Dorothy Allison

Bone finds friendship, role models and/or solace in her aunts and uncles, her sister, her friend Shannon, and in gospel music and the church. These people and things keep her going in the midst of the escalating abuse she receives from Glen.

Bone's story is as much the story of her mother, however, because her fate is tied into the fate of her mother--at least until the end of the book when it appears Bone breaks free from her stepfather, her mother, and from the helpless-without-a-man philosophy of her mother. Bone's story is certainly the story of abuse, but it is also the coming-of-age of a girl who somehow seems to be on the road to recovery and healing by the end of the book, as unlikely as that may be realistically.

Bone is born a bastard, father "unknown," officially "illegitimate," and her story is in large part a search for herself, her identity, her place in the world that has marked her at birth. Her first stepfather, whom she loves, is killed in

. . .
effects, aside from physical damage, include verbal and physical aggressiveness (toward her abuser as well as toward Shannon and even Bone's sister), precocious sexual play (masturbation and fantasies involving sex and violence), lack of friends (except for the fellow outsider Shannon), low self-esteem, shame, self-blame for somehow bringing on the abuse, loneliness, depression, etc. The use of alcohol and mood-altering drugs plays a part in many cases of abuse, but in Bone's case her stepfather did not drink or use drugs until after he and Bone's mother were separated following the exposure of his beating of Bone. It is possible that alcohol played some part in his rape of her at the end of the book, but Allison does not mention it directly. The paradox of power/powerlessness has to do with recovery and healing, with surrendering to the fact that one is powerless over, say, alcohol. In admitting to such powerlessness, one opens up to the help of God's power and the power of other human beings working together to heal. Only by twisting the concept does it apply in any way to Allison's novel: it might be argued that Bone finds some power by admitting to herself that she will never find from her mother or from Glen the love sh
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Bone Intervention, Shannon Bone's, God Jesus, Glen Bone's, Bone Bone's, Glen Glen's, Glen Bone, Bone Boatwright, Daddy Glen, Bone Psychopathology, abuse bone, bone's story, bone's mother's, beating bone, abuse hands, sexual abuse, glen's beating bone, mother's abuse, gospel music, report abuse, abuse mother, bone's story story, bone's mother's abuse,
Approximate Word count = 1713
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Dorothy Allison