had done to provoke him. Bone acts out by stealing candy, continues to suffer sexual abuse and beatings, and entertains fantasies of sex, violence and revenge.
When her uncles discover Glen has been beating her, they beat him badly and her mother and Glen separate. Bone finds some solace in the church and in gospel music, but her knowledge of God and Jesus and salvation is intermixed confusingly in her mind with her abuse. She is just beginning to try to make sense of a world which does not make sense. Her passionate friendship with Shannon, an "ugly" girl, brings out her own violence as well as her compassion, as she alternately defends and attacks Shannon, obviously seeing much of herself in the other girl, "the kind of monster" Bone "can understand" (200). Shannon's sudden horrible death yanks Bone into reality. She sees herself as "just a girl, scared and angry" (209). Yet she still longs for a father's love, for Glen's love. The next time she sees him he beats and rapes her. The horrible incident removes him from her life, and, apparentl
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