100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #57
57. Ruth Ann “Bone” Boatwright, as seen in the novel Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison and the film Bastard Out of Carolina, portrayed by Jena Malone
I should get it right out of the way that this is not a pleasant book/movie. It is upsetting, troubling, disturbing, and, even as someone with a strong stomach, I had to put it down and walk away because I got so angry. That being said, it's also a book/movie which very much sticks with you ever after you're done.
Bastard Out of Carolina follows the childhood of Bone, a little girl growing up in the South who earned her nickname by being "no bigger than a ham bone." She is the bastard in the title. Anney, her mother, gave birth to Bone at 15 after getting into a car accident with her brothers; because she was unconscious after Bone was born, she was not able to lie about who her father was, and the word "illegitimate" is emblazoned on Bone's birth certificate. Throughout the novel, it is frequently discussed how upset this makes Anney, but we never really learn anything about Bone's mysterious father. After a few years, Anney marries the father of her other daughter Reese, and Bone adores him; he is kind and sweet, and Bone thinks of him as her father. But he dies, and then Anney meets Daddy Glen.
Glen is the youngest son of a rich family in town and is firmly the black sheep. He sweeps Anney off her feet, vows to be a wonderful father to Bone and Reese, and, in the beginning, he is. But Glen is unable to hold a job and the family descends into extreme poverty. Anney has a stillborn son and cannot have any more children as a result, which angers him. And the focus of Glen's anger is always Bone. He beats her mercilessly, often leaving welts, bruises, and drawing blood, and begins to molest her. Bone does not tell anyone what Glen is doing because she does not want to upset her mother or Reese, whom Glen does not treat nearly as bad as her. In the book, at least, the sexual abuse is not described in the sort of graphic detail that the physical abuse is, but it is always a lingering cloud; and while Glen is fairly open in his physical abuse of Bone, he hides the sexual abuse. It is only by pure accident that Bone's aunts and uncles discover the physical abuse after seeing her mangled thighs as a result of a beating; Bone's uncles beat Glen and Bone moves in with her aunt Alma. She tells Anney she will never live with Glen again and Anney has left Glen.
The story reaches its climax when Glen comes to Alma's house while Bone is home alone. He tells her she is going to stop telling Anney she won't live with him; when Bone refuses, he chases her through the house and rapes her on the kitchen floor. As he is raping her, Anney walks in and rushes Bone out of her car as Glen begs Anney to kill him; Bone is equal parts amazed and horrified that Anney cries and hugs Glen. Bone ends up in Alma's custody and the last we see of Anney in the book, she comes to see Bone as she's recuperating and gives her her now "legitimate" birth certificate. Anney leaves without telling her where she is going, and Bone is left in Alma's custody with the implication being that she is returning to Glen.
What makes Bone such a tremendous character is, despite the overwhelming abuse Bone experiences and as angry as she becomes, Bone only becomes stronger as the book/movie goes on. Bone is utterly without power in her world, but after the most severe of the beatings, she still manages to draw a line in the sand with Anney when it comes to Glen. And though her love often feels misguided to the reader/watcher, Bone truly does love her mother while also pitying her for her weakness; Bone never thinks her mother should protect her because she knows it would disrupt her mother's life, and Bone truly wants her mother to be happy. As someone who has worked with dozens of children who have been abused, it is an accurate portrayal of what abuse victims feel, especially child victims. By the end of the book, Bone has almost made peace with her abuse and mother's role (or lack thereof) in it, because she knows her mother is weak and she vows to herself she will never be like that, thereby breaking the cycle of abuse.
And that's kick-ass.
I should get it right out of the way that this is not a pleasant book/movie. It is upsetting, troubling, disturbing, and, even as someone with a strong stomach, I had to put it down and walk away because I got so angry. That being said, it's also a book/movie which very much sticks with you ever after you're done.
Bastard Out of Carolina follows the childhood of Bone, a little girl growing up in the South who earned her nickname by being "no bigger than a ham bone." She is the bastard in the title. Anney, her mother, gave birth to Bone at 15 after getting into a car accident with her brothers; because she was unconscious after Bone was born, she was not able to lie about who her father was, and the word "illegitimate" is emblazoned on Bone's birth certificate. Throughout the novel, it is frequently discussed how upset this makes Anney, but we never really learn anything about Bone's mysterious father. After a few years, Anney marries the father of her other daughter Reese, and Bone adores him; he is kind and sweet, and Bone thinks of him as her father. But he dies, and then Anney meets Daddy Glen.
Glen is the youngest son of a rich family in town and is firmly the black sheep. He sweeps Anney off her feet, vows to be a wonderful father to Bone and Reese, and, in the beginning, he is. But Glen is unable to hold a job and the family descends into extreme poverty. Anney has a stillborn son and cannot have any more children as a result, which angers him. And the focus of Glen's anger is always Bone. He beats her mercilessly, often leaving welts, bruises, and drawing blood, and begins to molest her. Bone does not tell anyone what Glen is doing because she does not want to upset her mother or Reese, whom Glen does not treat nearly as bad as her. In the book, at least, the sexual abuse is not described in the sort of graphic detail that the physical abuse is, but it is always a lingering cloud; and while Glen is fairly open in his physical abuse of Bone, he hides the sexual abuse. It is only by pure accident that Bone's aunts and uncles discover the physical abuse after seeing her mangled thighs as a result of a beating; Bone's uncles beat Glen and Bone moves in with her aunt Alma. She tells Anney she will never live with Glen again and Anney has left Glen.
The story reaches its climax when Glen comes to Alma's house while Bone is home alone. He tells her she is going to stop telling Anney she won't live with him; when Bone refuses, he chases her through the house and rapes her on the kitchen floor. As he is raping her, Anney walks in and rushes Bone out of her car as Glen begs Anney to kill him; Bone is equal parts amazed and horrified that Anney cries and hugs Glen. Bone ends up in Alma's custody and the last we see of Anney in the book, she comes to see Bone as she's recuperating and gives her her now "legitimate" birth certificate. Anney leaves without telling her where she is going, and Bone is left in Alma's custody with the implication being that she is returning to Glen.
What makes Bone such a tremendous character is, despite the overwhelming abuse Bone experiences and as angry as she becomes, Bone only becomes stronger as the book/movie goes on. Bone is utterly without power in her world, but after the most severe of the beatings, she still manages to draw a line in the sand with Anney when it comes to Glen. And though her love often feels misguided to the reader/watcher, Bone truly does love her mother while also pitying her for her weakness; Bone never thinks her mother should protect her because she knows it would disrupt her mother's life, and Bone truly wants her mother to be happy. As someone who has worked with dozens of children who have been abused, it is an accurate portrayal of what abuse victims feel, especially child victims. By the end of the book, Bone has almost made peace with her abuse and mother's role (or lack thereof) in it, because she knows her mother is weak and she vows to herself she will never be like that, thereby breaking the cycle of abuse.
And that's kick-ass.