While I was reading Bastard Out of Carolina, I found myself enjoying the book at certain points, and not enjoying it at others. I think the main reason I had trouble enjoying it all the time was because the topic of abuse is difficult to read about. I would just like to comment on the discussion in class that we had on Tuesday. I think some people could not understand why the mother would not just leave Glen. Abuse is a very powerful thing and BRAINWASHES people into thinking that they aren't worth anything. We can't ignore the fact that even though Glen never wanted to hurt Anney, he was still abusing her in a subtle yet powerful way. The fact that he beat her child was a form of mental abuse and she became more submissive because he had more power. I'm not saying what she did at the end was right, but we have to realize that this was the mind of a woman who had been brainwashed into thinking she wasn't able to fight for her child and that she wasn't worth fighting to be happy. This can only prove how powerful Glen was because to overpower such motherly instincts can only be caused by fear and other emotions that I honestly don't think there are words for.

For the most part, I really enjoyed Bastard out of Carolina. It was very interesting to see how a totally different culture than the one I am accustomed to functions.
Also, I really liked the Boatwright's extended family. They all were so unique - it added a lot of flavor to the story. And I loved how they were all there for each other in times of need. Anney could always drop her kids off at one of the sisters... the uncles were there to protect Bone from Glen in the end by beating him up, etc.
In all, Bastard out of Carolina was one of my favorite books this year. Although, I could have done without Shannon Pearl.

I enjoyed Bastard out of Carolina, but thought at some parts of the book it was slow and boring. I think there were too many characters in the book. I know the size of the family was a big part of the story, but I hated to have to stop and think which aunt was which, and which of Bone's causins or uncles belongs to them. I liked the section with Shannon Pearl to add something odd and interesting to the story. For some reason this book reminded me of a movie called Gummo. I doubt many of you have seen this odd independant film, but it was similar to Bastard out of Carolina in many ways.

Save the similarities to "Gummo," Gene M has taken the words right out of my mouth, ditto.

I enjoyed Bastard out of Carolina more than any of the books we read this quarter. Although I was disappointed with the Mother and so called father figure in this book. Though I still believe that because Mama was raised in a social class of poverty and was raised with the value of "Stand by your man no matter what" I don't think what she did in the end was right at all. Daddy Glen made me angry and at the same time sick to my stomach. I really enjoyed Uncle Earle's character even though he was an alcoholic and a troublemaker.

I thought that Bastard Out of Carolina was a really easy read which kept my attention. In class yesterday we were talking about the death of Shannon Pearl. I think that her death symbolized the how transparent she was to the rest of the world and how unloved she was. She died while in the company of those who should have been closest to her yet she was all alone.

i think the statement by uncle beau was very interesting. he said about Daddy Glenn... "i dont trust a man that dont drink" i think the men of the novel knew each man had to do somthing to get his mind off of failure. most men drank, but since Glenn didnt, beau knew he would have to do somthing to forget about life, and that somthing might be worse than drinking.

I could not believe the mother in this book. She allowed her daughter to be physically beaten to the point of breaking bones several times without doing anything. Not only that, when her daughter was placed in the hospital after being sexually assaulted by him, she went with him instead of staying with her hurt daughter. Realistically, I could not believe this situation or more like it, I did not want to believe it. I know that situations like the one presented in this book happen all of the time. In fact, my sister is a social worker so I hear about these general situations that children are put under. However, I cannot, and probably will never be able to understand how she let her husband beat her child and then left with him, leaving the child to fend on her own. I would not be able to stay silent if some stranger was beating his pet, let alone, if someone was beating my own daughter.

I thought the discussion of ugliness/beauty in the book were really interesting. From the time Granny calls Little Earle ugly, it is a very prevelant concept. I could not find this part again, but there was a part where Bone kind of wonders about ugliness, what makes her ugly. I think it is just intriguing that she didn't really understand what it was because it is a concept we learn, but yet, she knows that power of it when she calls Shannon Pearle ugly. I think Shannon is sort of a projection of how Bone sees herself -- so different and "ugly" and in the end she just disappears from the world. I think maybe the end of Shannon was sort of a telling of Bone's fears. That is how alone she felt and she might have feared that she could slip away so easily amidst the people that love her most and in a way she does.

I hate Anney in the book. I hate her so much. So very much. I hate her with every muscle in my body.

In class discussion, many people attempted to excuse the fact that she allowed her husband to sexually and physically abuse her own daughter because of the way she was raised.

This is the most unsupported argument ever. The book does not provide any evidence to suggest that as a child, Anney was raised in such a manner as to permit a human being to cause harm to another. Anney may not have known better than to have a child later in life than when she was a teenager, but she was never abused as a child. In fact, she seems to have a relativly normal relationship with the rest of her family. She is more or less close with her various brothers and sisters (some more so than others). She doesn't really like her mother all that much, but that does not suggest in any way that she was abused. In fact a lot of adults are not particularly found of their parents. This does not mean that they hate their parents or that they were abused by them however.

Regardless of this, she still seems to sit idealy by while her own child is abused. If you asked any decent parent in the world whether or not they would sit by and allow their kids to live in a situation where they were abused every day, you would find that they would do whatever was necessary to save their child. This isn't even something that is learned, this is a basic parental instinct to protect one's own child. This is especially true of mother's whose maternal instincts are particullarly strong.

So in short, Anney is just as bad as Glen. The day they both get hit by a truck, I plan to throw a party. We can start just as soon as I go rent a truck!

I also find a hard time justifying the mothers actions throughout this novel. I do not understand why she takes so much abuse and why she accepts the abuse to her daughter. I realize that leaving a realtionship of that nature is dangerous and emtional but she must think about the saftey of her and her daughter. I don't know I guess she is in love and is blinded by her affection. It an unfortnate situation, that occurs to frequently in our society.

I want to take a brief second to talk about the abuse in the novel. There seems to be controversy regarding the actions of Anney. I agree with Veronica's statements. In my women's studies courses we have studied domestic abuse, and I think that it is important that those who are quick to "hate" Anney for what she did need to educate themselves first. I am not trying to say what she did is right, nor am I saying that what she did was justified. But I really don't think it's fair to simply look at the fact that she didn't leave Daddy Glen and decide she is a horrible person. It comes back to the same thing when we were discussiong Sethe's actions in "Beloved." The fact of the matter remains that no one in our class has ever been a slave during the late 19th century. Or a battered housewife in the South during the 50s. So is it really fair to look at them and condemn them? Can we really say "I would never do that?" I find that statement ludicrous. There is no way you could possibly know what it was like to be those people. Sure, it would be nice think that if we were in their situations we would have done the "right" thing. Sure, it is much easier to write them off and say "they're a horrible person for doing that" and just end the matter. But it is much more difficult to try and understand the situations they were in and try and see what they were going through. Life is not concrete or clearly black and white. There is a lot of gray area as well. And although it may be easier to make a quick judgement, would you really want someone to judge something you did in the same way?

I didn't finish the book, mainly because I didn't have time, but due in part to the fact that I couldn't really get into it. The characters confused me. All the aunts seemed to be the same character. Even though the author tried to make the "circus aunt" stand out by introducing her as keeping to herself, no one really talking to her and other things like that, once Bone went out there she was exactly the same as the other aunts; at least it seemed that way to me. I think I'd enjoy the book a lot more if I read it again.

I, like many people in this class, did not like Anney either. However, I do not think that she deliberately saw the abuse and let it happen becaues she wanted it to. Anney to me was a weak character. She could not make any decisions on her own, and she made some wrong priority choices. However, based on her unstable past and her search to find someone, I could see why she was the way she was. The fact that she let the abuse go on is not justified, but we as the readers can understand why she didn't stand up to it. Someone in class mentioned that we can say that we would have left Daddy Glen in a heartbeat, but it may not be that way. Until we are each int he situation that Anney was it, we can not hate her. We need to understand that she isn't the only woman out there in this situation. Anney is a product of her family, culture, past and search for a stable future.

This was my favorite book. It read fast, and it was intersting to me. I don't think that it was too long in any way, like We Were the Mulvaney's. Although the end kind of left me unanswered and not so happy, maybe that is why I liked it. I learned a lot from this book, especially knowing that I would have never picked it up off a shelf and read it on my own. So I am glad I got to read this book.

I've got to think that some of you must live in a vacuum. Do you seriously not know of any woman who's been in an abusive relationship, or haven't even heard of any such stories, and has returned time and again to her husband? The situation in the book with Anney isn't some odd tale that has no correlation to the real world. This sort of stuff happens every day. It's nice and easy to sit here and say that she should've left and that she's a blind, dumb, horrible person for staying with Glen, but let's see you fall in love with someone a good half a foot taller and 100 pounds bigger than you and then see if you leave if they start threatening you or you child.

Edited by author 05-17-2002 02:42 PM
To Meredith MacMillan:

You made several points about Anney that I would like to respond to (now that I can).

"In my women's studies courses we have studied domestic abuse, and I think that it is important that those who are quick to "hate" Anney for what she did need to educate themselves first. I am not trying to say what she did is right, nor am I saying that what she did was justified. But I really don't think it's fair to simply look at the fact that she didn't leave Daddy Glen and decide she is a horrible person. "

Actually, we came to that decision when the doctors had told her that her daughter's bone was broken, and she still took him back. We came to it durring scenes in the book where Bone is in the bathroom with Glen getting beaten with Glen's belt, and Anney is outside doing nothing. I might even be haiste to judge the situation if it were Anney being abused, but it is not. It is her daughter, and all she does is more or less turn the other way. Even if she didn't have to leave Glen, she could have at least stood up to him and made it clear that she did not want him hitting Bone like that.

"The fact of the matter remains that no one in our class has ever been a slave during the late 19th century. Or a battered housewife in the South during the 50s. So is it really fair to look at them and condemn them?"

Yes. Anney may have not had the best upbringings, but she did not come from an abusive family. In fact, she was supporting two children long before she met Glen. It seems to me that, as hard as her life had been, there was nothing there to explain why she would sit back and let her own daughter get beaten half to death.

"Can we really say "I would never do that?" I find that statement ludicrous. There is no way you could possibly know what it was like to be those people."

I don't know what you are talking about but I don't find such a statement ludricous at all. Any parent would make the exact same statement, and if you were a parent, you probably would too. The only difference between Anney and most parents is that Anney actually did do that while other parents would not. The situation is different when the women themselves are the ones being abused, since the damage and the lowered self-esteem is happening to them. However, Anney just sat back unharmed while her daughter was getting her tailbone broken.

"Sure, it is much easier to write them off and say "they're a horrible person for doing that" and just end the matter. But it is much more difficult to try and understand the situations they were in and try and see what they were going through."

In this case, that is not even a valid point. We saw the entire thing that Anney went through. Anney forgave the man who broke her daughters tailbone and moved back in with her. There probably isn't a social worker in the country who could not find that as grounds for having Bone placed in a foster home!

"Life is not concrete or clearly black and white. There is a lot of gray area as well. And although it may be easier to make a quick judgement, would you really want someone to judge something you did in the same way?"

If I ever become such a monster as to allow my own son/daughter to be abused like that, the person I am now hopes to god that some big guy with a crowbar beats the shiet out of the monster that I would be in that scenario. I would want someone to think of me as a monster, because that is all I could be for allowing my child to be hurt like that. You know, a judge would find Anney unfit to raise Bone just the same as we would probably, and they do have the right to judge her.