I usually try to incorporate some humor into these posts, but when it comes to Bastard Out of Carolina, there just isn't anything funny at all. The abuse that Allison portrays so vividly is so grotesque it is hard to find anything positive in this entire novel. There seems to be no hope for any of the characters, which is pretty depressing.
Allison flips the southern gentleman on his head with her portrayal of Glen. If the southern gentleman is supposed to be noble, honorable, and a man of good character than Glen is the furthest thing from it. As a man, there are some things you just cannot do. Right up at the top of the list is putting your hands on a woman with force or without her consent. This goes doubly for a child. Glen's actions are so despicable to think about. We aren't talking about a guy who spanks his kid when she acts up; the physical and sexual abuse that Bone endures at his hands is completely senseless. I found it ironic how it is that very senselessness that leads to Bone's internalization of her guilt, as we discussed in class.
I think Allison is trying to depict Southern men as backward, insecure, and intolerant. Bone's uncles are drunken idiots who shoot each other trucks, and Glen is a monster. The men's treatment of women in South Carolina in the 1950's is violent and irrational. Allison is trying to show how the southern gentleman has fallen and the South has not evolved into a place that accepts equality of gender and race.
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About Me
- MattyB
- Hello, World Wide Web/class of twenty at Saint Rose. I'm Matt, I'm a 22 year old Political Science major, and I just transferred to Saint Rose from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. I'm from Richmond, Va, New York, NY, San Antonio, TX, and Lake George, NY. I live in Albany now and am trying to graduate as soon as possible since I'm old and don't have nearly as many credits as I should. And, of course, I love the Dirty South.
4 comments:
I agree that Glen is the total opposite of the picture of what a gentleman-southern or not should be. Perhaps in showing Bone's uncles as "drinking, white trash jailbirds" it creates an irony that they would never lay a hand on a woman or a child. Yet society thinks less of them because of the possessions that they have. Glen who tries to compete with Bone's uncles can never quite meet that standard. I think that's what does him in-he's a disappointment to everyone. How can you be a gentleman when you have no hope and you know that you area disappointment?
Glen is the opposite of the southern gentleman that we have been reading about. And what I find ironic about Glen is that he came from what appears to be a well to do family. They seem to be the picture of Southern gantry and Glen bucks that ideal. He is always unemployed and poor. And the contempt that Glen's family feels for the Boatwrights as white trash is really an attack on Glen. Glen seems to be caugh between two worlds and full of anger.
I agree and in fact had not really looked at the story and how it protrays the south. I agree with you and think it also has to do with the southern class distinctions, like "white trash" and protraying a distorted view of them. From what we have read so far what they call "white trash" really just talked about their social satus, not being as wealthy, and willing to work the jobs that beofre the blacks worked. But Allison went far, too far for me, creating this image of them, and the men that you can't forget.
Matt,
Your blog was really interesting. Although I was absolutely disgusted by Glen and his lack of being any sort of gentleman, I really didn’t consider all of the male characters and how they truly didn’t qualify as gentlemen either. But I don’t think that Glen falls into the same category as the uncles, or at least most of them. I felt like at least the uncles had some pride in their family and would do what was necessary to defend their families. At least the uncles could pull through when they were really needed. Glen was a weak scoundrel who could not be counted on for anything, other than his abusive and manipulative ways.
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