Bastard out of Carolina

Throughout these next seven chapters, the relationship between Mama, Daddy Glen and Bone has developed immensely. Mama is the middle person that continues to tell Bone that Daddy Glen loves her. However, Mama I naïve and she doesn’t see how badly Glen is treating her very own daughter. She constantly feels as though she has to stick up for her husband, where as in reality she should be sticking up for her children. “’He loves you,’ Mama was always saying, and she meant it, but it seemed like Daddy Glen’s hands were always reaching for me” (Allison 105).
As the novel continues, Glen’s abuse becomes very obvious to Mama. This portrays her as weak and pathetic. When Daddy Glen physically harms Bone, he constantly finds an excuse for his action. Mama succumbs to his reasoning and finds it within herself to forgive him. “She’s always getting into something,” Daddy Glen complained. ‘Lucky she’s such a hardheaded brat.’ I watched him from under lowered lashes, my head turned slightly to the side, careful not to grin out of my unmarked stubborn face. ‘Bone, be more careful,’ Mama begged me” (Allison 112). Thus far in to the novel, woman are depicted as very weak characters. They don’t have much, if any, power, and because of this men can abuse them; mentally and physically. I am very interested to know if Mama will end up protecting her daughter from this intense pain. Part of me thinks she might, and another part of me thinks she is too weak.
In response to the question, “does the way that women are portrayed say anything about our culture?”, I’m not so sure that it does. I believe that situations, such as the one that Bone and Mama are in throughout this book, are actually common. Thus, it’s not a stereotype and it’s not ‘passing judgment’. Clearly, I do not like the way that women are weak in this book, however, I do believe that in real life, these cases are prevalent, and because of this we, as readers, cannot say that Allison is feeing in to the stereotype of women.