Bastard out of Carolina, both defines and deepens “white-trash” stereotypes of the poverty stricken, white, south. The women get pregnant young, the men drink and fight, and the children run around naked and hungry. But unlike most other representations of poor whites, Dorothy Allison is neither using them as a joke nor is she asking for blind pity. She exhibits the harsh reality of poverty through every character in this novel. Her characters are allowed to be more than their stereotype. They are each individual people, driven by their circumstances as well as their experiences. Bone and her sister, guided by Anney, resist their “trash” stereotype while Glenn Waddell tries to be accepted both by his middle-class family as well as the working-class Boatwrights. The Boatwright boys love their wives but cannot stay away from other women, and their tendency to violence causes both fear and respect in their communities. However, these men would do anything for their families, and do more to protect Bone than Anney ever does. Allison does not negate stereotypes of the poor, white south, but she does allow for characters to be more dimensional than their stereotypes.

 

Allison shows stereotypes while also forcing readers to acknowledge the pain and suffering that accompanies these stereotypes. Kathlene McDonald, a professor at The City College of New York, writes, “In showing the hunger, the despair, the limited choices, and the shame of contempt and class hatred, Allison forces her readers to confront the everyday realities of her characters, to see them as larger than their stereotypes” (18). Allison uses the dialect of poor southerners, but she does not mock it. Uncle Earle teases Anney about wanting to make Bone legitimate, “‘The law never done us no good. Might as well get on without it” (Allison 5). She keeps the dialogue raw and reliable. Readers are not going to laugh at Uncle Earle for speaking like this, but understand what he means and understand his class. Allison uses her characters to show how poverty is a trap with few options to escape and how there is a sense of hopelessness in accepting one’s fate.

 

The Boatwright men are the epitome of poor southerners, but with obvious love and affection for their family. Bone narrates, “Though half the county went in terror of them, my uncles were invariable gentle and affectionate with me and my cousins” (22). She understands they are violent and dangerous drunks, but she also admires them. She knows they would do anything for her and her cousins while also working to take care of their families. Defining and preserving their masculinity meant to provide for the families, but they also “allow themselves to be taken care of by their sisters” (Mcdonald 19). Glenn Waddell is different from the Boatwright boys in the sense that he fails to provide for his family. He is violent towards his children and resists his middle-class family while also being embarrassed for the status of his wife’s family.

 

The women in Bastard out of Carolina deeply depend on the men in their lives. They look to them for validation and for financial support. Their “Being pregnant was proof that some man thought you were pretty sometime, and the more babies she got, the more she knew she was worth something” (Allison 230-231). In Anney’s case, she becomes dependent on a man with Lyle. He provides for her even though she has to work as well, but ironically Glenn does not provide financially for her, "leaving her children hungry more often than not." But Anney depends on him. She feels she needs a man to live and chooses Glenn over Bone in every single circumstance (McDonald 20). The only woman who resists the dependence on a man is Raylene. She lives alone, and does not move around a lot. She comes out to Bone at the end of the novel and takes care of herself for the entirety of her adult life. Allison uses Raylene to portray an alternative to the rigid gender roles of her family, and Bone’s living with her represents her own ability to resist those roles as well.

 

Allison is able to show that there is more than one dimension to lower, working-class white southerners. She shows the stereotypes but also presents characters, like Raylene who challenge them. She wants readers to see the pain and the hopelessness that is alive and well in poverty and that it is not a societal class present strictly for humor and distaste.