Winter's Bone Character Analysis

In Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell the protagonist Ree Dolly journeys through the stages of a Hero's Journey as defined by Joseph Campbell. An atypical hero, the 16-year-old young woman begins her quest in The World of Common Day. The reader is introduced to Ree, “She stood tall in combat boots, scarce at waist but plenty through the arms and shoulders, a body made for loping after needs”(3). As she is physically built to travel the Ozarks searching for her father, Ree is still burdened with the care of a mom who is “medicated and lost to the present” and two rambunctious little brothers. Her father, Jessup, “...a broken faced furtive man given to uttering quick pleading promises that made it easier for him to walk out the door and be gone…”(4) left his family poverty-stricken and surrounded by clans of drug dealers. Although not an ordinary situation, as Ree and her relatives, are mired in violence and drugs, Ree’s Ozark cultural background creates the …show more content…
Our hero goes back to try to see Thump Milton because he wouldn’t speak with her last time, and it seems he is the only one with answers. She believes his wife is offering her a hot drink to combat the cold, when surprisingly Milton’s wife Merab throws the scalding liquid in her face and then she and her sisters brutally beat Ree senseless. When Ree returns to consciousness on the floor of a barn surrounded by enemies, one eye is swollen shut, teeth have been yanked out to the roots, and every part of her body is black and blue. In unbelievable pain, she still inserts herself into the conversation by answering Merab’s question, “Whatever are we going to do about you, baby girl? Huh?” With tremendous moxie, Ree responds, “Kill me, I guess”(132). Even though most people cannot imagine what it is like to be severely beaten, the reader is flooded with compassion and awe by this sixteen-year-old girl’s eternal determination and limitless