The Bastard Out Of Carolina Analysis

In Jeannette Walls’s memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette and her siblings are constantly plagued with various accidents and injuries, more so than “typical” children would be. Her parents have a carefree and lenient approach to parenting, oftentimes leaving the children to fend for themselves or in perilous situations. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette recounts some of the injuries she and her siblings suffer, the reaction her parents have to those injuries, and the parallel episodes they refer to.

Matt Calkins is a journalist from the Seattle Times newspaper and online, and he wrote an article about Coach Kennedy's postgame prayers at a high school's football 50-yard line. Calkins states that he wishes for his kid to have a coach like that one day, so that gives you an inference of his positive and supportive position on the actions of Coach Kennedy. For instance, a quote from someone interviewed by the name Hacker stated, "It's about unity. We can be mad at each other all we want during a game all we want, but once the game over, that all goes away." The evidence from this quote explains how one can see that the prayers can help heal or bring positive inclination to everyone. In the article, he states that he isn't one to "look

Quoyle is a man of few friends, and precedes a solitary and detached life in Mockingburg, New York. Quoyle is chracterized by the author as a man who “abstracted his life from the time” (Proulx 11) He falls in love, or so he thinks, to an unlikely equal called Petal, whom he ends up having an unfortunate marriage with. She was with Quoyle out of pleasure and to use him for financial support. She cheated on him repeatedly, and possessed no love for their two daughters, she sold them before running off with a boyfriend and getting herself butchered in a car wreck in the process. In the author’s vocabulary of describing their unrighteous relationship, “What he had was what he pretended” (Proulx 14) Quoyle is ruined notwithstanding the circumstance that she treated him like dirt and had no respect for him. His whole world is astray after losing his terrible spouse and the recent deaths of his unloving parents who anticipated him to arrange their funeral. Before he went, Quoyle’s father went as far as to recite to him how much of a disappointment he was. It is safe to say Quoyle was on his lowest of lows, that is until his unpronounced Aunt Agnis Hamm reveals herself from out of the blue to take him to their family’s spot of origin, Killick-Claw Newfoundland. “It makes sense”,

As Dunny grew into adulthood, the guilt that he felt grew and continued to affect all areas of his life. Dunny’s life became intertwined with Mrs. Dempsters, and he felt responsible for taking care of her. Dunny agreed to take care of Mrs. Dempster when her aunt and lawyer died. “So I began then and there to maintain Mrs. Dempster, and never ceased to do so until her death in 1959. What else could I do?” (Davies, 162). Dunny took care of Mrs. Dempster out of the guilt that he felt, even though he didn’t have any money to support her. Dunny then felt guilty for not being able to financially support Mrs. Dempster, and eventually having to put her into a mental hospital. “So much against my will I got Mrs. Dempster into a public hospital for the insane, in Toronto, where I could keep an eye on her. It was a dark day for both of us when I took her there.” (Davies, 163). Dunny didn’t have the resources to take care of Mrs. Dempster, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t escape the guilt. “I dared not look back, and I felt meaner than I have ever felt in my life. But what was I to do?” (Davies, 163). Dunny didn’t have a choice, he knew that what he was doing was in Mrs. Dempster’s best interests, but it still pained him to upset her. Dunny then felt guilty for telling Mrs.

The first hidden truth in Bastard out of Carolina came when Anney, Bone’s mother, married Daddy Glenn. The first sexual abuse encounter occurred while Anney was in labor with Reese. Because

In her younger years, Jeannette was an smart and imaginative child. At first, she enjoyed moving around, and had a lot of faith in her father, which created a good relationship between them. “All we had to was find gold, once we’d struck it rich, he’d [Rex] start work on our Glass Castle” (Walls, 25). The tremendous faith that she has in Rex creates a strong bond because she is the only family member who trusts his ideas. Unfortunately, he is a raging alcoholic who can’t hold a job, so most of his promises are broken. As Jeannette gets older, he lets her down more and more. One time he brought her to a bar where she was then sexually violated. When the two had a talk after, he said “I knew you could handle yourself” (Walls, 213,) instead of defending her. It was upsetting to watch their relationship grow apart and to see how poorly he provided for his family, yet they still loved him.

One of the most complex and elaborate characters in Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison is Bone. Throughout the story Bone has to live a life where she thinks that she is the leading mystery of the trouble being caused. She has numerous unhappy situations and is in no way self-satisfied with herself. She doesn’t appreciate who she is physically. She constantly thinks she is the most homely and dull person who causes the most inconvenience in the family. This sense of selflessness is mainly due to the physical and sexual abuse brought upon by Daddy Glen, Bone’s stepfather. Unfortunately, the assaults were stretched out over a long period of time, leaving little chance for Bone to recover as an adult if any at all. I decided to take

Her mother chooses to ignore the abuse because she knows she will have to decide between her husband and daughter. Anney’s distance causes Bone to endure this evil on her own. Initially, Bone cannot share her experience because Anney was dealing with enough of her own problems with the miscarriage. As time passed, she lost further faith with her mother’s trust of Daddy Glen’s distorted versions of the truth, she has no one to reaffirm how special she is, so she starts thinking things like “I was evil” (Allison 110).

Even when she is spending time with someone she could consider a friend, Bone knew that she had already been warned about her family, stating “her mama had probably told her all about what to expect from trash like us.” (Allison 86). Once again, Allison is demonstrating that Bone recognizes and identifies with the fact that she is trash, something that has been passed down to her from her mother and her other relatives. In her criticism, J. Brooks Bouson would argue that Bone is ashamed to be considered trash. Both Bouson and Carter would argue that Bone is also filled with anger and negativity due to the fact that she has been labeled as trash and illegitimate.

     Understanding the Cultural differences can lead one to understand Bone from a new perspective. Expectations of difficulty for the women in the book are much more prevalent and the children’s unstable home environment can be understood. Views of

The bond between a mother and child is often spoken of as being unlike any other. Yet there are always exceptions to the rule where this connection isn 't as impenetrable as one might assume. This book is an example of this bond gradually becoming weaker over time. It shows how it affects the child, Bone, and leaves her vulnerable to the abuse of her step-father. Bone’s mother, Anney, had fallen in love with a man who abused her which at first, she’s unaware but eventually comes to realize but still chooses to stay with him. Throughout the book there are instances of Anney’s negligence in recognizing her daughter’s abuse and being of aid to her but wasn 't. In having to deal with her

    “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” one of O’Connor’s best works, describes a family on a trip to Florida and their encounter with an escaped prisoner, The Misfit. Although “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is an early work in O’Connor’s career, it contains many of the elements which are used in the majority of her short stories. The grandmother, a selfish and deceitful woman, is a recipient of a moment of grace, despite her many flaws and sins. A moment of grace is a revelation of truth. When the grandmother calls The Misfit her child and reaches out to touch him, the grandmother has a moment of grace that enabled her to see The Misfit as a suffering human being who she is obligated to love. The grandmother realizes that nothing will stop The Misfit from killing her but she reaches out to him despite this. The Misfit rejects her love and kills her anyway. This moment of grace is very important

The guilt of Jack forms into signs of mental illness causing his marriage to split. Him and his wife Abigail go through a very tough time after the murder of Susie. From the result of Jack not accepting what had happened to his daughter and the blame he had given himself affected Abigail dramatically. A scene where Jack is going through the photo album of Susie in the study is the first introduction the audience gets of what pain Jack is putting on his wife and marriage. Abagail came into the study and said, “will you come to bed?”

Lastly, her family betrayed her by not listening to her side of the story after her sister told lies about her, and they betrayed her when they acted as if they did not care if she moved out of the house. In all of these actions, the family itself and certain members of the family are portrayed as uncaring, unsupportive, disrespectful, conniving, deceitful, and hateful to Sister. Through every action of the family, Sister is treated harshly, and she tries to not let this bother her. Yet, anger and bitterness build up inside of her until she cannot take it anymore. Consequently, it built up so much inside of her that it severely affected Sister so profoundly that she moved away from her home to get away from her family.

The death of a loved one can result in a trauma where the painful experience causes a psychological scar. Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones explores the different ways in which people process grief when they lose a loved one. When young Susie Salmon is killed on her way home from school, the remaining four members of her family all deal differently with their grief. After Susie’s death, her mother, Abigail Salmon, endures the adversity of losing her daughter, her family collapsing, and accepting the loss of the life she never had the opportunity to live. Abigail uses Freud’s defence mechanisms to repress wounds, fears, her guilty desires, and to resolve conflicts, which results in her alienation and