Life in the Ozarks in
the mid twenty first century
In Daniel
Woodrell’s “Winter’s Bone”, we get a very good look into the life in the Ozarks
during the mid twenty first century. In this novel, Woodrell paints a picture
of a 16 year girl, Ree, whose father has put their home and land up for
collateral for a bail bond after he gets busted cooking meth. We see Ree struggle
through an Ozark winter trying to find her father and bring him to justice so
as not to lose their home. She struggles with her mother who is an elderly dementia
patient, her two brothers and her many uncles and aunts. All throughout the book,
Ree stands up to her family which encompasses the entire valley in which they
live. She learns many things about her father that should be unknown, and about
herself. This novel, simply stated,
shows the methamphetamine addicted, poor, inbred current state of the Ozarks.
Woodrell’s
view of the Ozarks, having grown up there, are clearly evident throughout the
novel. He brings his years of experience of the cold winters, hard times, and
excellent understanding of the methamphetamine usage. Methamphetamine usage in the
Ozarks has unfortunately overrun the place. Since that is one of the major
themes in the book, it leads me to believe that he has first-hand knowledge of
it. Another major theme of the novel is simply family. This whole area of the
town that they live in is family, has been famly for hundreds of years. There
are many passages in the text that Ree uses the excuse of “you’re family, you
should help me.” And unfortunately in this passage, that expatiation of family
helping family falls through, “So, come the nut-cuttin’, blood don’t truly mean
shit to him. Am I understandin’ right? Blood don’t truly count for diddly to the big man?” (Winter’s 1). This quote
depicts that, to Ree, family truly means everything, which in her search for
her father, is all she has to rely on. This theme has also been brought out to
Woodrell’s attention, and he states that family is a huge support system within
the Ozarks, “…The Ozarks, and many of the values of the place, are anchored
deep within, I’m afraid. Values like: it’s better to be poor than be beholdin’…”(Woodrell
1) This simple statement shows that Woodrell has had much expierence in the Ozarks
with his family, and has seen it firsthand. It is clearly evident in the way
that he writes almost every character in his novel to have a large since of
family.
Methamphetamine
usage has become a major problem in the Ozarks in the last few decades, “Production
and use are still high in the Ozarks, and Jasper county in southwest Missouri led
the state with 178 meth raids and seizures last year” (Meth 1). In this report,
the Nevada daily mail reports that methamphetamine is spreading throughout the Ozarks
and Missouri state as a whole. In the novel, Woodrell writes about the meth
usage from a standpoint of one of the many innocent lives wrapped up in the drug
and its detrimental effects. Uncle teardrop put it the best that many affected
by meth, neither sleep nor eat for days on end. “Those pills of mine Victoria
gave you was what used to knock me off the mountaintop to sleep whenever I’ve
been too far high too long like this.” (Winter’s 2) This simply states that
many in the Ozarks, Uncle Teardrop included, were almost always skewed by the cloudiness
of meth.
Another
major theme in the book is poverty. Traditionally drug usage strikes the poor
the hardest. Throughout the book, Woodrell emphasizes the poverty stricken side
of the Ozarks. Most of the time, the family has to scrounge what little food
they have left in the house to eat a meal at night time. Sometimes however, her
family makes good and brings over some food and wood to cook on, “Sonya carried
a large cardboard box that had venison on a long bone jutting above the rim.”
(Winter’s 17) “You poor thing. Ill have Betsy’s Milton haul across a rick of
wood for you-all.”(Winter’s 18) This statement shows how the since of family
and camaraderie help eachother in the Ozarks. Since they live in such an
isolated and remote rural area, many people in the region rely on family to
provide them with food and such. Especially in the Dolly’s family case, since
it is simply a 16 year old girl trying to provide for the entire family. This
statement rings true for many familys in the Ozarks. With all of the drug use,
and legal run-ins around the area, many homes have simply turned for the worse.
Another
major theme is the lack of education. Ree dropped out of high school around the
age of 15. She did this mostly because her mother had gone crazy, and her
father, which not much is mentioned about him other than the fact that he is a degenerate
low life, has left the home, or been in jail most of her life. Leaving her to
care for the family. This is best illustrated that the young girl leaves school
when she begs for a ride from her old bus driver. Her driver, Mr. Egan, tells
her that he misses her and her smart ways form when she used to ride the year
before. The simple way that the author writes the characters words lends
credibility to the lack of education in the area. Many of the words are broken
and slang, which many educated areas don’t use.
