Ree, the main character of Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s
Bone, provides readers with a depiction of what might happen to someone
faced with poverty and the direst of circumstances. Left without a father and a
mother who has mentally lost herself, Ree is thrust into many roles as she
works to care for her two younger brothers and mother as well as trying to keep
their house, all as a sixteen-year-old girl.
Woodrell
develops Ree as a strong, resilient teenager who, no matter what, finds a way
to get things done and find solutions for the problems her family faces. This
is seen very early on when Ree “looked to the scant woodpile [and] knew there
was no gas for the chainsaw, so she’d be swinging the ax out back while winter
blew into the valley and fell around her” (3-4). Loosely clinging to her identity
as a teenage girl, she takes on challenges and the freezing winter in dresses
and skirts because it is all she has to wear. As Ree hunts for her father, she
is seen using shotguns and taking brutal beatings in attempts to get what she
needs and save her family. Woodrell shows that when faced with such a horrible reality,
people are capable of taking on new roles, fighting through the worst things imaginable
just to survive.
To some
readers, Ree may seem dehumanized and almost too strong a she is able to find a
solution to every problem. While this is a fair analysis of her character, it misses
the point that Woodrell is trying to portray. Yes, Ree is able to cut off the
hands of her dead father with a chainsaw, but this does not make her any less human.
When she sees the ear of a dead body, she “turned her head and puked at the
willow, [but] she did not let go as she spewed” (185). When she is told that
she must take the chainsaw and cut off her father’s hands she replies, “oh, no,
shit. NO,” but the reality of her life hits her, she has no other options if
she wants to keep the house (185).
Yes, Ree is
made to be an incredible strong character, caring for her family and fighting
to get what they need to survive, but this does not cover up the humanity that
is present in a teenage girl living a horrible life. Woodrell us able to effectively
show how quickly people can become desensitized when faced with gruesome
realities. Middle class people are rarely forced to experience this, as circumstances
do not become as bad as those faced by Ree, but desensitization is still
experienced. For example, doctors faced with death day in and day out may become
numb to the loss of patients, yet they keep going because it is the reality
they are faced with. Woodrell emphasizes and maybe even exaggerates the
brutality and strength of Ree to display a defining human characteristic; when
faced with dire circumstances, people will do whatever it takes to survive and
care for the ones they love.
I agree and believe that Ree is not dehumanized because she is too strong, but that her circumstances force her to become a hard-boiled character. Ree’s early exposure to drugs, the absence of her father, the tumultuous romantic endeavors of her mother, and her rape all cause her to develop a tough exterior so she can deal with the evils of the world. This tough exterior can come across as dehumanized when she barely bats as eye skinning squirrels, handling bondmen, and cutting off the hands of her deceased father, but her softer inside is seen when she interacts with her best friend Gail. With Gail, Ree can remove her tough exterior because she reminds her of the innocence of their childhood. When the two are together they fall into an easy rhythm gossiping like they used to and sharing their hardships without feeling a need to conceal their emotions. This relationship shows Ree’s humanity through genuine, relatable interactions with her best friends. These small glimpses of Ree’s softer side serve to show that she is human, but the evils of the world have forced her to create a tough outer shell. This hard-boiled personality causes her to come off as desensitized to the horrors that she faces, but she is redeemed by her genuine relationship with Gail.
ReplyDeleteDerek,
ReplyDeleteVery interesting blog post. I definitely agree that Ree was dehumanized throughout Winter’s Bone, though she also displays sympathy and compassion for her younger brothers. Ree’s perceived numbness can certainly be attributed to the dire circumstances she faces throughout the novel. Rathlin Valley is a rough and rugged region where locals make their own laws and danger is always imminent. Uncle Teardrop summarizes the mentality of Ree’s community best when he tells her that “[she has to] be ready to die everyday” (140) in order to have a legitimate chance at survival. Ree certainly stares death in the face on a daily basis, which is obviously an immense burden for a sixteen year old. Despite the constant dangers she faces, Ree refuses to back down in the face of adversity. Ree’s determination to continue on with the search for her father intensifies following a savage beating (129-130) further establishes her resiliency and fortitude. It is really no surprise that Ree is so desensitized to the harsh reality around her, and as the novel progresses, she has an increasing dependency on whiskey and pills, yet interestingly continues to refuse methamphetamine when offered. Amidst Ree’s final push to find her father, she receives assistance from the same women who assaulted her. When she is being led to the supposed grave of her father, she fears death but still stands straight and proud because “no god craves weaklings” (183). Ree as a character is a symbol of strength and courage despite her frequent bouts with peril.
I can see where you’re coming from; from a strictly narrative perspective, it is sensible for Ree to become stoic and desensitized even with her humanity. However, taking the work as a whole and also, importantly, as the product of the author and not a cut-and-dry depiction of reality, I believe things become a little murkier. Ree is the invention of the author; she is the way she is because, above all else, she was written to be that way. How realistic her portrayal is is of course relevant, but it is not the end of the story; why that portrayal was manufactured by the circumstances of the story, and why her characteristics were chosen the way they were for those circumstances. I think we could manufacture logic for her actions no matter what they were if we wanted to; if she was written as uber-feminine and sweet, we could possibly say that it is a further attempt by her to grapple with her lost girlhood and cope with the harshness of the world. What I am trying to say is that there is always room to criticize her character because she, as a fictional being, did not have the choice to act any other way; I think this is important to realize, because it opens new avenues for questioning why the author made choices he did, like making the only strong female character in the book the one that had stereotypically masculine characteristics (except for the dresses she wore, which to me does not really make sense), no matter his reasoning for them. So, yes, we can explain away her attitude as developed due to circumstance, but we should also, I think, keep in mind that they were produced by a specific person for specific reasons.
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