Bastard Out of Carolina, Chapter 1

I like how Allison paints Anne's character. She's a hardworking, young, attractive woman who has two babies to take care of...although she could probably use any extra money she could earn, Anne takes pride in herself. She laughs and charms the men, but she firmly declines any opportunities to make money by laying on her back. Shortly after Allison paints this picture, she introduces a lawyer who is an honest man who gives Anne back all of her money when he sees that he cannot possibly help her.

Anne's family is close and is more than willing to help her out in any way they possibly can. She doesn't take handouts and she doesn't slack on personal responsibility. More than anything though, she wants a man who will love her with the same passion she has for her daughters. Who hasn't felt that way before? Who felt that at nineteen after raising two children and losing a man she loved dearly? I believe it is more common that what is generally thought...

Glen reminds me of someone, but I cannot put my finger on it. There something pitiful in the man. He seems nice enough, but I don't think his intentions are products of true love, but perhaps those of mere curiosity and desire to shake people and win the favor of others. I do like that Glen became real man when he ate the collard greens and sipped the iced tea. His mama may have been well-educated, but wasn't she Southern? Maybe she was a Yankee and didn't understand the value of sweet tea and buttermilk buscuits.

I don't have a child, but I can imagine that when a single person has a child that he or she is keenly aware of the parenting quality of those the he or she dates. What I don't like is that Allison has pushed Anne into the sterotype of the hardworking single mom who is looking for a daddy. Maybe I am being too harsh on Allison. It may be that in the back of every single mother's mind that she wouldn't mind having a stable male figure in the life of her children.

Glen is determined to have Anne. In the following paragraph, the audience is made aware that Anne may not try to resist if only because she wants/needs financial and emotional stability.

Anne smells her own sweat (eww, but I'm guilty too!) and she's mnot sure if she's scared or turned on by the idea of having a working husband.

The preacher says, "Your shame is between you and God, Sister Anne. No need to let it mark the child." Isn't that the truth? Yet, I love the magnitude in which the lioness defends her family by saying, "I go no shame and I don't need no man to tell me jackshit about my child." You go girl.

There is a lingering sadness in Anne's demeanor as she copes and grieves for Lyle. Easy banter rises from the deepest place inside her. Isn't that the loneliest place to be? When you can pretend to be happy all day long, but you are never really saying anything that you care about?

Anne is trying to convince herself that Earle will be a good daddy, and if anything that's enough for her.

The courthouse burns down, and so does any record belonging to or never existing for Ruth Anne :)