and learns many things about the
Dolly clan as she travels through this journey. Woodrell uses this raw and
compelling writing style to depict how one must raise up and be strong to
overcome hardships in life. By telling Ree’s story, he encourages readers to
step up and do better and become more than those before you.
Ree
Dolly, the lead character, is a strong willed and strong minded young girl who
has the responsibility of taking care of her sick mother and two baby brothers,
Sonny and Harold. She is stubborn and makes her own decisions, a true country
girl. She can shoot a gut and fight like a man. Her father Jessup, out on bond
and known for cooking crystal meth or “crank”, has left her, once again, to deal
with taking care of a sick mother and two young boys.. They live in an old
run-down home out in the country, far from real civilization. Ree is faced with the huge burden, after
finding out that her father has put the home and everything they own up for his
bail. If he doesn't show up for his court date, Ree, her mother and her young
brothers will be forced to evict the home.
Once
Ree learns of this, she takes it upon herself to find her father, dead or
alive. She goes through many hardships through the first half of the book, and
everything keeps getting more difficult as the chapters go on. After multiple
attempts, Ree still has not found her father. However, something weird is being
whispered around. Ree now feels that her father is dead. With all these
horrible things happening, she doesn't even have time to feel the true
emotions. For she is, once again, being held responsible. She must prove her
father's death to keep the home for her and her family. Now Ree has gotten in
over her head as she heads to the most feared man around, Thump Milton, for
answers. Upon arriving to Thump Milton’s home, she is told to leave and not
come back. She waits outside. Little did she know more trouble was heading her
way.
In the end, Ree is jumped by a few of the
sisters in the area. She was hurt very bad, she probably would have died, if it
weren’t for her uncle. Uncle Teardrop was a crank addicted, loud mouthed,
rugged man. He came in to save Ree’s life. Ree stays at home healing for a
while. Eventually the same sisters that jumped Ree and beat her til the brink
of death, showed up at Ree’s doorstep. They told her they were taking her to
her father’s body. Jessup had been murdered and strapped to an engine block and
sunk in the lake a fair distance away. The sisters then helped Ree cut off her
own fathers hand to take as evidence. Ree could use them to prove that her
father was in fact dead, and therefore could not possibly show up for his court
date, allowing Ree and her family to keep their home. In the end, they receive
a lump sum of money that was coming to Jessup. It is at this time that Ree
makes the decision to stay behind and take care of her family; instead of
leaving and never returning, as she had previously wanted so passionately
before.
Ree
has always wanted best for her brothers Sonny and Harold. “Ree’s grand hope was
that these boys would not be dead to wonder by age twelve, dulled to life,
empty of kindness, boiling with mean.”(1) She wanted the boys to do better than
what had been around them their whole lives. The Dolly clan was not known for
graduating with honors, doing good deeds or running for Mayor. They were
criminals and secretive. Woodrell described a society that had the idea or kill
or be killed. They did not believe in asking questions or talking to anyone
about anything. Ree had a tough time dealing with her own father saying things
he shouldn’t have. “What I really, really can’t stand… is… is how I feel so
shamed… for Dad. Snitchin’ just goes against everything.” (2) Woodrell shows in
this passage, that even with her father being murdered, Ree is still upset with
her father for telling the truth of what was going on in the corrupt drug
dealing clan. He wanted to show how tough and rugged the Ozarks were.
Woodrell
also does an outstanding job presenting the scenery of the Ozark country.
Although most have never been there, after reading this story, you will be able
to have a realistic visual of how harsh the surroundings were. “Keening blue
wind was bringing weather back into the sky, dark clouds gathering at the edge
of sight, carrying frosty wet for later.” (3) The winter brought cold and
despair to Ree’s already troubled life.
“Crank”,
or crystal meth, was the drug that seemed to drive Ree’s town. If people
weren’t doing it they were selling it, or both. Uncle Teardrop on more than one
occasion is described running wild while on this dangerous drug. He even puts
Ree, himself and Office Baskin in danger when he is high and gets pulled over.
“Ree watched Teardrop’s hand close around the riffle and she felt somehow
instantly all sweaty on her insides…Sounds like signed laughter burst from
Teardrop, and he jerked the riffle onto his lap, curled his trigger finger.”
(4) Luckily, Teardrop drove away before things got worse.
Woodrell
uses meth as the drug that destroys this town to show how it is taking over
communities across Rural-America. In another novel involving meth, Methland by Nick Reding, in the small
town of Oelwein, Iowa, a farm crisis has ruined the towns economy and created a
huge loss in work and jobs. Due to being so readily easy to make, crystal meth
becomes a huge business for all. The town is going farther and farther down,
when the town doctor, mayor and prosecutor step up to fight back. (5) There are
many similarities in the two books. Both have good people being corrupted by
the harsh and life changing, for the worse, drug meth. This story is not
fictional. These authors are telling stories that are truly happening across
America.
The
author's writing style was rough and explicit. Although a little bold in word
choice, I feel the Woodrell did a great job describing his characters. It was true
and raw. Each character has a past and it was explained. Woodrell wrote in such
a way, as to make me feel as though I was living this depressing reality. It
was an emotional roller coaster and I enjoyed every moment of it.
Works Cited
(1) Winter’s
Bone, Daniel Woodrell, 2006, Page 8.
(2) Winter’s
Bone, Daniel Woodrell, 2006, Page 149.
(3) Winter’s
Bone, Daniel Woodrell, 2006,
(4) Winter’s
Bone, Daniel Woodrell, 2006, 173.
(5) http://www.methlandbook.com/, Nick
Reding, 2011.
