Bastard Out of Carolina (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Dorothy Allison
- First Published: 1992
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Bildungsroman
- Time of Work: Late 1950’s and early 1960’s
- Setting: Greenville County, South Carolina
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman, Domestic realism, Family literature
- Subjects: 1950’s, Girls, Maturation or coming of age, 1960’s, Family or family life, Mothers, Parents and children, Adolescence, Teenagers, Sex or sexuality, Abused persons, South or Southerners, Poverty or poor people, Child abuse, Rape, Violence, Illegitimacy, Stepfamily
- Locales: South (U.S.), Greenville County, SC
Characters Discussed
Bone, the protagonist and narrator, whose real name is Ruth Anne Boatwright. She is called Bone because at birth she was “no bigger than a knuckle-bone.” Her mother, Anney, was fifteen years old and unmarried when she gave birth to Bone, following a car accident brought about by her brother Travis’ drunk driving.
Anney Boatwright, Bone’s mother. Hardworking and poor, Anney hates the “illegitimate” stamp placed on Bone’s birth certificate. To her, it puts authority behind the labels of “no good,” “lazy,” and “shiftless” that...
[The entire page is 1462 words long]
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