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The Family Bond Between Bone And Her Mother Dorothy Allison 's Bastard Out Of Carolina

Decent Essays

Identity is an essential part of the human personality; the first stages of identity development often form the core and foundation of who a person will become. While there are multitudes of contributing factors in the formation of identity, such as class, ethnicity, and social norms, familial influence is the most evidenced factor in Dorothy Allison 's Bastard out of Carolina. The core identity of the main character and narrator of the book, Bone, is largely influenced through the slow breaking of the maternal bond and the horrid abuse by Daddy Glen.

When Bastard out of Carolina first begins Bone is narrating the story; however, the book is not yet seen from her viewpoint, but rather from varied perspectives or as a pure narrative. It is not until chapter two that the point of view becomes Bone 's permanently. The reason behind this transition from various perspectives to Bone 's is the maternal bond between Bone and her mother Anney. The bond between mother and daughter is still at its peak in the first chapter, leading to an extreme lack of identity in Bone. This utter lack of self prevents the viewpoint from being Bone 's until the second chapter when she first shows signs of becoming an individual.

Bone truly begins her journey towards discovering her identity the moment she starts hanging around her uncles, and has the thought: "Some days I would grind my teeth, wishing I had been born a boy" (23). Her thought may seem simple and unremarkable, but it is in fact the

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