Gender Fluid Performances and the Ozark's Omerta

While never taking the forefront of the novel, Ree's relationship with Gail is an expression of how the innate nature of omerta, the code of silence typically attributed to the Italian Mafia, has infiltrated every portion of the protagonist's life. Near the middle of the book, the narration detours to recount Ree's first sexual encounter, "The first time Ree kissed a man it was not a man, but Gail acting as a man" (Woodrell 87). What would typically be a lesbian experience is instead preformed in a heterosexual way. They act as if Gail is a man rather than a woman. A simple reading would entail that these character's repressed nature prompted this performance; but if one looks at the scene through the lens of performance theory then it begins to be clear how the gender roles in the Ozark's are much more fluid than expected. Judith Butler, an early theorist in the field of performance theory, argues that "genders are appropriated, theatricalized, worn, and done...all gendering is a kind of impersonation and approximation" (Butler 313). She goes on to say that all gender is simple an enactment of certain norms and ideas that have been set before and have no origin; it is a performance for the world. This sentiment is expressed all throughout Woodrell's Ozark's but becomes the clearest during Ree's first sexual encounter with Gail. It's not just the world in which they live in that causes them to be secret, but also forces them to perform in these manners. Ree's imagination of tasting "morning coffee and cigars" on the "wiggling tongue of a man in her mind" is an expression of these gender performances as well. The expectation that a man must have these particular roles are gendered performances that the Dolly family has been participating in for decades (Woodrell 87). It goes even further when Ree kisses another boy and is surprised that "his lips were soft and timid on hers, dry and unmoving, until finally she had to say it and did, 'Tongue, honey, tongue,' and the boy she called honey turned away saying, 'Yuck!'" (Woodrell 87).  Ree expects that the boy perform as Gail did when she performed as a man. The expectation reaches across sex lines to include any performance that can be defined as masculine. In the Ozark's, it is not just the omerta that creates the secrecy of Ree's sexual preferences but also the weight of gender performance.

http://paas.org.pl/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/3.-Judith-Butler-Imitation-and-Gender-Insubordination.pdf

Ree the Robot: A Useful Plot Device

In class, we discussed the idea that the character of Ree might read as unnaturally strong, able to face almost any hardship and overcome it. Since we already went into detail explaining why Ree may be like this, be it circumstantial to how she would’ve been raised in the Ozarks or simply a failure of the author, I think it’s important to continue this conversation into the outcome of this characterization. In my opinion, that Ree is, in many cases, unnaturally strong serves to greatly benefit the plot and pacing of the book, but fails to make her someone who can be related to.

            The beating of Ree at the hands of Thump Milton’s wife and her cohorts is a great example to refer to when showing Ree’s unnatural strength. She was a 16-year-old girl, beaten within an inch of her life, yet she somehow survived well enough to (relatively) quickly take back over some household duties and even to complete the mystery of her father’s death. Teardrop remarks that she “took that beatin’ good as most men [he’s] seen,” and the whole community rallies behind her incredible bravery to have faced such a terrifying situation (148). We know how short of a time frame she has to recover because it had to be within the 30 days that Mike Satterfield informed her of. She moves on from the beating to continue her life, and it’s a thing of the past.

            To the book’s plot and pacing, Ree’s ability to move quickly on from a potentially deadly set of injuries and continue searching for the body of her father without the need for long-term rest is key. If the book had to go on hold waiting for Ree to recover from every scary, painful, or seemingly life-destroying that happened to her, it would not be able to have the sense of urgency that it holds in putting a time limit on Ree’s search for her father. As I mentioned before, when Mike says that she’s “probably got [her house] about another thirty days,” it places a time limit on the hunt she faces and necessitates that she keep moving forward at a constant rate, no matter what happens.

            Where this becomes a problem is that it makes Ree a character who might seem hard to relate to and even inhuman at times. To recover from those kinds of injuries in that time frame is incredible, inconceivable to most. As I read the book I often felt hopeless reading about each challenge that Ree faced, challenges in a line that was seemingly neverending. Ree doesn’t express herself much, and we don’t really see her face any hint of hopelessness. In this, she becomes hard to connect to—someone so able to move on from incredible hardships without emotional reaction seems almost more robot than human.

            While Ree’s incredible motivation to find her dad, leading to an incredible ability to move past pain, is a very helpful device for the plot of the novel, it left me as a reader feeling that the potential of her character wasn’t fully utilized. Sometimes it’s worth a longer novel and some inner monologues to really be able to relate to a character.

Family Values

Throughout Daniel Woodrell's novel Winter's Bone, it is clear that family is an important identity to the characters. Woodrell shows this in Ree's introductions of herself, often reminding the person she is speaking with that she is a Dolly. In many cases, she repeats that she is a Dolly as almost a characteristic that should allow her a privilege, access, or some kind of understanding. For instance, she informs the representative from Three X Bail Bonds that her father is a Dolly, just like her. Even this unrelated authority figure recognizes the family name and agrees that someone of that family would not run away from the law.
When Ree attempts to speak with Thump Milton, she once again repeats her family name; since she is a Dolly, there is some familial connection which she believes should obligate Thump Milton to speak with her. When he continues to refuse to speak with Ree, she gives what appears to be one of the greatest insults amongst this community. Ree tells Thump Milton's wife that clearly family means nothing to "the big man," thus sparking so much anger in Thump Milton's wife that she throws a can of soup towards Ree. Through this interaction, Woodrell demonstrates the strength of family bonds amongst the community and the particular code of ethics they share.
But beyond family names, Woodrell illustrates the caring bond amongst families through the relationship between Ree and her brothers. In what appears to be the only peaceful family interaction, Ree cooks and cleans for her brothers; she teaches them how to shoot a gun and how to successfully prepare squirrels for cooking. Overall, Ree teaches her siblings the skills they need to survive. Although Woodrell certainly does not paint a harmonious family environment in his novel, this protective nature seems to be respected. Even Blond Milton respects Sonny's willingness to fight for his sister's protection. Although the young brother was disrespecting his elder, and while Blond Milton responded threateningly, "Blond Milton fairly beamed looking at his seed" who was upholding the community's value of protecting the family. While many aspects of family relations in Winter's Bone might be viewed as traditionally wrong, or even abusive, there remains a strong value on family.

Balancing Gender Roles

In the novel Winter’s Bone, Ree’s ability to survive and navigate through the unrelenting rules of the Dolly clan and unforgiving Ozark environment, are due to her fluid ability of switching between gender roles when it becomes advantageous to her. Often, this leaves Ree walking a fine line between her femininity and rejection of such role. In a family run by a traditional patriarchy, Ree embodies the role of matriarch in order to support her brothers and care for her mother. This leads to Ree utilizing a more masculine characterization when it comes to the protection of her family - aggressively confronting Deputy Baskin when he inquires for the whereabouts of her father (Woodrell, 11), her demeanor and persistence in seeing Thump Milton (Woodrell, 63) and even teaching her brothers how to shoot (Woodrell, 78). Because of her aquiences to the role of familial leader after the absence of her father, Ree is forced into the Dolly clan’s traditional male role which causes her to adopt masculine traits such as forbearance and strength through endurance. In order to fill this role, Ree depends more so on traditional male roles. This is further emphasized when Ree informs her Uncle Teardrop, “I ain’t lookin to marry” (Woodrell, 168). Due to the Dolly clan’s retrogressive beliefs on the confined role women should play in the Dolly family, this demonstrates how Ree’s ability to switch and identify more with a masculine role gives her further independence. Similarly, after watching Gail hold and feed Ned, Ree “saw in them a living picture illustrating one kind of future. The looming expected kind of future and not one she wanted” (Woodrell, 93). Her further emphasis on the rejection of a traditional mothering role speaks to Ree’s dependence on her use of masculine traits.

While Ree’s ability to identify with strong male traits allows her the power and fortitude to protect her family, her actions seem to be influenced by her feminine side. With the option to leave her family and join the army, Ree remains at their home in the Ozark for her brothers, “[her] grand hope was that these boys would not be dead to wonder by age twelve, dulled to life, empty of kindness, boiling with mean” (Woodrell, 8). While Ree doesn’t want children of her own, it is her maternal traits and instincts that drive her to stay, so that she can raise her brothers properly and juxtaposed to the traditional Dolly way. Following the mental downfally of her mother, Ree becomes her caretaker, another role typically performed by women. She performs the acts of cooking and even washing her mother’s hair. While Ree’s emotional connection to theses actions may be distant, the actions nonetheless prove Ree utilizes some of her feminine and maternal qualities as motivation to care for her family. This balancing of gender roles is most evident in Ree’s attire, “[she] nearly always wore a dress or a skirt, but with combat boots” (Woodrell 20). This juxtaposition between a soft, feminine skirt and the hard leather combat boots that allow her to do “men’s work”, are symbolic of Ree’s balance of two genders and their accompanying traits, proving to survive in the Ozark, one needs both.

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.

Ree Dolly, Resilient

Throughout Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone, readers bear witness to Ree Dolly’s suffering-filled search for her father. Ree faces obstacle after obstacle, from people who have not seen her dad recently to vicious sisters who attack Ree and leave her stunned, broken, and in pain. Ree, the hero of the novel, seemingly spends her every effort fighting not only to find her dad but also to ensure a future for her family. Ree’s unfailing resilience is a survival tactic and ultimately results in her family’s safety and security. 

Examples of Ree’s resilience are spread throughout Winter’s Bone, but one of the most striking moments of resilience occurred after Ree began to believe that her father was dead. Ree helps her mom walk up a hill and tries to explain to her mom that Ree needs her help. When her mother does not respond, Ree waited until “any hope at all withered to none between her pressing hands” (Woodrell 118). Just a few moments after Ree loses hope, she stands and walks her mother back down the hill to their home. In this moment Ree loses hope that her mother can fulfill her motherly duties by helping Ree in one of their family’s darkest times. However, Ree does not cry or scream in frustration or demonstrate any animosity as one might expect, but instead helps her mother back to the house and continues providing for her family, teaching her brothers, and looking for her father, all in order for her family to survive.  

One of the biggest challenges Ree must overcome in the novel is recovering physically and mentally after being attacked by Mrs. Thump and her sisters. Ree is so hurt that she resorts to taking pain pills and is bedridden for several days. However, even before Ree can walk or be awake without pain pills she tells her brothers “I think I’ll be okay” (Woodrell 148). Ree also makes plans for how she can move her family out of their house and into a cave so that they have a shelter to live under after their house is taken away, and later begins to clean out her house to make moving more manageable (Woodrell 147, 175). Even after Ree sustains remarkable injuries, she continues leading her family and is the only character who plans the next step for her family to take so that their homelessness is somewhat manageable. Ree is the provider for her family, and if she were not able to recuperate after facing obstacles as she does in the novel, Ree’s family would likely not have survived. Ree’s ability to evaluate and overcome adversity is why her family lives and has a home at the end of the novel.  

Gail and Ree's Family

            Winter’s Bone is a novel with themes of family, independence, and poverty in the Ozarks. However, the novel also has an emphasis on the power of relationships between women. Through the novel, Ree’s only positive relationships are with other women, and her closest personal relationship is with her childhood friend Gail. Ree’s relationship with Gail would likely be read with romantic undertones had Gail been a man, but even as a woman Gail and Ree have a much deeper love than just friendship. Both women lack physical and emotional intimacy from anyone else, which further pushes them toward each other. Additionally, scenes with Gail, Ree, and Ned together paint a sharp picture of what a happy, supportive family could have looked like.

            Ree and Gail’s relationship was not simply a childhood phase; these women find a deep sense of love and happiness in each other. Ree and Gail have been friends since second grade (Woodrell 31), and Ree knows Gail better than anyone (Woodrell 36). Their childhoods were undoubtedly riddled with the drama that still plagues them, but their time spent together is portrayed in a very positive light. One passage states, “[T]hey 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” (Woodrell 31). This description stands out from the often-stark descriptions of the rest of the novel. In an otherwise bleak and uncertain world, in childhood, Ree and Gail found happiness in each other which continues in the current events of the novel. Woodrell writes, “In Ree’s heart there was room for more. Any 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” (99). Gail and Ree’s relationship cannot be reduced to a brief, physical relationship (Woodrell 86) resulting from curiosity alone. Ree has a deep love and respect for Gail, and even cherishes the domestic life with her.

            Though Ned often serves to show the growing differences between Gail and Ree, interestingly, he is also used to show the cohesiveness of their relationship. Gail says, “I way, way love Ned” (Woodrell 160), and it is obvious that Ned is the most important person in the world to her. She cherishes her son and would do anything for him; so, it is significant that Gail allows Ree to enter their domestic life. After going grocery shopping, “Ree [hefts] groceries while Gail [hefts] Ned” (Woodrell 124). When they go to Bucket Spring,”Ree [carries] the shotgun, Gail [carries] the baby” (Woodrell 154). These scenes all bring to mind a family: the housewife—Gail—is responsible for the child and the husband—Ree—is responsible for the gun or the groceries. If you replace Ree with a man in, for example, the scene where Gail, Ned, and Ree go to the grocery store, the scene could easily become that of a normal family running errands. Even though, ultimately, Gail leaves Ree for the sake of Ned, his adjacency to Ree throughout the novel positions Gail and Ree as family, if not something more. 

Dollar or a Dream

In Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone, Ree Dolly and her family live in extreme poverty. As the caretaker of the family, Ree sometimes wonders where their next meal will come from. Additionally, because of the reputation of their family, she is determined to make sure that her younger brothers don’t end up making meth for a living. As an escape, Ree practically counts down the days until she can escape from her situation and join the army. She tells her Aunt Victoria that she is simply waiting for her next birthday so that she can leave (26). This is a dream that she aspires to; as soon as she’s old enough, she can escape the crank-infested Ozarks for a life where she would get “to travel with a gun and they made everybody help keep things clean” (15). It isn’t just about escape though; Ree cares about her family and doesn’t really want to leave, but she doesn’t have an income to support them.
After an encounter with a police officer telling her that her family will lose their house unless her father shows up to court, Ree searches for her father. She points out more than once that she has “two boys and Mom to tend to [and she needs] that house to help” (55). She also teaches her brothers Sonny and Harold how to fend for themselves while she’s gone; this all seems to be in preparation not only for when she’s out searching for her father, but also for once she leaves for good. Later, when Ree speaks to her friend Gail about her plans to join the army and what will happen when the house is repossessed, she mentions that her Uncle Teardrop would be willing to take in Sonny but she might have to “[carry] Mom to the booby hatch’n leave her on the steps […] Beg Victoria’n Teardrop to take Harold in” (156). Knowing that Teardrop would raise the boys to produce and sell crank, Gail says, “Oh god, I hope that ain’t the way it goes […] I don’t believe Harold’ll be the type can hack prison” (156). Ree understands that if she leaves, her family will go down the path that she has been trying to avoid.
Ree is eventually able to track her father down and bringing proof of his death to authorities. Afterwards, Ree is given a sack full of the cash that was put up for his bail and offered a job as a headhunter (191-92). When her brother asks if she will leave now that they had money, Ree says, “[naw.] I’d get lost without the weight of you two on my back” (193). After being given money and a future source of income, the only plausible option is for Ree to stay in the Ozarks and take care of her family. Joining the army was simply a dream of escape that wouldn’t materialize unless it was impossible for Ree to provide for her family.

Ree's Discontent

               In the beginning of Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell the main character, Ree Dolly, is openly discontented with her life. She is so unhappy that she often listens to music because she “needed often to inject herself with pleasant sounds, stab those sounds past the constant screeching, squalling hubbub regular life raised inside her spirit” (Woodrell 10).  She longs to leave the Ozarks, where she lives, for another life. When talking with her Aunt Victoria the reader’s learn that she plans to join the army “Next Birthday” (Woodrell). Not only does she dislike her life and want to leave, she’s also actively working a means to do so. Following this discussion Ree sets herself up for her departure in many ways. Most notably, she spends a lot of time teaching her younger brothers how to hunt, take care of their mother, cook, and more. This way, once she leaves, her younger siblings will be prepared to fend for themselves.
               Even after all of this talk of wanting to leave and planning on her departure, by the end of the novel Ree has seemed to abandon the idea of joining the army. When asked about her leaving by her brothers, she responds with, “I ain’t leavin’ you boys” (Woodrell 193). Something over the course of the book changed her mind about her slot in life. She claims, to her brothers, that they’re the reason she stays, stating, “Naw. I’d get lost without the weight of you two on my back” (Woodrell 193). However, this is most definitely not the reason as to why she decided to remain. She already knew that leaving for the army would mean abandoning her brothers and this fact didn’t seem to affect her previously. Beyond that, she was actively preparing them for her departure. My theory is that it has less to do with her immediate family and more to do with her extended family.
               The Dolly family works as a network that “protects its own at any cost” (Back Cover Woodrell). Even with a dead father, a mentally broken mother, and herself gone to war, Ree knew that her siblings would have the family to depend on. However, over the course of the novel, Ree discovers that her father had betrayed the family by snitching on them to the law. This is an unforgivable offense and one that is responsible for his murder. Along with getting himself killed, his actions also exiled Ree and her brothers from the rest of the family. The one person of which Ree could depend on, Teardrop, had recently discovered who was responsible for Ree’s father’s death. He states, “Jessup. I know who” (192 Woodrell). Earlier in the novel Teardrop stated that if he found out who killed Jessup, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from killing them. This murder would result in the family turning on him as well and killing him. Ree knows that soon enough, Teardrop will most likely be dead and unable to protect her brothers. All of these factors together changed Ree’s decision to leave for the army, for she could prepare her brothers day and night but their survival would be impossible without at least someone to depend on.

Family Morals

A strong theme seen within the people in Ozark is the use of family morals. Religion is not mentioned strongly in this book as a code to live by, but rather it can be seen that the use of family morals is a driving force on how people act. These morals include the way that the people within a family or bloodline are expected to act.

A strong example of these family morals include Ree’s communication with the police regarding her dad’s location. When the police officer originally comes to ask Ree of her dad, Jessup’s location, she immediately becomes hostile and refuses to share information that she does not have, but wouldn't share even if she did (Woodrell 14). Even when the police officer tells her that her family will lose her house if he doesn’t turn up or the police aren't able to locate him, she responds with “‘I’ll find him’” (Woodrell 15). Though Jessup is not painted as a good father, and it would be in Ree’s best interest for him to be found by the police, she still refuses to share any information with them, and sets out to find him herself. By doing this, she prevents being labeled as a snitch, and upholds the family morals to protect her family, regardless of the consequences. 

During Ree’s search for Jessup, she tries to enlist the help of Thump Milton. Though he is notoriously hard to reach or talk to, Ree attempts to use their similar bloodline to convince him to help her. When he eventually refused to help, she asked if “‘blood don't truly count for diddly to the big man’” (Woodrell 63). By referring to Milton as “the big man” when critiquing him for not acknowledging bloodline as a reason to help her, Ree is critiquing his disregard of family morals. These morals are incredibly important to this community and not following them makes a person seem like they have a superiority complex. 

Family morals cause the people in the Ozarks to care strongly for one another as well. When Teardrop, Ree’s uncle, was rescuing her from being further beat up by other Miltons, he said it was because “‘she’s my niece, and she’s damn near about all the family I got left’” (Woodrell 137). This sense of protection over the bloodline represents the care that people in the Ozarks have for one another, especially if blood is included. This care can be seen in the was Ree acts with her siblings. When her house is being threatened which would leave Ree and her family homeless, a more distant family member of hers offers to take in her younger siblings. Though this would help her siblings to a more stable life in many aspects, Ree refused, angrily stating that “‘Sonny’n Harold’ll die livin’ in a fuckin’ cave with me’n Mom before they’ll ever spend a single fuckin’ night with you’” (Woodrell 77). This sense of protection is a strong representation of the family morals that Ree and others in the Ozarks live by. She doesn't want her siblings growing up meth heads or making meth, and wants her own morals, not others, rubbing off on them.

Family morals drive the way that the people in the Ozarks live, directing their decision making as well as the way they act towards those family members they truly care about. Though religion is not large in this story, the use of family morals is seen as a strong replacement.

The Subscription to and Subversion of Gender Roles

Ree survives by rejecting and following traditional gender roles when it is advantageous to her. Much of the time, the she operates in a liminal space between the two. For example, Ree “nearly always wore a dress or a skirt, but with combat boots” (Woodrell 20). Her dresses and skirts were mostly hand-me-downs, representative of the traditional gender roles that were passed down in her family and her community. The combat boots, on the other hand, are utilitarian and enable Ree to do chores that would traditionally be reserved for the men of the family. She has taken over the role of her father and is forced to provide for her family, which has thrust her into a traditionally male role and enables her to adopt traditionally masculine traits, like her stoicism. Her mother is almost just as absent as her father is, so Ree acts not only as the father of the family, but also as the mother. In the novel, she teaches her brothers stereotypically feminine things, like cooking and washing their mother’s hair, and stereotypically masculine things, like shooting and fighting, so they will be able to survive if she leaves for the army.

However, she tends to reject traditional roles more often than she follows them. Ree tells Uncle Teardrop, “I ain’t lookin’ to marry” (Woodrell 168). In a society that forces marriage after a pregnancy, and many women depend on their husband for survival and defer entirely to their husbands, like Victoria does, this is certainly not the norm. Instead, Ree gets a job working for the bail bondsmen. Ree’s friend Gail acts as a foil for her, especially in the context of gender roles. While Ree gets a job and declares she won’t marry, Gail returns to the trailer to be a wife and mother. When Harold was reluctant to help skin the squirrel, Ree “pulled him down the porch steps” and told him to “get your goddam fingers in there’n yank out them guts,” while Gail “bent to kiss his cheek” and called him a “brave little rascal” (Woodrell 107). Ree expresses her feelings for her family through harshness and tough love, not affection like the motherly figure of Gail does. This dichotomy is exemplified later, when “Ree carried the shotgun” and “Gail carried the baby” (Woodrell 154). Gail, in addition to acting as a foil, is also Ree’s only love interest in the story. In a small, rural community in the Ozarks like theirs, these kinds of feelings for a person of the same sex would not be ascribing to any kind of traditional role.

Ree as a Caretaker

In Winter’s Bone, by Daniel Woodrell, Ree Dolly is forced into becoming the caretaker of the family when her father leaves Ree in charge of her two younger brothers and her ailing mom. Even though she is only sixteen, Ree thrives as a caretaker and uses her role to teach her younger siblings to become more self-sufficient.

Ree is introduced as the primary caretaker when she helps her brothers get ready for school. Ree is having to constantly motivate her youngest brother, Harold, to put on smelly socks so he and his brother, Sonny, can catch the bus. The weather outside is turning cold and dreary, so Ree reminds her brothers to grab their bags and stocking caps to prepare them for the day. Ree takes care of her brothers because she does not want to see them become “dead to wonder by age twelve, dulled to life, empty of kindness, boiling with mean” (8). Ree’s actions show that she sacrifices her own education to take care of the house which allows her brothers to get an education. After that education at school, Ree takes time to teach life lessons to her brothers including cooking and shooting.

Ree cooks a multitude of things from deer stew to onions and potatoes to squirrels, but throughout the book she constantly forces her brothers to pay attention to how she is cooking the food. Her brothers do not completely grasp the intricacies of cooking at first, cooking a monstrous creation they call Basketti, but Ree impresses these lessons constantly in hopes that they will show proficiency in cooking. By allowing them to make mistakes and helping them to learn from those mistakes, Ree is teaching her siblings self-sufficiency while also taking care of her siblings. She also uses this method when she teaches them how to shoot a gun. Ree makes Harold and Sonny shoot safely and properly until they are comfortable handling guns. Ree has two intentions behind learning this skill. First, she wants her brothers to be able to defend themselves. Second, she wants them to be able to feed themselves by hunting wild game. She eventually leads them on a hunting trip where they kill enough squirrels to make breakfast; she teaches them how to clean a squirrel and, in the process, fills their stomachs, which highlights her abilities as a caretaker.

Ree flashes her abilities as a caretaker towards the end of the novel when Merab Thump answers the door. Ree understands the gravity of the situation right as the boys come to the door behind her. To keep them from involving themselves in her drama, Ree tells them to “get back in the house [and] keep out of sight” (180). By keeping them out of the situation, Ree protects them from potential backlash by the Thumps. Overall, Ree cares for her siblings by getting them ready for school at the expense of her own education, showing them how to cook and hunt, and protecting them from harm.

Gender and Tradition in the Dolly Family

In the Ozark community portrayed by Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone, gender and tradition closely intertwine to create a pair of paradoxes. The connection between masculinity and tradition gives family members power and leverage within the community. However, male-centric traditions in the Dolly family can be a death sentence. For women, power comes from the ability to exist outside family traditions to some extent. On the other hand, straying too far from expected feminine roles and behaviors gets policed violently.

            For Dolly men, the most obvious confinement comes from names. In becoming a Haslam, Milton, Arthur or Jessup, men inherit the power and expectations that comes with those names  (62). This inheritance further entraps them into a system of crime and violence that can lead to their death. Ree explains that men with these names, “were born to walk only the beaten Dolly path to the shadowed place, live and die in keeping with those bloodline customs fiercest held” (62). For example, Uncle (Haslam) Teardrop, explains how him avenging Jessup’s death is inevitable. He tells Ree, “even if you find out, you can’t ever let me know who did the actual killin’ of my brother. Knowin’ that’d just mean I’ll be toes-up myself purty soon, too” (141). By following the traditions of the Dolly family, Uncle (Haslam) Teardrop condemns himself and ultimately fulfills his obligations to his name.

            Dolly women do not have the same naming system to chart their lives. In fact, women like Ree and her mother oppose the name system, forcing Jessup to give Harold a name that breaks tradition (62). Ree not only pushes at the boundaries of Dolly family tradition, but also at the boundaries of gender roles. She teaches her younger brothers not only how to cook, but how to shoot a gun, how to fight. The first time Ree tries to see Thump Milton, her being a woman becomes one excuse for his refusal to talk (60). The second time, after she gets attacked, Uncle Teardrop tells her, “[y]ou took that beatin’ as good as most men I’ve seen” (148). Stepping out of line gets Ree severely beaten, but ultimately gets her proof of Jessup’s death. Although Dolly women can challenge traditions, they are limited by the enforcement of gender roles by tradition and their male relatives.

            For the Dolly family, gender and tradition seem inextricably wound. While the men can derive power from inherited roles, they also face dismal ends. Dolly women can create change by pushing the boundaries of tradition, but too much transgression has severe consequences.

The Chosen Clan

The story of Haslam, Fruit of Belief and his role as predecessor of the Dolly clan mimics the Old Testament story of Moses being instructed to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. The family folklore passed down builds upon a Biblical allusion, drawing a parallel between an important Biblical figure and their own founder. Woodrell’s use of this family mythology and Biblical reference causes time to become cyclical, and the family’s present actions to appear preordained.

            Haslam’s discovery of the area of the Ozarks that the Dolly clan now resides on draws upon the story of Moses being told of the Promised Land, Canaan. Just as Moses was given the Ten Commandments and instructed to go to Canaan, Haslam finds a fish with a “map etched tiny on the golden guts” and follows it “until he [hails] these lonely rugged hollows of tired rocky soil as a perfect garden spot, paradise as ordained by the map of guts sent to his eyes from the Fist of Gods” (65). The land is described as “tired” and yet is simultaneously viewed by Haslam as a sort of “paradise” that the Fist of Gods has only told him of. This mirrors God’s directing of Moses to the Promised Land, which was described as being only for the Israelites. Unknowingly, the Dolly clan is setting itself up with this story to be a “chosen people”; one of their own was picked to discover this land, inhabit it, and bear the land’s fruits. With this, Woodrell feeds into the idea of destiny in the novel. Just as this happened in the Bible, it is happening yet again with the Dolly family- they are destined to inhabit this land, and they have no control over this fact.

            Unlike the Old Testament story, the novel emphasizes the loss of religion in the clan. Although Ree states there is no definitive answer as to what happened in the falling out between the “Walking People” and God, she says that “all they ever said was there’d been a woman” (66). Aside from being a misogynistic claim that reveals the clan’s opinion on women, this lack of a definitive answer being available to Ree highlights the loss of religion in the Ozark community she lives in. She admits that she “did not know much about the religion or the ruining. The prophecies...reached her down the generations as hoarse godly mutterings of a big man spinning a braggish lie that made little sense and had no conclusion” (66). Ree views this tale as being not true, “a braggish lie” even, and harmful to the family today. She continues on to blame these traditions for her father’s death (66). The religion has been forgotten, but the remnants still stand and affect the daily life of the Dolly family.

From a theological perspective, the clan can be viewed as still being punished for their ancestors’ decision to disregard the God of their story. Woodrell is creating a cycle for the family to be stuck in. The very religion their clan was founded on is a retelling of an even older Biblical tale, which causes the family to be founded on the belief that they are the chosen people who must follow the traditions of yesterday, even now.