In Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone the main character Ree, leans on her best friend Gail for support throughout her daunting journey to find her father. Gail's nickname for Ree is Sweet Pea and they have been friends every since third grade when they "took a shine to each other and since spent the idle hours of each passing year happily swapping clothes and dreams and their opinions of everybody else” (31). It is obvious that they are very close friends, and have been for a long time. When Ree goes to visit Gail in her trailer with her son and his father, Ree greets Gail very warmly, when she threw "her arms around Gail with the baby between and kissed Gail’s cheek, her nose, her other cheek” (34). Friendship is very apparent between the two, however, the author often uses sensual description to portray their interactions, possibly alluding to deeper feelings brewing between them.
First, physical touch is commonplace between the two. The author states, “Ree sat on a stick chair and lifted Gail’s feet to her lap. She hunched over with her eyes down, rubbed her hands along Gail’s calves and ankles” (34). The author continues outlining their close interaction stating, “Gail’s head sagged and Ree leaned to pick at her hair, pinched between the long ruddled locks, brushed strands back with her fingertips, lowered her face and inhaled the smell” (36). Again the description of the scene is very tactile, possibly furthering the notion that feelings may exist between the two beyond a friendship bond. Touching is not the only interaction between the two that could possibly insinuate romantic relations. Ree is especially alert when Gail is around, taking in all of her essence. Woodrell states, “[a] picnic of words fell from Gail’s mouth to be gathered around and savored slowly. Ree’s feelings could stray from now and drift to so many special spots of time in her senses when listening to that voice, the perfect slight lisp, the wet tone, that soothing hillfolk draw” (82). Ree's strong fondness of Gail and her infatuation with her voice may signal to something deeper. Again, Ree is often noted observing Gail and all of her physical features, “Ree sat with one hand on the baby and her eyes on Gail…her wry curled lips, freckled bony cheeks, and those hurt brown eyes” (86). While Ree may be just particularly observant, it is also possible that feelings for Gail are present, inspiring her to soak up every detail of every moment with Gail.
Woodrell continues building up possible feelings between the two through his description of their first kisses with each other. Woodrell states, “the first time Ree kissed a man it was not a man, but Gail acting as a man, and as the kissing progressed and Gail acting as a man pushed her backwards onto a blanket of pine needles in shade and slipped her tongue deep into Ree’s mouth, Ree found herself sucking on the wiggling tongue of a man in her mind, sucking that plunging tongue of the man in her mind until she tasted morning coffee and cigars and split leaked from between her lips and down her chin. She opened her eyes then and smiled, and Gail yet acting the man roughed up her breasts with grabs and pinches, kissed her neck, murmuring, and Ree said, ‘Just like that! I want it to be just like that!”' (87). While it is not uncommon for pubescent teens to practice kissing on one and other, the build up of tension in the scene, and satisfaction from the kiss heavily implies the shared bond the two young girls have for each other, beyond friendship. Woodrell then juxtaposes the picturesque kissing scene, describing Ree's first kiss with an actual boy as disappointing and unarousing.
Lastly, Woodrell builds up Ree's comfort and satisfaction with spending time with Gail, stating “an evening spent with Gail was like one of the yearning stories from her sleep was happening awake. Sharing the small simple parts of life with someone who stood tall in her feelings” (100). In conclusion, it is very possible that Gail and Ree are only very good friends. However, through the author's use of description, readers are able to perceive a possible romantic connection between the two, derived from their love for one another.
I think that the primary reason for the strength of Ree and Gail’s connection is because they mutually experience a lack of love and affection in other aspects of their lives. Gail is married to a man simply because he got her pregnant – he is very obvious about the fact that he is in love with, as well as having an affair with, another woman. Additionally, Gail mentions that her parent-in-laws seem not to like or trust her, and Gail’s immediate family is not mentioned in the novel. Additionally, no other friends of Ree or Gail’s seem to exist. While Ree experiences love from her two younger brothers, her life is still lacking connection aside from Gail. She is not intimate with anyone else, and her mother and father are both fairly absent (whether that be mentally or physically). I think that this is the cause of Ree and Gail leaning on, and becoming somewhat intimate, with one another. Their close friendship is very physical and they do have an intimate connection, occasionally bordering on a romantic relationship. However, I think that this is more due to their loneliness and lack of love or affection from other sources than a genuine romantic connection, which could be why it never appears to go further.
ReplyDeleteRachel,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up an excellent point about this theory – there is much more sensual buildup than may be written about if they were only school friends. I think it is interesting that Gail and Floyd, her husband, are not very close even after months of cohabiting. When Ree visits, she takes every opportunity she can to be physically close to Gail. She picks sticky-burrs out of Gail’s hair despite Gail’s insistence that she doesn’t have any and swatting Ree’s hand away. Ree replies, “Just, I’m always for you, remember” (36). This reply conveys a sense of intimacy between the two and shows that Ree will support Gail no matter what tribulation she is facing. This parallels the sense of unconditional love that two in a romantic relationship may fee for one another.
I spent a bit of time deliberating this possibility of their love while reading. I think it was easy to mistake other sections of their interactions together for friendship, but the vignette on page 100-101 secures the concept that they are more than friends in my view. An alternative reasoning I considered was the concept that they both seek physical affection and do not receive it from anyone else in their lives, prompting them to act much more romantically close to each other. However, I think there is a great deal of introspection that Ree expresses through the novel that shows her own feelings toward Gail are those of romantic love rather than friendship.