Over the course of Winter’s bone, mind altering substances
such as marijuana, methamphetamine, pain killers, and “crank” serve an ironic
role in the sense that the are what enable the Dolly family to live through
selling methamphetamine but they are also responsible for tearing the family
apart.
The Dolly family is able to survive in the Ozarks by manufacturing
and selling crank, an alternative word for methamphetamine. While this
lifestyle is what allows the family to survive, it is also what tears them down.
The use of drugs throughout the novel has terrible consequences for the family.
First of all, the manufacturing of Methamphetamine is what gets Ree’s father
Jessup into trouble with the law in the first place and eventually leads to his
death. The book notes that this is not the first time that Jessup has been caught
by the law and makes it obvious that it is unlikely for Jessup to show up to his
hearing, resulting in the loss of the house that Ree is living in with her brothers
and mother. In addition to almost losing the house and property, Jessup’s meth manufacturing
leads him directly to his death. Jessup tries to cut a deal with the law by
snitching on other members of the meth empire, which results in his murder as
he is labeled a “snitch” by his own blood, again contributing to the
destruction of the family.
In addition to Jessup’s life, the life of Ree’s mother is
also destroyed by her use of drugs. Throughout the novel, Ree’s mother is
referred to as sick by her family but in reality, she is constantly high off of
pain killers and anti depressants that she is using to treat her mental illness.
As a result of constantly needing to be under the influence of drugs in order
to deal with her illness, it is necessary for Ree to have to care for her at
all times as she is the oldest women within the patriarchal house. Not only do
the drugs have a negative effect on the mother, but they also contribute to the
destruction of Ree’s life in a sense as she has to care for herself, her younger
siblings, and her mother, not allowing Ree to live a normal life and have a
normal childhood.
The destruction of the family through drugs can also be seen
through Uncle Teardrop. Having been in and out of jail for drug related
offenses, Teardrop obviously has been torn down by drugs. This is explicitly shown
when Ree first visits Teardrop and notes that there is a bag of weed, another
bag of crank, and vividly describes the scars and damage to Teardrop as a
result of a mistaken Methamphetamine cook. These three examples show how the
use of drugs destroy the Dolly family and exemplify the ironic role that they play
within the novel as they tear the family down but are simultaneously needed in
order for the family to live.
I agree that drugs do play a prominent role in the novel, particularly in the bad things that happen to the Dolly family. Ree’s family’s manufacturing of crank and Ree’s mother’s reliance on anti-depressants and medications to cope with her mental illness, both lead to their fair share of problems that Ree has to deal with, and I agree that the tear the family apart. In the fact that Jessup became a snitch, as Teardrop notes “one day he was” (149), shows that “cooking crank” takes its toll on a person, and because of this, when Jessup cracked, the family was torn apart. However, there are other smaller instances in which drugs lead to further problems and complicate the family relationships, stretching the family loyalties even further. For instance, Little Arthur drugs Ree, so he can take advantage of her and rape her, giving her the mushrooms that made her feel “gooey” with “slobbered love” (54). This incest shows that drugs blur the lines in the Dolly family, and because of this, the drugs have essentially destroyed the family in an irreparable way. In this way, the problem with drugs extends beyond Ree’s parents, beyond Teardrop and even beyond crank.
ReplyDeleteI love how you portray drugs as the ultimate downfall of the Dolly family. When you say, “While this lifestyle is what allows the family to survive, it is also what tears them down,” I think it is a perfect summation of how much of an impact drugs have on the people living in the Ozarks, but also throughout the entire world. I think that the Ozarks are essentially a very dramatized version of any drug-infested city. The meth epidemic has led to the destruction of countless lives, including Ree Dolly’s. Meth is portrayed as dangerous and poisonous, and I think meth symbolizes an ending for anyone who takes it. It is what causes Ree so much pain. Even though she is not a user, Jessup’s use has impacted her entire family’s lives. It destroyed Uncle Teardrop’s face, “it had eaten the left ear off his head and burned a savage melted scar down his neck to the middle of his back” (23). Meth seems as if it is this murderous substance that leaves people with an insatiable need for more. Woodrell makes meth seem is if it leaves a bloody trail behind it wherever it goes, and I think he is trying to bring attention to the drug-epidemic that has infested so many countries. Meth is dangerous to anyone who uses it, and those who use it continue to crave it. Addiction in itself is somewhat of a catch-22. Users are addicted to their own murderer, and that is the tragedy of the Ozarks in Winter’s Bone.
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