Dorothy Allison, in her novel Bastard Out of Carolina, tells the story of Ruth Anne "Bone" Boatwright from her birth to the age of thirteen. Bone's story is one of poverty, loneliness, fear, anger, hunger, and especially physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her second stepfather, "Daddy Glen." Her mother protests at the time of the physical beatings Bone receives, but she is a partner in the crime because she does nothing about it until it is too late and the girl is finally raped and terribly beaten by Glen.
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 an automobile accident. Her second stepfather--the abuser Glen--first sexually violates her while waiting in the car with her and her sister as her mother waits to give birth in the hospital.
Glen is not a good provider, partly because of his temper, and Bone's life is one of economic and emotional uncertainty. He takes it out on Bone, beating her with a belt while, once again, her mother protests but does nothing to stop him, even asking Bone what she ...