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Bastard Out Of Carolina

            The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines moral as "conforming to a standard of right behavior and or being capable of right and wrong action" (481). Yet who is to say what actions are perceived as either right or wrong? Is someone who discovers that too little was taken out of his or her paycheck for federal taxes an immoral person just because they do not report it? A percentage of people would answer yes to this question, while others would disagree and say that "they caught a break". Some people would say that a woman who has an abortion is immoral, while others would contend that it is her right to choose. These are just a few examples of how people's opinions can differ on what it is right and wrong. Yet most people can agree that the behavior exhibited by characters in Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina, can at best be described as questionable. .
             The character whose morals are obviously the most twisted, so much so that he comes across as malicious and evil, is Glen Waddell. He constantly lets his temper get the best of him, causing violent outbursts in the workplace that cost him numerous jobs. However, this is nothing compared to the mental and physical torment that he inflicts on Bone. He starts this method of abuse by sexually molesting Bone when she is nine years old in the parking lot of the hospital where her mother is giving birth (46-47). It then escalates into his constantly telling her that she is good for nothing and beating her for the most minor infractions (234). After years of this abuse the violence comes to its peak with a horrifying and brutal rape in which he tells Bone that he prayed for her to die and he would kill her if Anney did not come back to him (283). Anyone who can say that this is a man of sound mind should be locked in a cell along with him. .
             Another character in the novel whose morals seem unintelligible is Bone's mother Anney Boatwright.


Essays Related to Bastard Out Of Carolina

1. An Interpretation of Bastard out of Carolina

... 's Bastard out of Carolina paints a colorful picture with words, showing what it was like to live in the south during the 1950's. The main characters are a part of a family living on the poor side of town and the society in which they live in sees them to be lazy, good for nothing trash. Most of the ... the way society looks at her. Meanwhile, jeopardizing and later abandoning her relationship with Bone and the rest of her family. In the beginning of the book, Mama is determined to get the stamp of "bastard" off of Bone's, her daughter, birth certificate. It is obvious that she has some r...

  • Word Count: 654
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Bastard out of Carolina

Bastard out of Carolina was a heartbreaking story about a child Ruth Anne or "Bone" rather. "Bone" a nickname given to Ruth Anne at birth because her uncle thought she was no bigger than a knucklebone when she ... or her mother's life so his name was not clear to either Ruth or Bone's grandmother, because of this their was no choice but to claim Bone as illegitimate. When Anne came to she was very upset that her child had been named a bastard, so three times after Bone's birth she tried to go to the court house and change the ... brother introduced her to Glen, a blue collar stud. Glen seeme...

  • Word Count: 630
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

3. The Vineyards of Liberty

... away issues. Adams was called a "monarchist", Sabbath breaker, squanderer of the taxpayers" dollars on smooth fripperies , and pimp. Partisans of the President in turn taged Jackson as adulterer, butcher, bastard, and blasphemer. In a competition of diatribe and character, no Adams possibly would win out. Due to all this campaigning, by the late 1820's, the steadiness of South Carolina politics had altered, leading and creating the "pathway" to ... the revolt of the outs. If the cleaving subject matter in ... ...

  • Word Count: 539
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. The Power of King Lear

... here with Shakespeare's, we need to look more critically at what the king says. Shakespeare deliberately builds an error into Lear's reflections in this scene: "Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester's bastard son Was kinder to his father than my daughters Got 'tween the lawful sheets" (4.6.114-16). These lines should give us pause; Lear's preference for the natural over the conventional ... ) done me wrong: You have some cause, they have not. Cordelia: No cause, no cause. (4.7.72-74) In act 4, scene 6, Lear rejected conventional morality out of contempt for human nature and on the basis ...

  • Word Count: 8939
  • Approx Pages: 36
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Desperation

Desperation The novel Bastard out Of Carolina by Dorothy Allison is an unraveling tale of desperation and need. The story is set in Greenville, South Carolina in the 1950's amongst the impoverished Boatwright family, where the women work hard and the men drink harder. "Poor White Trash" is the most common term used to label this kind of family, but such a novel opens our eyes to a world we ... accepting Bone's birth certificate. After Bone's premature birth Anney was unconscious for a few days, her family couldn't give the name of the father for the certificate so they stamped it as "illegiti...

  • Word Count: 1590
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Dorothy Allison

... O'connor, Carson McCullers, Tennessee Williams- ( 7). Dorothy Allison started publishing her work in 1983 with a book of poems called The Women Who Hate Me. She went on to write the book of stories called Trash in 1988, followed by her very first novel in 1992, Bastard out of Carolina. In these as well as in her more recent works, which include the nonfiction accounts Skin: Talking ... as a writer who deals frankly and boldly with the issues of gender, class, and sexual orientation (3). Many of Allison's stories reflect upon her life. This is where all her grief pours out from her growin...

  • Word Count: 1369
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Lit Review

... points within Miguel Martinez's essay, "Bastard". He begins with two strong paragraphs relating to his perception of a father and son relationship. He based his perception of father and son relationships on societies various definitions within literature, television and word of mouth from his friends. The first two paragraphs of the essay appear to relate to the ... author provides detailed thoughts he has regarding father and son relationships. He gives strong examples of what others have lead him to believe such as " this strange being, a sort of God, they call Daddy". In addition, quic...

  • Word Count: 752
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Ku Klux Klan

... , dominions, provinces and dens, headed by Grand Dragons, Titans, Giants, and Cyclopes, and everyone else in the Klan was considered a Ghoul. (Chalmers 9) After the Civil War, when social classes were out of order, the Klan wanted to restore it by -returning the Negro to the field "just as long as he didn't do too well there "and the prewar leaders ... on the Klan that she had gotten when her husband died, so Shelton continued with his "only authentic- white supremacy organization, United Klans of America. He had a huge issue on his hands. Negroes were entering colleges in South Carolina...

  • Word Count: 5906
  • Approx Pages: 24
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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