The film Winters Bone is set in the rural area of southwestern Missouri, where a small community of people live and attempt to sustain
themselves and their families by hunting and trading goods. They all have very
little money and most rely on drugs such as methamphetamine to distract
themselves from their awful lives. It is evident that drugs have a strong
impact on the community as when Ree says that her father “cooks crank” the lady
she is talking to, Megan, says “They all do now, you don’t have to say it out
loud”. This shows how prevalent drugs are in this society as many people make
and sell it. This also shows that they will do anything to make money as they
are all living in poverty so they are willing to risk what they have in order
to make money to buy food and feed their animals.
Due
to them having very little money they trach children how to do the basic tasks
they need in order to survive very early. For example Ree teaches her brother
and sister how to shoot a gun so that they can hunt and find food. Other than
this the level of education the community has is low which shows a lack of
social mobility as none of them are able to get out of this poverty struck
community that they live in. We see one
scene where Ree takes her brother and sister to school and it is very empty,
this shows that many do not go to school or dropped out at a young age in order
to work. This is common in rural southern areas of America as often kids are
needed in order to help provide for the family. Ree is a great example of this
as she is a teenage girl who takes on a parent role due to the absence of her
father and the poor mental health of her mother. The other teenagers we see in
the school are either training for the marines or in a childcare class. This
shows that they know that there is no hope of them getting normal jobs that
require any intellectual ability. Most of the people Ree’s age that we see are
young parents which is also common in rural areas like this due to a lack of
education.
It
is obvious that the people in the community rely on each other very much for
food and help with work. The women mainly stick together and help each other
out. For example the lady that gives Ree some meat and lets her use her chipper
to make fire wood. The women in the film mainly rely on men in order to survive
as they are the ones that go out hunting and sort trouble within the community.
This is evident when Ree goes out to talk to a man and the woman that greets
her at the door says “Don’t you have a man to do this?” Even Ree’s brother
attempts to protect her later in the film as this is what is expected of men in
this society. Throughout the film we see her go to different houses searching
for her father and at every house she visits the woman greets her and then
takes her to speak to a man in order for her to sort the issue out. This shows
how much control men have over women in the community. Ree is the only female
character in the film who is not controlled by a man which shows how oppressed
women are in poverty struck southern areas of America. The most important scene
when we see this is when Ree visits Teardrop. She begins a sentence saying
“Listen” and he grabs her by the throat and says “No”. This shows that men are
not used to being told what to do by a woman which is why he gets so aggravated
when Ree tells him to listen to her as he does not feel that he should have to.
Also, when Blond Milton offers to take one of the kids off of Ree to raise
them, he only offers to take her brother. This shows that they do not see the
value of women as they believe that they are just supposed to rely on men to do
the work.
