In Winter’s Bone, Woodrell writes about a young teenage girl, Ree, who is trying to do everything in her power to help keep her family's home. Ree’s father is missing, and for her family to keep their home, her father must attend his court date. Before Ree began looking for her father, she was planning to join the military so that she could escape her town. Ree ends up staying at home and sacrificing her life and happiness, since she thought the only person capable of taking care of her family is herself. This is why Ree could not imagine herself joining the military at the end of the novel.
At the beginning of the novel, Ree is planning to join the military so that she can get away from her town and have a new fresh start. This dream of hers is pushed aside, once she realizes that she is going to have to search for her father and take care of her family on her own. While Ree is on her mission to find her father, she puts herself through many terrible conditions while going to different houses. The weather is terrible during this time of the year, and during one of her trips, “White wads broke on her head and dripped to her shoulders to freeze and thicken” (Woodrell p.64). Even though the weather is not fit for anyone to be walking, Ree does it anyway because she needs to know where exactly her father is. She could have died from the cold weather and wind, but Ree knows that she has to go through these conditions in order to save her family's home. This is a sacrifice that Ree felt like she must make, since she considers her brothers her liability. Whenever Ree went to Hawkfall a second time, she is beaten up by a group of women so badly that, “her legs were decked with bruises that colored uglier as she watched” (Woodrell p.133). This beating went on for a while, and once again, Ree sacrifices her life to make sure her brothers will be protected. This piece of information shows how determined Ree is to make sure her family is taken care of. Ree goes through these terrible conditions and sacrifices her happiness for her brothers to grow up and have a good life.
After Ree finds out where her father is at, she decides to stay at home with her brothers, instead of going away to the military. Ree realizes that she belongs at home with her brothers, and she is fine with sacrificing her life to parent her brothers. Once she realizes that she no longer is going to have to worry about losing the house, she told the boys, “I’d get lost without the weight of you two on my back” (Woodrell p.193). This information shows how her character has changed, and she no longer wants to go to the military. She now feels like the boys are her responsibility since her father is dead, and she does not want them to have to fend for themselves. This is a big sacrifice that Ree makes, but she is fine with doing it since it meant that her brothers would have someone taking care of them.
Ree goes through many obstacles to make sure her brothers would have a house, and someone to take care of them. The reason as to why she did all these things is because she feels like her brothers are her responsibility. She did not trust anyone but herself to provide for her family, so that is why she made the sacrifice of staying at home with them instead of going into the military.
I liked your analysis of Ree’s character arc, but I wanted to point out how the character’s arc is tragic, not a happy ending. While the exact date of the story is unknown, Ree’s character has an opportunity to break out of the typical cycle for women in the Ozark mountains. Firstly, she wanted to join the army in part so that she could get away. When talking to Teardrop, she said that she was only a year away from doing so – and this was known in the community to the point that Teardrop asked her “Now when was it you was tellin’ me you’ll be old enough to join the army?” (Woodrell, 26). Ree, like her friend Gail and so many other women, was forced into a more conformative life by family duties. Her needing to take care of her brothers is not a happy ending, even though she tries to make the best of it. The quote “I’d get lost without the weight of you two on my back” (Woodrell, 193) is her way of accepting the fact she’ll need to spend the rest of her prime taking care of her family. I disagree with the claim that Ree is fine with doing this. She clearly had dreams of leaving the community and only having to worry about herself, as is evidenced by the fact that her desire to leave was well-known and by her stating such earlier in the book. The fact that even Ree, who was about as nonconforming to the Ozark culture as possible, was unable to leave is in fact a statement about how difficult it is to escape from the trap of poverty – not a happy ending about family.
ReplyDeleteWhile I like both analyses presented on Ree's character, I personally find a middle ground between them in my interpretation. Though I also find it tragic that it seems Ree will never break out of the community's life cycle, I think her overall perspective has changed. She is trapped in the role of caretaker that is forced upon her at such a young age, but she is defining her role on her terms rather than by others in her community, like Gail, being forced into a mold due to unplanned pregnancies, settled marriages, etc. Though Ree's tone throughout the book is simply annoyed by her responsibilities, she faces them head-on and it seems that she may even enjoy some of them, like showing her brothers how to shoot, fight, or cook at some points, which further demonstrates her desire for them to keep their "wonder" while learning these skills (Woodrell 8). After Ree puts her life on the line for her family, she realizes how much they actually do need her to literally survive, and she comes to terms with that fact when she decides to stay. However, in my opinion, she is still only sixteen years old, and she has some time before she can join the army at eighteen. The boys are also aging into more maturity and agency, and she has time to teach them how to keep the house up. I think she could still live out some of her dream, but for right now, she is more content to take care of them than she had been before the novel began. Ree defines her role and agency in the situation in deciding to stay rather than when she is forced into caretaking and wishing for a way out.
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