From the beginning, Woodrell clearly depicts Ree as a strong-minded young woman with an odd strength and habit of rejecting typical female stereotypes. Her combination of combat boots with her yellow dress shows that strength overlaps with her feminine traits. In addition, she also hopes to join the army so she can have “only her own concerns to tote” (pg. 15). This means that despite her love for her family, she does not want to stay and take care of them the way her society wants her too. She rejects the idea of being a matriarch for the rest of her life. In addition, her relationship with Gail is slightly masculine in the fact that she has no desire to be married or in physical relationships with males.
and suggesting that while she clearly
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When Ree first communicates with Uncle Teardrop, he insists that whether or not Jessup shows up to his trial is “a man’s personal choice” (pg. 23) and had that she should not be involving herself in his affairs. Uncle Teardrop tries to pacify Victoria in a similar way when she tries to intervene on his and Ree’s conversation by saying “I said shut up once already, with my mouth” (pg. 25) and suggesting that if she did not listen he would get physical with her. These interactions show the reader that Jessup’s situation is considered men’s business and women had no place trying into interfere, no matter what the negative consequences might be for them. Initially Ree is not welcome to this business, but through her persistence she gains enough of Uncle Teardrop’s interest for him to allow her, but not Victoria, into a less authoritative conversation about finding Jessup. Her insistence on talking to Thump Milton despite how “he won’t talk much to women” (pg. 60) was also unusual, especially because she curses him before she leaves because he would not see her. Ree did not want to talk to any of these men because she feared them but she knew it was necessary in order to find Jessup so that she could fulfill her role as caregiver and secure a home for her