Study Questions
1. What happens on the night of Aunt Ruth’s funeral?

2. Does Bone think that her Mama will be able to stay away from her husband, Glen, for long? Why or why not?

3. Why does Alma go crazy?

4. Why doesn’t Bone trust Sheriff Cole?

5. Why does Anney abandon Bone?

Answers
1. Aunt Raylene discovers fresh wounds on Bone from a beating by Daddy Glen. She shows her brothers, and they beat Glen so badly that he needs to go to the hospital. The Boatwrights become fully aware of the extent of Daddy Glen’s abuse of Bone.

2. No. Bone realizes that her Mama is incapable of staying away from Glen for any length of time. Even one week seems very long. She realizes that Anney will inevitably return to Glen and decides that she will not return with her mother.

3. Alma is under a lot of stress. Her sickly child, nicknamed Tadpole, had died recently. Alma is sad and wants another child. However, her husband, Wade, is not sympathetic to her needs. He claims that she is too ugly for him to want to touch.

4. Bone had just been brutally beaten and raped. She is abandoned in the hospital by her mother. Sheriff Cole is an outsider who reminds her of people like Tyler Highgarden who look down on the Boatwrights. She doesn’t trust him. In fact, she thinks he is just like Daddy Glen.

5. Although it is not stated outright, it is implied that Anney abandons Bone because she has taken Glen back and is running away with him to a place where a man can find work.