The novel Bastard Out of Carolina is about a girl named Ruth Anne Boatwright, who is also known as bone. The story is mostly from her perspective. She is the bastard out of South Carolina. She has no idea who her father is, and her birth certificate has the word "illegitimate" which basically meant that she was born to a mother without a father. After her mother marries for the second time, Bone goes through a lot of tragic events and conflicts with her family for a girl her age.
2. Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth.
Glen Waddell. He is the Asshole in this book. He is the second husband of Annie, Bone's mother. He is Extremely abusive towards Bone, both Physically and sexually.
After Anney's first husband, Lyle, died in the accident, she had been working at the Diner. She made about enough money. She hadn't been thinking about getting married again. then one day, her brother, Earle, comes into the diner with a friend/co-worker. It was Glen. He is the son of a socially prominent dairy owner. Once Glen sees Anney, he instantly falls in love with her. It also tells or talks about how he would "protect" her.
"The gravy in his stomach steadied him, but it was Anney's smile that cooled him down. He felt so strong he wanted to spit. He would have her, he told himself. He would marry Black Earle's baby sister, marry the whole Boatwright legend, shame his daddy and shock his brothers. He would carry a knife in his pocket and kill any man who dared touch her."
Anney also thinks about her family. She thinks he would be a good father.
Glen starts courting her, and they go out for about two year. Then Glen asks to marry him. But he doesn't know that Anney is pregnant. He tells Anney that he will take care of the family. That he will adopt both Reese, and Bone. At first he did seem like a good guy. He seemed like he would be a good father to Bone and Reese. Once he finds out, he is over joyous. He believes it is a little boy, and thinks of all the possibility of how things are going to be and what the father-son would do. Never did he once stop to think "what if it turns out to be a little girl?" Did he ever think about that? No. That makes me question, what if it wasn't a stillborn child, & what if it wasn't a boy? Would he have loved her any less? Just because of her sex?
Then while Glen, Bone, and Reese are waiting for the baby to be delivered, GLEN MASTURBATES ON BONE!!! This is the turning point of this book I think. While he is masturbating, he tells Bone about how much he loves her and her family, and how much everything is going to be okay. Poor Bone had no idea what was happening. She was scared, and too young to know what he was doing to her.
After Glen Finds out that the baby is a stillborn child, he basically goes crazy. He hadn't done anything sexual to Bones yet. Then one day, when she comes home, he goes crazy on her & takes her to the bathroom where he starts beating the crap out of her. Then eventually starts raping her. HE EVEN SAYS "I HAVE BEEN WAITING A LONG TIME TO DO THIS" !! What The Hell?!
When Anney gets home, She takes Bone away from Glen. Then she asks Bone what SHE did! Later that night, Glen makes up some stupid-ass story about how she talked back, and said she hated him and stuff. Bone couldn't do anything about about it because she knows that Glen is going to make up stories about all the things. She also knows that her mother is always going to forgive Glen and think he has changed but she refuges to believe the truth.
Glen isn't able to keep a steady job due to his short temperness. They had to keep moving around. A few times, the kids would starve. One day, Anney had enough and leaves. But then Glen begs & Anney comes back. After sometime, Glen doesn't want Anney to visit her family anymore. Better yet, He insults them but Anney doesn't do anything about it. Later on, Anney moves out and leaves Glen. Bone tells Anney that she will never go back. Anney tells Glen that she will move back that only if Bone will. Glen goes to Bone and tries to get her to tell Anney. But Bone refuses. Then Glen becomes violent. He abuses her and the starts raping her. She is almost unconscious but he won't stop. Anney sees this, and fights Glen off. Just when she is about to leave, Glen,who had been following her, starts going "kill me instead." Then Anney goes back to him. This part pissed me off the most. I mean, it was your kid that man had been raping. You even witnessed it. So why would she go back to him?! She calls it "love." BULLSHIT.
Anyways, this is what the character, Glen, is like. I think that he didn't get much love and attention he needed as a child. His parents didnt really love him probably. And I think that in the beginning of the book, when Glen first sees Anney, he says that he would kill anyone that dared touch her. I think that Glen didnt like the fact that he had to share Anney with Bone and is jealous of Bone. He also mentions in around the end of the book, that he wants Bone out of the way and that if killing her was necessary, then he would do so.
I didn't necessarily "love" the book, I mean, it did have it's really really intense moments. But all the members of our group agreed that we didn't really like this book. There were too much details & information about different characters.
I really liked the fact that the Author got the courage to talk about the things that happened. This book is kind of based on what happened to her when she was little. I was going to talk about that part too, but right now, I dont have much time left to turn this in. ): This is what happens when I do things at the last minute.
But other than that, the book wasn't that great. I like reading books like thism but this book, I don't know what happened, but it just wasnt the right book, i guess. I would give this book about 8/10.
