In Daniel Woodrell's novel "Winters Bone", we are introduced to 16 year old Ree Dolly. The reader immediately learns how Ree is a responsible young woman who is taking care of her younger siblings. I immediately felt as if we had read a similar story in class, and then realized that there is a strong connection between Ree Dolly, and Jojo from Jesmyn Ward's "Sing, Unburied, Sing".
First off, the age of the two characters are similar. Jojo and Ree only have a three year age gap, with Jojo being 13, and Ree being slightly older at 16 years old. The responsibilities that these two teenagers face are honestly quite similar. Due to Ree's father being missing, and her mother having a severe mental illness, she is the primary caretaker of her two younger brothers. In chapter 25 of the novel Ree states “I got two little brothers who can’t feed theirselves…My mom is sick and she is always goin’ to be sick. Pretty soon the laws’re takin’ our house away n’throwin’ us out…to live in the fields…like fuckin’ dogs. The only hope I got to keep our house is I gotta prove Dad’s dead". Ree has stepped up and taken on the role as the primary caretaker in her household. This is similar to Jojo as he is the caretaker of his baby sister Kayla. Jojo and Kayla have a close relationship as he does his best to protect her and keep her safe and healthy throughout Ward's novel.
The two also struggle with broken family relationships. In "Winter's Bone", Ree's mother is permanently ill, and her dad is nowhere to be found. Even though surrounded by the large Dolly clan, Ree's family is still broken because her intermediate family life is nothing near perfect. Jojo also has a broken family relationship as he is not close with his horrible mother Leonie, or his estranged prisoner father Micheal. Both Jojo and Ree realize that in their messed up family, someone has to step up and take charge.
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