mood board

winter's bone How far does ‘winter’s bone’ rely upon an understanding of its social context? In this film, ‘winter’s bone’, key themes explored are those which affect people in the real world. Meth, patriarchy, poverty, domestic violence and the importance of family. ‘winter’s bone’ does rely strongly upon understanding the social context to rural areas of America. In this case Ozark mountains, Missouri in which the cold adds to the struggle of the central, American state known for the white people culture and methamphetamine based population. Understanding of poverty, too, is needed for a feeling of empathy to resonate with the viewer. however, even if one was to have no knowledge upon the social standings of poverty stricken town, they could learn a lot from watching and gain knowledge upon how meth, poverty, family does affect others. In one key scene, involving ‘Ree’, ‘Sonny’ and ‘Ashlee’ shows the 3 minors hunting for food, with Ree teaching her 2 younger siblings how to a. fire a weapon and b. skin a squirrel, depicting the importance of the family. As these people cannot simply buy food from a wholesale large food chain, they must physically go out of their way and hunt for food; too showing poverty and financial struggle in which these people face. An understanding of the social context is needed to understand why these people hunt. A child firing a rifle also isn’t too common to see (in a first world country), an understanding of social context would be needed to understand how Ree’s family must eat by hunting in their culture. The youngest child also seems to take a lot of initiative in spotting the squirrel and shooting, better than most young children. Although she is younger and stereotypically frail, the violence used in killing with little remorse seems uncanny for a female. Females are usually not expected to do such actions; despite this Ashlee doesn’t conform to the female stereotype. Ashlee is presented to be a character which is more independent and mentally stronger than her older brother, whom asks many of questions and refuses to skin open a dead animal. Meanwhile in this poverty-stricken society, people don’t necessarily have the option to complain; having to live with what they have. Understanding this, and why they must hunt is important to grasp a feel upon how these people live in such a society. The scene also adds to the toll in which methamphetamine takes upon families. Within the hunting scene, it would be expected that a father figure or a male dominant figure would take the role in teaching children how to hunt. However, the lead female role of Ree Dolly teaching youngers how to kill animals may be due to the rise in feminism. In which women now have to do a male’s job due to equality between the 2 genders. The physical effects of methamphetamine are not shown massively within the film, yet, the notice for how the class A drug affects members in a community is always there. Feminine dominance is a subject which is explored well within this film, from the scene in which Ree tries to borrow a truck off of a friends husband, however she cannot as ‘it’s different when you’re married’. as ‘he doesn’t tell me why not, he just tells me no’ as if a male restricts her from living her life freely in this patriarchal society to her breaking the rules of taking the truck to Ree. This can be shown to serve as an apology to Ree but most importantly a metaphor for women breaking out of the male dominated system. Overall, an understanding of social context is needed to depict the importance of feminine power, how methamphetamine directly affects a community but more importantly the family. Feminine power, however, could be seen as the most important in understanding the rebellion against the patriarchal society of Missouri. Laurence Blencowe