Ree's Influence on Her Brothers

In the novel Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell, the character Ree Dolly shows her maturity through her relationship with her younger brothers. As her relationship develops with Sonny and Harold, she ultimately decides to stay in the Ozarks instead of leaving for the army as the boys aren’t mature enough themselves to be responsible for the lessons she teaches them. Despite being only 16 years old, Ree spends the novel ensuring her 8 and 10-year-old brothers are looked after. Before leaving Sonny and Harold alone for the first time in the book, Ree makes sure that they will have food to eat while she visits Teardrop. While making deer stew, she states, “[b]oth of you two need to watch how I make it… Learn how I make it, then you both’ll know” (19). By teaching them to make the stew, Ree shows compassion for her brothers, and her foresight in teaching them to feed themselves. However, they ultimately demonstrate an inability to act on her tutorial as shortly after they attempt to cook basketti and create an inconsumable mess.

Ree’s teachings continue later in the novel when she shows her brothers how to shoot a gun. After her encounter with Blond Milton, Ree storms home and states, “I wasn’t sure just when you boys’d need to know about shootin,’ but I think maybe now it’s time you do” (78). How to shoot a gun is not a typical lesson one might expect children of their age to learn, but by doing so Ree further shows how much she cares for her brothers by teaching them to defend themselves. Ree’s tutorial on how to shoot a gun would typically be taught by a father in the Ozarks, and Ree demonstrates her maturity in filling the void her father has left.

The final major lesson Ree teaches Sonny and Harold is how to hunt and skin a squirrel. She first lets both boys attempt to kill the squirrels, then after bringing the dead animals back to the house shows them how to prepare the animals. While demonstrating how to skin the squirrels, Ree says, “[t]hink like you’re cuttin’ the squirrel a suit, only you’re cuttin’ the suit off of ‘em, not for ‘em to put on” (106). By learning how to cook, defend themselves, and now hunt, Ree’s teachings will allow her brothers to sustain themselves. With practice, the boys will be able to hunt their own food, prepare it, and cook it themselves, while having the knowledge to defend themselves from whatever ill-intentioned visitors may come their way. However, Ree recognizes that her brothers are too young to fully learn these lessons as evidenced by the failed cooking attempt. For them to grow into caring and compassionate men instead of meth-cooking thugs, she needs to stay and continue to teach them. It is because of her relationship with them along with her maturity and compassion that Ree decides to stay in the Ozarks, and raise her brothers the right way.