Family Bond

"'We heard you once, talkin' 'bout the army and places we wouldnt be. are you wantin' to leave us?' 'Naw, I'd get lost wihtout the wright of you two on my back'" (193).

Weather

“The day agreed upon was pouring rain… After half an hour, the sun shone again...  There was a change in Gatsby… He literally glowed; without a word or gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room” (83-89).

“Ree raised the window…, and was quickly gone again. She was tucked into a blackness… When her eyes rolled open she was part of a cloud of some sort, a thick weary cloud that had settled to ground. Windows frosted and glazed, fog low outside the windows” (167).

Although written in two different centuries and rooted in opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, in both The Great Gatsby and Winter’s Bone, Fitzgerald and Woodrell continually reference weather.  In both novels, how does the motif of weather further reveal the thoughts and feelings of the characters? 

Water

“the world flushed upside down…and she was draining somehow… The pain…traveled her body in pounding waves” (129-131).

“hands as strong as stormwater rushing, his eyes went inside you to the depths without asking and helped themselves to anything they wanted” (133).

“The world rippled in her view” (142).

“stuff had leaked to the heart of the earth and maybe soured even the deepest deep springs” (158).

“She held her breath underwater…and heard the murmur of a living spring in her ears, the mumbles and plops of water from forever rushing past” (160).

Throughout the Milton beating and its aftermath, Woodrell’s recurring use of water as a descriptive mechanism ties together Ree’s physically pain and emotional struggles.  At the onset of the novel, Woodrell introduces the idea of water as an escape for Ree: “she sat…, pulled the headphones from a pocket and clamped them ver her ears, then turned on The Sounds of Tranquil Shores” (9-10).  While water is fluid and free and represents an environment with no limitations, it is also uncontrollable and relentless.  Physically, Ree experiences pain in “pounding waves” during and after being beaten by the Milton women.  Not only is she relentlessly physically abused, but also her emotional state constantly encounters “pounding waves” that test her emotional stamina.  Her fear of Thump Milton prompts her to equate his strength to “stormwater rushing.”  These continual references to water tie together Ree’s battered physical being and her emotional state as two aspects of her character that are continually fighting against “pounding waves” of pain, struggle, fear, etc. 

Loneliness

This is kicker rock off of San Cristo Bal.  While the Galapagos Islands are fuming with the life of its unique inhabitants, the rock symbolizes the loneliness and hopelessness of Ree's endeavor in finding her father.  The rock is physically isolated from the island and its life; Jessup is physically not at home and absent from his role as father.  The rock is visible, but aloof and disconnected; Jessup is still very much interconnected with the Dolly relatives, but remains out of Ree's grasp regardless of whom she consults. Also, the contrast of the fluid expanse of the Atlantic with the rigid rock reflects Ree's escape into her headphones: "Once the pile of splits became big enough...she sat..., pulled headphones from a pocket and clamped them over her ears, then turned on The Sounds of Tranquil Shores"(9-10). 

Reality and Escape

Ree's Naivety

“Ree reached for the steaming cup, smiling, and said, ‘I’m not really—‘ And the world flushed upside down in her eyes while her ears rang and she staggered, then the world flushed again and again and she stumbled” (129). 

Ree’s second interaction with women at Thump Milton’s house depicts her naivety and suggests the countless additional struggles she faces in her search for her father because of her youth.  The boundaries her youth sets upon her is detectable in her interactions with everyone she seeks answers from. With Little Arthur, instead of taking no as his answer, she continues to pester him with questions: “You ain’t seen him nowhere since then?” (54).  Her persistence with Little Arthur exemplifies her inability to pick up on the subtleties of her relatives’ warnings.  At Thump Milton’s, Ree does not take his refusal to see her as the subtle explanation of the rules of the Dollys and, rather, returns again.  Now the question posed to the reader is whether or not the violence of her encounter with Thump Milton’s women will prompt Ree to realize their warning and recognize the rules.  Or will her naivety prevail an inhibit her from recognizing the rules and warnings they are implying.  

Ree and the Morning Squirrel: Resilience

“They were alarmed by every sound but not long alarmed by any. The dawn air held the cold of night but there was no breeze and squirrels soon lost their fear of the new day and moved out along the branches” (102). 

The squirrel and the setting of dawn break is a metaphor for Ree and the way she carries herself through her perpetual privation.  Just as the squirrel is “alarmed by every sound” Ree continuously faces recurring hardships; however, like the squirrel, Ree is “not long alarmed by any.” Ree’s ability to move on to the next task, while letting the past dissipate, exemplifies her resilience in the face of so many obstacles.  Although Ree still holds with her what she has learned about being a Dolly from searching from her father, just like the “ dawn air [holds] the cold of night,” she has to forget about her search and her discoveries the next day when parenting her brothers. Instead of carrying with her into parenting her brothers the hardships she faced searching for her dad, Ree suppresses that anger and teaches her brothers how to shoot rifles and skin squirrels.  Ree, like the squirrels, just continues to move “out along the branches.” Ree’s strength is prevalent in this metaphor as she is able to segregate the worries of her life so that she can be strong for her brothers while continuing the search for her father.