The entire world is filled with sounds; there is no escaping them. Throughout Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone the character of Ree listens to recordings of nature. Her interactions with sound showcases the importance of sounds in marking reality and manipulating it to grant freedom.
Ree uses sounds to escape her current reality. When selecting recording during a time of deep thought, Ree initially picks a recording that matches the setting but decides that "those wintry mountain sounds matched the view too perfectly and she switched to The Sounds of Tropical Dawn" instead (Woodrell 38). Ree does not want to be within this current reality so she purposely chooses a recording that removes her from that place. This is made evident when she explains that she can "hear the smell of orchids and papayas" (38). Ree has likely never seen such things, meaning that she is so transported as to have new experiences. By using her recordings of different places in nature she is able to manipulate her perspective of the world around her.
When Ree is stuck with the sounds in her reality she is also stuck with the thoughts and emotions that fight within her. She is without her recordings at one point and instead is listening to "ice sounds and trickle sounds and her boots thumping" (70). These are sounds that often associate with more moody, sad situations. Ree is quickly succumbed by these same feelings after listening to these sounds and she begins to crying, stuck with the emotions while stuck with the sounds.
When Ree loses sound she also loses herself. During the beating that she receives she can only hear "mutters of beasts" and is "kicked into silence" (130). The women have taken sound from her to the point she can barely hear and that is when she plummets to her lowest point. Immediately after this mental fall is when the silence is found and all thought and emotion is lost. The thoughts and emotions return when "she heard shovels" (131). Before this point she is clear that everything within her is jumbled. Hearing the sounds is what brings her back to the place where she can feel.
Sounds play a crucial role in leading the mind through reality and producing the thoughts and feelings that guide a person along their path. Those sounds can be manipulated in one's favor but when all sound is lost, the person can become lost in reality, unsure of their surroundings and feelings.
The novel Winter’s Bone uses many forms of descriptive language to create a vivid image for the readers to picture what is happening. In addition, one can gain a better understanding of Ree and how she views the world around her. The world in which Ree lives is steeped in tradition and family. The Ozark has a culture and world of its own that inhabits a wildly rural community. The language in which Ree uses, ranging from her dialect to her choice of words, reveals how the environment in which she has grown up has impacted her. When Ree is delivered the news that her house was put up as her fathers bond it states, “Ree stretched over the rail, pulled her hair aside and let snow land on her neck. She closed her eyes, tried to call to mind the sounds of a far tranquil ocean, the lapping of waves” (15). During times of hardship Ree finds ways to escape and ground herself to cope and push through. She uses descriptive language and imagination to transport her someone she can find her bearings. Ree has a plan for a better life and wants to join the military to escape the cycle of poverty in which she lives. Ree has an ‘escape plan’ from the life she has lived and an ‘escape plan’ for daily struggles. The future and what could be pushes Ree forward and motivates her to face hardships. The descriptive language Ree uses to ‘zone out’ from bad situations pushes her towards her ultimate fantasy of leaving the Ozark behind.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that Ree relies upon sounds to escape the realities of her current life. In the section you mentioned in which Ree listens to The Sounds of Tropical Dawn, it is interesting to note that she had just visited Gail and Floyd and saw the tension between them. Ree sees how unhappy Gail and Floyd are with each other, and how their marriage being out of necessity rather than love perpetuates the cycle of hopelessness woven throughout life in their town. Ree is determined to find a different life for herself, and even later in the car as she watches Gail take care of Ned, she sees “the looming expected kind of future and not one she wanted” (Woodrell 93). Thus, after spending time with Gail and hearing about her being held back by her husband, Ree listens to sounds of a tropical forest to remind her of other possibilities not often mentioned out where she lives.
ReplyDeleteI also liked how you considered Woodrell’s use of sound imagery in connection with pain. I had not considered this, but certainly during the beating Ree’s went numb, and Ree did escape her current reality, but not by choice. Rather, she became unconscious. As you mentioned, when sounds return, so too does the pain and reminders of her actions. Woodrell writes, “All her aches were joined as a chorus to sing pain throughout her flesh and thoughts” (143). This imagery offers a sense of the piercing and ever-present agony wrought by the women of Hawkfall.