Winter's Bone Character Analysis

Ozarks County is a place run by moral codes. A place where the law takes a backseat to family and moral codes. Every person has a moral code they follow, the code may not be seen at some points but given certain circumstances people will do whatever they can to uphold their moral code. In Winter’s Bone this person is Teardrop. Throughout the text he is trying to follow his family’s code, doing something that he finds to be wrong before correcting his course of action when it is needed the most. When he is first mentioned he is described as a scary, hardened man. Ree decides to visit him to find where Jessup is, showing how desperate she is by saying that Teardrop actually scares her. When she meets him he sticks to the code of the town, people keep quiet and avoid all the trouble they can. Teardrop is aware of what happened to his brother Jessup and knows that having Ree going around asking where Jessup is will get her in trouble.

Eventually Teardrop decides to help Ree out, or at least act like family. He talks with Ree and tries to comfort her, talking about Sonny and Harold. This interaction highlights the importance of family to the Dollys. In a society where nearly everything is out to get you, family is the only thing that people can rely on. The Dolly’s morals are shown best when Teardrop shows up to rescue Ree from being beaten. Teardrop tells everyone to leave Ree alone, saying she is just about the only family he has left (64). He knows the importance of family and the morals they follow place the importance of family high up, to the point where he instructs the Miltons that they need to get through him before going to Ree. Teardrop would not allow Ree to be killed when she is just trying to keep her house safe, not when her dad was killed because he loved his