Emma Watson: Role of drugs in Winter's Bone.

 Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone follows the story of 16-year-old Ree Dolly as she tries to find her missing, convicted father before the law rips her and her family’s stability away from them. Ree Dolly is a part of a large community made up of relatives and other families that settled in Riftlin Valley, but her main concerns are keeping her house and providing for her dependent family members. Her life gets jeopardized when her father misses his court date and the law demands that she must give away the land rights. Winter’s Bone provides a narrative based in the Ozarks that explores themes of violence, poverty, desolation, isolation, and family as Ree embarks on her quest.

Woodrell also accomplishes a well-written perspective of drug use and its relationship to the community. As a native of the Ozarks, Woodrell claimed in an interview that he wrote this story based on his experiences in an area gripped by methamphetamine and that it was not only a recreational activity but also a life source. Methamphetamine and other drugs are the underlying foundations for many relationships, and character motivations that drive the plot of the novel.

The book follows a journey to find a convicted man, and the law wants Ree’s father because he was charged with cooking meth and missed his court date. Deputy Baskin implies by saying, “[he’s] just about the best crank chef these Dollys and them ever have had, girl” to Ree that he’s not the only one in the kitchen (Woodrell, pg. 14). The Dollys had a long history of cooking meth, or “crank”, as Ree puts it, that it’s become an expectation for them; however, Ree makes a point to defy it for herself and for others. When caring for the boys, Ree states, “[Her] grand hope was that these boys would not be dead to wonder by age twelve…So many Dolly kids were that way, ruined before they had chin hair, groomed to live outside square law…” (Woodrell, pg. 8).

Woodrell interprets drugs as a negative component that makes people numb, weary, or mean. Ree’s mother has to take pills for her mental illness but it makes her so dazed that she’s entirely dependent on her daughter. She’s like a ghost of her past self to the point that her sons don’t recognize her in her photos. Another example is Uncle Teardrop, who was a chef before his lab blew up and had his side completely scarred. His relationship with drug use will forever be embedded in his skin, and the price he paid with the law will forever be associated with his name. Jessup, Ree’s father, is murdered because he snitched other meth cooks to the police. And lastly, Ree, who only smokes marijuana and refuses to have anything to do with meth becomes so dependent on painkillers that she fears she’s going crazy. After Jessup’s whereabouts, Ree declines Teardrop’s offer to sell meth for money, saying “Crank ain’t for me. Nobody gets better from that shit” (Woodrell, pg. 190) For each example, the character’s relationship with drugs and their abuses harmfully impacts them.

Drug use cripples the people in the valley through its addictive tendencies and enticing income that incarcerates them; powerful people, like Satterfield, then use them to make money through bail bonds. Ree aims to break a vicious cycle by raising the boys to defy the life written by their ancestry. After everything she went through to find Jessup, she defies going down that path like her relatives; instead, she wants to use the money to buy wheels to distance herself and the boys from the valley.