Literary
Analysis of Winter’s Bone
Picture a seventeen year old young woman who is the
primary caregiver of her two brothers, and mentally ill mother, while her
father, a known meth cook and dealer is in trouble for his habits. The father,
Jessup, is out and put the family’s house and land up for bond. Ree, the
seventeen year old, who hunts for the family to eat, bathes, teaches, and
protects her siblings and her mother feels obligated to search and find her
father before his court date to make sure the family keeps their home. Their
home is in a holler in the Ozarks of Missouri. The house is a cabin, made of
wood with poor insulation. The extended family is made up of a long line of
meth users, cooks, and dealers. The rich neighbors are kind to Ree’s family and
help provide them with food and logs for their fire.
Winter’s Bone is
a sad, dreary, story about family struggles, drugs, poverty, and courage. The
reader has difficulty continuing to read as it only seems to get worse and
worse for Ree. Ree continues to take care of her family while on a treacherous
journey to find her father, running into unwilling family members who do
nothing more but try to steer her away from finding Jessup. Ree is courageous,
strong, and perseveres through all of the struggles to save her family’s home. Woodrell’s
purpose in writing this novel is to show how rough of hands people have been
given and to show how courage and perseverance can pay off. It appears that the area in which the story
took place is of low economy, social status, and male dominated. The primary
industry is meth. The males in the story did not want anything to do with Ree,
and she was even told “don’t you have a man to do this” (Winter’s Bone, film).
Ree’s
father has been in and out of jail for cooking, doing, and dealing meth. Now
that he is out on bond Ree feels obligated to find him so that she can save her
home. Without that house her mother and siblings and her will have nowhere to
live. Ree’s mother is quiet and keeps to herself inside of their home. She hardly
even talks to any of her children. Ree relates her mother’s condition to her
father cheating on her and his bad habits. Ree cooks for her, bathes her, and
brushes her hair. At one point Ree begs her mother for help, advice on the
situation and what she should do. Her mother says nothing. Not even a head nod
or a glance into her eyes. This leaves Ree no choice but to take care of her
siblings. She cooks for them and teaches them how to do things so that they are
capable while she is gone.
Meth, or methamphetamine is a drug that is easily
concocted out of over the counter items and easily made in any environment. The
dangers of cooking and mixing these items together are deathly. This drug
became the way of life for many people. Ree’s whole line of family became meth
cooks and dealers. Of course they were using it as well. The effects of
methamphetamine are similar to other simulants, alertness, and enhanced mood. Long
term effects of methamphetamine can cause brain damage, increased blood
pressure, teeth loss, weight loss, psychotic behavior, and even similar
symptoms to Parkinson’s disease (semcaprevention.org).
Methamphetamine is produced by combining ingredients such
as ammonia, lye, ephedrine/pseudo-ephedrine, solvents, starter fluid, iodine,
red phosphorous, lithium metal, and salts (semcaprevention.org). Every cook of
meth uses different combinations of these various ingredients. Meth users never
know exactly what they are ingesting. Meth can be injected, snorted, smoked, or
orally digested (justice.gov).
Methamphetamine has widely spread across the United
States. In 2000, 4% of the nation’s population admitted to trying meth at least
one time. Damage to the brain can cause effects similar to Alzheimer’s disease,
epilepsy, and stroke. Chronic use of meth “can cause violent behavior, anxiety,
confusion, insomnia, auditory hallucinations, mood disturbances, delusions, and
paranoia” (justice.gov).
Although this horrific drug is so dangerous and causes so
many negative effects on people, so many use it. The locals and family in this
area uses methamphetamines as a way of life. They all use it, cook it, and sell
it. They all know not to talk about it. Jessup must have owed someone money or
drugs because when Ree comes around asking about her father, no one wants to
talk to her. She is sure at someone knows where he is but no one will tell her
anything. She’s even told “He knows what you want to ask and he don’t want to
hear it” ( pp. 63).
Ree tries to find Jessup by any means she can. She gets
choked and threatened by her Uncle Teardrop, her father’s brother. She gets
beat up by her other relatives, the Dolly’s for asking too many questions as to
where her father is. When Ree is persistent in talking to Thump Milton, his
wife tells her, “Nope. Talkin’ just causes witnesses and he don’t want for any
of those” (pp 61). Yet she still keeps looking for him.
Ree’s dream is to join the army. Ree only has one year
left until she’s old enough to join. She wants to make sure her family is
stable before she goes. This is one of the reasons she teaches her siblings how
to shoot a gun, to hunt, to cook, and how to take care of their mother and the
house. Ree does not count on either of her parents for anything. Ree makes sure
her siblings know how to handle themselves also. She does not want them growing
up thinking they can rely on their parents either. Independence is a necessity
in this family.
Finally
Teardrop stands up for Ree and some of the female Dolly’s show up to take Ree
to show her that her father is dead. Once they arrive at the place where Jessup
is buried, they make Ree cut off his hands to take to the law to prove he is
dead. The proof that he is dead will void the bail bondsman’s agreement and
they will get to keep the house. Ree is courageous enough to cut off her dad’s
hands because she knows the proof will save her home.
After
Ree takes her father’s hands to the law, she realizes that the police officer
is the one who leaked information out on Jessup. Jessup was working with the
local sheriff then the sheriff had told some people in the community about
Jessup working with him. This is what caused Jessup to get killed. The next day
the bail bondsman shows up at her house and hands her a bag of money. He told
her that the money was given to him by an anonymous person so now that Jessup
is dead they don’t know who to give it to other than Jessup’s family (film). Fortunately
the ending is as good as it can get for Ree. Although her father is dead, the
family can keep their home and their land. They don’t have to worry about
Jessup causing any more problems for them. Now they just have to keep up on
their own.
Work’s
Cited:
Woodrell, Daniel. Winter’s Bone. New York: Back Bay Books; Little, Brown and Company.
Winter’s
Bone. Dir. Debra Granik. Perf. Jennifer Lawrence. 2010.
Film.
