Essay3

Emma Stone

English 102

Winter’s Bone and Daniel Woodrell’s life.

My opinion on the novel Winter’s Bone, by Daniel Woodrell, is neither a negative one or positive. I found these pages to be both emotionally and intellectually stimulating. However I do believe that the writer chose to give it more of an emotional appeal to the readers rather than something to think about. Such as the family bonds taking place (which are expected from the location the book was set within), the fighting, the disputes and relationships between each family name mostly appealed to that. The descriptions of scenery was in a simple format but because of that it sets up visuals so that anyone can imagine it clearly without any visual aid. Even in places where such descriptions seemed unnecessary, it would still set a good mood; ”Chopped corn stalks poked above the snow, and useless old tassel and shucks has blown into the wire fencerows and stuck to the barbs.  Coyotes began calling down the moon.”(99 Daniel) Human behavior in story telling often calls for description for any type of emotion feedback, such as a comedian does to set the context of their joke, thus I enjoyed the settings given.

As far as the story and plot goes I found it straight to the point but puzzling. Mainly because the objective was for Ree to simply find her father, a story plot which is used in many detective stories. However Ree was no detective and only had distant but close relatives to rely on. As she asks around each family member she could reach I felt like I was gaining less information as she encountered stubborn people and threatening situations. Emotional feedback was, however, keep intact and active as she faced depressing conversations, such as when Teardrop talked about taking one of her brothers before it was official that all hope was lost. Because my emotional interest was kept the balance between emotion and intellect was kept, thus keeping me interested.

In the end I found the book very good, but like a cliffhanger leaving with many questions but still letting me be satisfied with finishing the last few pages.

The main theme that intrigued me the most was how Woodrell went into detail about each relationship that Ree had with her family. Although somewhere within the book I began to lose track of that family tree I still found it stimulating to read about. The relationships were very interesting from a sociological standpoint. I have also found that Woodrell had lived within an area where the families had a strong bond such as the characters in the book. Which concluded that such complicated relationships exist within this world.

Winter’s Bone is a recent addition to Woodrell’s writings and ended up becoming a film later on. An article on Woodrell states that Winter’s Bone is “..a book that bears the hallmarks of being crafted expertly over an extended period”(Williams) So I would assume that this book was given a long time to actually develop into the piece it is now.  It would be expected that Woodrell has also but some details of his life or experiences he had had over his years. An example of that would be the location of where he lived, amongst strong family bonds, that related to the characters in the novel. I would conclude that Woodrell wrote this novel to express the many experiences he had in his life to the readers and fans he had began to achieve threw his previous popular works.

I have evaluated that this novel is one that is based off of the writer's life and experiences. In an article it is said that the characters lived “...deep in the Missouri Ozarks, where the bond of family is stronger than the bond of the law...” Later it states that “Woodrell, fifty-seven, writes about what he knows. Born in the Ozarks... “(Carbot) Woodrell is born into Ozarks and thus grows up around these strong family bonds that he later placed between his characters within Winter’s Bone. His first hand experience within such conditions would have left him with heavy childhood memories leading him to write them into his book. His family had also lived in that location back until the 1840’s which is another thing that he incorporates into his novel.

Inspiration is another thing that existed within woodrell’s life to help create his novel. “There's an air of the gypsy camp about this place: Collinsville, the inspiration for Winter's Bone....These folks are the model for the Dolly clan in Winter's Bone.”(Williams) Many writers in the past and present use some type of model for their characters, these models tend to be someone they know or people they have observed. For Woodrell these people where a family of gypsy that had a camp and little respect for the law providing their own idea of justice. This is another example of something that Woodrell saw in his life, was affected by and placed within his book.

A simpler form of life to fiction would be simple surrounding areas. Already we see the real town of Ozark being used as a setting for Winter’s bone, but there are also small things like buildings. “We start off by driving around his neighbourhood, where he points out the run-down little houses and the cemetery which have figured in recent books.”(Williams) However small and insignificant these details may seem they played important parts within Woodrell’s writings, helping him set description threw his interesting style for setting a mood.

One great impact in Woodrell’s life that both affected him and his written would be when his father took him and moved away, from where he was originally born, for a job. This gave him the absent mother that is portrayed in the novel where Ree’s mother is absent minded. Ree also wished to get a job in the military just as woodrell did when his father moved them again to a new location to Kansas City. “ ‘I lived there for two years and I hated it. So much so that I left high school and joined the Marines the week I turned 17...’ “ (Willams) This gave a complicated relationship between he and his father. His father had done things that he did not particularly liked making him live in cities he prefered not to, he ran away from that by joining the Marines. This memory in his life is identical to that of Ree’s. She has a complicated relationship with her father, who in turn makes things difficult for her even when she has no feelings of responsibility for him. Yet she is forced to take responsibility even though all she wishes is to get away and join the military as the writer did. This is one of the largest impacts on Woodrell’s life, for after he joined the military he was kicked out for drug use, then later put threw a strip search when he crossed the Mexican border. On that day “...the officer muttered repeatedly. ‘That's not bad.’ ”(Cabot) as he read some of Woodrell’s writings in his journal. This lead on to his career in writing. Thus the most important part of Daniel Woodrell’s life was used to begin and create the character of Ree Dolly.

Over all, the time it took to spend on Winter’s Bone is more appreciated and seen when one looks over Woodrell’s life and how it is worked into the characters, setting and overall writing style. Critical moments within his life is what created and affected his writing. If he had not lived out those early years which closely related to Ree, he would have never even been able to become a writer let alone create Ree. His observations in life and places he lived is what made his stories as many writers have experienced. Such examples are easily seen in how he and Ree had the desire to join up with military. How he and other character’s had been involved with drug use. Also his memories on strong family bonds that existed where he lived in Ozark. Smaller things such as background settings and building structures were also used and however they seemed small the majority of his writing was poetic on the descriptions of places. In short all of Woodrell’s memories and events played an important part to this novel, Winter’s Bone.

Work Cited

Woodrell, Daniel. Winter’s Bone. New York: Back Bay Books, 2006. Print.

Williams, John. Daniel Woodrell: The Ozark Daredevil. The Independent. 16 June, 2006. Web.

Cabot, Tyler. Daniel Woodrell: Writer. Esquire. Being green. 2010. Web.