Winter's Bone

The women of Rathlin Valley visit Ree as she recovers, offering their sympathies as well as a variety of pain medication. The women all agree that such a violent act was inherently wrong. According to their Dolly moral code, such a beating was never necessary for girls, and especially not their own kin. 

As Ree lies in bed, she begins to mentally prepare for the house’s foreclosure. She plans to move her family to a cave, and she imagines furnishing it so that it resembles home. Ree’s brothers take care of her, and ask her for further details about what happened. Sonny also asks Ree to tell him the names of her attackers, “For when [they] grow up” (147), but Ree redirects the conversation to avoid answering him. Under medication, Ree dreams restlessly; in her dreams, the affirmation “I ain’t never goin’ to be crazy” (147) becomes a continuous refrain.

After Ree awakens and takes more pain medication, she spies Uncle Teardrop looking out the window with his rifle. In her drug-induced stupor, Ree admits to Teardrop that she is ashamed of her dad for snitching because it broke the moral law all Dollys live by.