Finding a Way

           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.

Ree and Gail: More Than Friends?

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.

Ree's Love

Throughout his novel, “Winter’s Bone,” Daniel Woodrell casts the main character Ree Dolly as the caretaker and mentor of her two younger brothers.  Woodrell places many parental traits in Ree so that the reader will automatically think of her as a parent rather than a sister.  Even from the very beginning of the novel, the actions of Ree are done because she thinks of what the effects will be on her younger brothers if she fails to act.  For example, the novel starts with the local town officer, Baskin, explaining to Ree that if her father is not found and brought in to pay for his crimes, then their house and property will be taken by the law.  Upon hearing this information, Ree thinks of how “[her brothers] and her and Mom would be dogs in the field without this house,” and how “the boys’d have a hard hard shove toward unrelenting meanness” (Woodrell 14-15).  Through Ree’s thought, it can be seen that she cares equally, if not more, about her brothers than herself, which is a common characteristic of many parents.  Her parental qualities toward her brothers show her tenderness and love toward them.

               With her father on the run and her mother uncapable of moving, Ree is forced to run the house in every way.  By writing her as a single parent to her younger brothers, Woodrell shows how much Ree really cares about her family, especially her brothers.  It might be argued that Ree does not care about her brothers because of how she talks to them and gets annoyed.  One such example is when they are getting ready for school, and one of the boys complains about his socks, and she says, “’would you please, please, please put those fuckin’ socks on! Would you do that?  Huh” (Woodrell 7)?  Although she may be sometimes annoyed with the actions of her brother, at the end of the day Ree is just their older sister, and siblings often become agitated with each other.  Being annoyed with each other does not necessarily mean that there is no love.  Ree’s other helping actions show how much she truly does care about her brothers.

The Inevitability of Drugs

           In Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone, drugs allow for the characters to survive in their harsh, poor circumstances through making, selling, and using them on a regular basis. On the other hand, drugs also lead characters to make poor decisions and create much of the conflict that arises during the course of the novel. In Rathlin Valley, drugs are the inevitable, inescapable constant.

Due to the harsh circumstances surrounding the families that occupy Rathlin Valley, characters often turn to drugs as a means to make life bearable. The most obvious example of this can be see after Ree has been brutally beaten by the Milton women for asking questions about Jessup’s questionable disappearance. Teardrop commands Gail to give Ree pain killers to numb the intense pain she is feeling. Teardrop states, “’she’ll want more, but just two to start with, then build from there to whatever number lets her rest’” (145). These pain killers are certainly not prescribed to Ree, and the family is basing how much to give her on her pain level alone. This is a questionable choice, but Ree has no option because of the intense pain that she feels. Another example of characters using drugs to make life bearable can be seen after Gail and Ree smoke weed in order to escape the problems in their life. After chasing Jessup’s car, Gail finally says, “’sweet pea, this ain’t what we got stoned to do’” (98). Gail uses weed as a means to cope with the fact that her husband is cheating on her with the true love of his life while she is forced to take care of their child. Ree uses weed as a method to relax from the incredible burden of having to care for her two little brothers at the mere age of sixteen. In both of these instances, drugs are used as a way to escape reality, a way to make their miserable lives just a little bit better.

Through much of the novel, drugs are a catalyst for poor decisions, and they serve to create the central conflicts that the novel deals with. After being confronted with losing her home to the bondsman, Ree turns to her uncle to try to save her family from being homeless. Teardrop, having woken up from a nap and having snorted crank, denies her this help immediately. He says, “’I said shut up once already, with my mouth’” (25). Teardrop, in his drug-induced state, threatens to physically harm his nephew, and he believes that a good beating would serve her well. Ree escapes any harm from Teardrop and turns to others in Rathlin Valley for answers about Jessup. Ree is so dedicated to her brothers’ and mothers’ well-being because she is the sole caretaker of her family. She has to be strong for them because she does not want her brothers to become crank cooks, nor does she want them to get hurt like she did. Ree was once raped, and Little Arthur used drugs to induce her into a state of near paralysis. Woodrell writes, “he [Little Arthur] hugged her to the ground and she’d felt a tremendous melting of herself…her skirt flipped up and Little Arthur knelt to join in her puddling embrace of gods and wonder” (54 -55). Little Arthur drugs Ree in order to rape her, and Ree is completely powerless to stop it from happening. In fact, the drugs are so powerful that she only remembers this happening because her panties are torn. Woodrell illustrates just how destructive drugs can be in this novel.

            Drugs, for better or for worse, are a part of Rathlin Valley. They are so ingrained in the culture that it is nearly impossible to escape them or the effects that they have on the way of life. Characters try to make the best of life through the use of drugs, but this often simply creates an inevitable path of destruction.

Dehumanization in "The Fifth Season"

In 1767, Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus published Systema Naturae, in which he attempted to classify human beings into racial categories. He wrote of four different racial groups and organized them into a hierarchy. In descending order, he wrote about Europeans, Asians, Native Americans, and Africans. Europeans were at the top of this racial hierarchy, while Africans were at the bottom. Linnaeus added descriptions of each race to his classifications, describing Europeans at the top as "very smart, inventive, ruled by law" (Foster, slide 14), and describing Africans at the bottom as "sluggish, lazy.....covered by grease, ruled by caprice" (Foster, slide 17). The racial hierarchy Linnaeus outlined presented Europeans as superior to Africans, and disadvantaged Africans as less than human. This idea of Africans being less than human and inferior to Europeans was used to justify the violence of European imperialism towards African indigenous peoples. This systematic dehumanization still persists to this day, as shown through incidents such as the H&M monkey sweatshirt advertisement. 

N. K. Jemisin's "The Fifth Season" follows a fictional group of people called "orogenes" in a world called the Stillness whose treatment by society is analogous to the experiences of black people and other marginalized groups. The orogenes' oppression can be seen through the experiences of various characters in the novel. A toddler orogene, Uche, is beaten to death by his father Jija when the child unintentionally expresses his orogene powers. Though their whole village knows about the filicide, nobody blames Jija for killing his son because the murder of orogenes is common and even encouraged in the Stillness. This incident is abhorrent to readers, because we cannot imagine a just reason for a father to ever beat his 3-year-old son to death. However, in the Stillness, the murder is justified by the systematic dehumanization of orogenes in their society. Stonelore, which is taught in schools and accepted as fact, describes orogenes as monsters and agents of Father Earth. This dehumanization of orogenes is ingrained into the very history of the Stillness. This is why Jija does not face social backlash for murdering his son, just as how European imperialism was justified in the real world by the scientific dehumanization of indigenous peoples. Even orogenes themselves perpetuate their own dehumanization; another young orogene, Damaya, thinks to herself "officially speaking, you're not human either" (234). Through Jemisin's depiction of the societal framing of orogenes as less than human, she shows how oppression is justified in both the fictional society of the Stillness as well as in the real world. 

Bibliography

Foster, Laura. "Classification". Fall 2019, "https://iu.instructure.com/courses/1820385/files/93309360?module_item_id=19455970", PowerPoint Presentation. 

The Assumption of Evil in the Fifth Season

Between the three characters of Damaya, Syenite, and Essun, we can see a development of her internalizing her 'evilness'. From the start, the reader is introduced to a world where the orogenes are assumed evil at birth. This is obviously not a true statement, but among the people in their society, this is just fact to them. This assumption of evil causes the different people in the Stillness to separate into the good and the evil. From the introduction of Damaya, we can see how her parents treat her due to this belief "'is there a toilet in here? asks the child-buyer, in a tone of polite curiosity,' Did you give her a bucket?'" (Jemisin 27). They automatically assumed that because of her power that she is not a real human, that she does not need to live in a space that meets basic human needs. Damaya is told right from the start that she does not deserve to be treated as a real person, that she is an animal and should be ignored.

Later, as Syenite, she discovers more about how corrupt their society is and how they mistreat the orogenes based on this belief of evil. During her mission with Alabaster when they find the child at the node, Syenite sees this belief in action "drug away the infections and so forth, keep him alive enough to function, and you've got the one thing even the Fulcrum can't provide: a reliable, harmless, completely beneficial source of orogeny" (142). It is at this moment when Syenite finally starts to understand how the only way that orogenes can be seen as neutral, not evil, is to put them in such a sedated state that they are barely alive.

As Essun, we can see how this knowledge and abuse has affect how she acts as an adult. Essun's main goal is to just stay hidden and act as if she is not an 'evil orogene'. This results in her eventually using her power and causing mass destruction "these people killed Uche. Their hate, their fear, their unprovoked violence. They. Killed your son" (58). Everything comes to a head and then she just loses it, which only confirms some peoples' beliefs that orogenes are evil. They constantly say that she is evil and should be hated. Over time this became so ingrained in her that she eventually became what they always said she was.

Assimilation to Hide Identity and Celebrating Diversity

            The Firth Season, a science fiction novel written by N. K. Jemisin, explores the story of Essen as she faces tribulation due to her status as an orogene. The novel is full of heartache and death, oftentimes murders that would have been prevented if classism was absent from the novel. The Fifth Season closely parallels some of the race and socioeconomic class struggles America is dealing with today. By exploring the themes of celebrating diversity and the unfortunate struggles of assimilation, The Fifth Season highlights the issues our classist society faces in a dystopian light through mythological characters and powers.  

            Essen, whose story is revealed throughout the novel in three distinct times in her life as Syenite (Syen), Damaya, and Essen, spends a majority of her life attempting to assimilate and flee persecution outside the time she is protected in her status as an orogene. In some of the most pivotal times during her life when she is discovered to be an orogene in childhood and sent away to the fulcrum, or in her adult life when her husband kills her orogenic son, Essun deals with the emotional burden of having to constantly hide her identity to spare her the tragic fates of many orogeneses around her. Revealed through N. K. Jemisin’s website (http://nkjemisin.com/2015/08/creating-races/) and our class discussion, it is revealed that the different types of characters in the book represent races of humans. As Jemisin notes on her website, “There’s nothing visually distinct about orogenes; the thing that makes them unique is perceptual, behavioral. Yet race in our own world is a social construct.” Through issues like privilege and status as an outsider due to race, the book closely shows that much of our perceptions of social hierarchy are unfounded prejudices that have been passed through generations.

Hoa, presumably a stone eater who has the power to change creatures into stone by biting his arm, and Tonkee, a commless transgender character, are two figures who Essun travels with in Chapter 10. With Essun’s status as an orogene and the others’ unusual character traits, they make up a sort of misfit caravan. Essen explains, “It almost makes you feel normal, traveling with these two” (185). With each of these groups being an outcast in society, there can be a deeper sense of comfort when joined by other marginalized groups. However, it is through ignorance that we continue to assume things about other races (or creatures in the novel), and minorities are not immune from these missteps. Essun asks Hoa in Tirido in response to his explanation about his deceptive appearance, “Why did you make yourself like this? Why not just be… what you are?” (396). Through this, Hoa has revealed how he changed his appearance to appear more like another group rather than maintaining his true external identity. However, it also shows that the characters, like Americans, have preconceived notions about the actions and appearances of other groups that we must overcome if we hope to end discrimination once and for all.

            As we discussed in class, characters’ abilities to create or destroy can signal their affiliation with the “good” or “bad.” Counterintuitive to this, I would propose that destroying the classism and racism that taint our society is for the better. Like Alabaster proposed, ending the world as it is may allow for a better reconstruction. The elimination of characters like the guardians who hold back orogenes from working together would allow this group of characters to advance and be successful without their limited representation. Moving away from “rogga” and other discriminatory words would build a sense of inclusivity. Alleviating the pressures to hide orogenic behaviors and ending their reputation as a monster would empower orogenes to interact with everyone on an equal playing field. Through these steps, we can learn from The Fifth Season in how we treat others as equal and create a more inclusive space for all to celebrate what makes us diverse and unique entities to our population.