disparage or bad mouth about her. The second prove can be seen from what the character utters in the story. When she gets into a fight with her Pearl in front of her
parents, she is not afraid to swear on Pearl and hurt her. You bastard I staggered forward, and he backed up, rocking on his little silver
heels. You goddam gutless son of a bitch His eyes kept moving from my face to Shannons wilting figure. You think you so pretty? You ugly sack of shit
You shit-faced turd-eating —Allison, 1993:165.
The way to see her characteristic also can be done by looking at what another characters think about Bone. Her cousin and aunt see that Bone changes a lot into
a brave and strong girl after something happens to her. It is not only both of them who notice but another characters also do.
Girl, Cousin Grey told me, sometimes your face is just scary Bones gotten almost mean-hearted, Aunt Alma told Mama. Somethings got
to be done. Allison, 1993:119
Her bravery is also shown when she is courage enough to make up her own identity every time she moves to a new city and new school. It is cited in Allison’s:
“Whats your name, now, honey? the woman asked me again, speaking slowly, as if she suspected I was not quite bright. The anger lifted in me and became
rage. “Roseanne, I answered as blithely as if Id never been called anything else. I smiled at her like a Roseanne. Roseanne Carter. My familys from
Atlanta, just moved up here. 1993:67
She is actually afraid of doing that but she realizes if she keeps using her real identity, people will start to take a glimpse on her again.
2. Loving
In the theory of character and characterization, it is said that the reader can see the characteristics o
f a character from her respond to anyone’s behavior .in the story, her uncles are seen as bad people because of their wilderness. Instead of
looking down on them, Bone really loves and worship their uncles. “I worship my
uncles —Earl, Beau, and nevil. They were all big men with wide shoulders, broken
teeth, and sunken features Allison, 1993:22. She also really loves her mom. She would do anything just for Anne happiness. Even she does not tell her misery of
being beaten by Glen because she knows it would hurt her. Other than Anne, she has a loving heart for her family who is disliked by the society. “I liked being one
of the women with my aunts, like feeling a part of something nasty and strong” Allison, 1993:91.
3. Self-sacrificing
Having experience being beaten, tortured, and raped by her stepfather, Bone turns out to be depressed and not able to tell the truth to her mother so she prefers
to keep it as her own secret. She chooses to suffer her pain alone, hopes to spare her mother from the horrible actio
ns she received from her mother’s beloved husband. The sacrifice Bone concerns for her mother is shown on quote below:
“Then Daddy Glen would take me into the bathroom again, crying that it hurt him more than it could ever hurt me. But his face would tell the truth, his hands
on my body. He would show me just how much he hurt when Mama left him in that parking lot, and then when he beat me, we would both know why. But
Mama wouldnt know. More terrified of hurting her than of anything that might happen to m
e, I would work as hard as he did to make sure she never knew” Allison, 1993:118.
As seen on the quotation, Bone tries to safe her mother from knowing of her suffering. She does not want the mother sad knowing that her husband has abused
her daughter. Her mother needs Glenn in her life since Glenn is the answer to the social status that her mother wants in her lifetime. This condition switches the role
between them. Bone has the mother-like role and her mother in the role of protected daughter.
Never have been able to sleep past sunrise, she told me. No matter how little sleep Ive had, I just come awake. Her face was haggard.
She hugged me to her hip and laid her chin on the top of my head. It was as if I was her mother now, holding her safe, and she was my child, happy to lean on
my strong, straight back. I closed my eyes, wanting time to stop, wishing the moment would go on forever, the day never begin. But inevitably Daddy Glen
would get up, or Reese, and Mama would rinse her coffee cup and go put on her uniform Allison, 1993:118.
Facing her unspeakable abuses, Bone is never really given the chance to be a child. She acts like a mother to protect Anney’s happiness and marriage life. She
sacrifices her own happiness to keep the secret only for her to know while Glen comes into the family and takes up the space, leaving no room for Anney and
Bone’s relationship. Bone sees the difference in Anney after she finds Glen in her life. She thinks Glenn is the perfect figure to be the father of her children and that
she deeply falls in love with him. She could be happy because of Glenn. At this point, Bone only has good feelings about Glen as Bone remembers from below
quotation: “But I could tell that Mama had begun to love Glen. I saw how she blushed
when he looked at her or touched her, even in passing. A flush would appear on her neck, and her cheeks would brighten until her whole face glowed pink and
hot. Glen Waddell turned Mama from a harried, worried mother into a giggling,
hopeful girl” Allison, 1993: 35. When Glen joins the family and begins to start his reign of abusive terror on
Bone, Bone must rely on the memories of the close relationship she has with her mother to ease the pain of her new living situation. Bone fondly recalls the
wonderful feeling of being close to her mother as shown as below: PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
“I smiled wide, not really believing them but wanting to. I held still then, trying not to flinch as Mama began to brush relentlessly at my knotted hair. If I got a
permanent, I would lose those hours on Mamas lap sitting in the curve of her arm while she brushed and brushed and smoothed my hair and talked soft above
me. She always seemed to smell of buttery flour, salt, and fingernail polish
—a delicate insinuating aroma of the familiar and the astringent. I would breathe
deep and bite my lips to keep from moaning while my scalp ached and burned. I would have cut off my head before I let them cut my hair and lost the
unspeakable pleasure of being drawn up onto Mamas lap every evening” Allison 30-31.
As shown on quotation above, it is obvious that Bone truly senses the importance of their mother-daughter connection. This nurturing side of Anne is
common in Bone’s childhood until Anne marries Glen and everything about Anney’s mothering connections with Bone changes. In order not to upset Glen,
Anney begins to participate in their mother-daughter separation by spending more time with Glen and less time with Bone. Despite Anne reduces her quality time with
Bone; she eventually loses her daughter —because of her husband’s sickness and
abusive jealousy of Bone. Bone ends up reverting to blame and excuse her mother regardless of the nurturing relationship that they once had.
Bone analyzes the return of Glen to the house after the two-week break-up the first split, which ends with Glen’s public apology for Bone’s broken tailbone as it
is shown below: “Mama would watch him close and make him earn her trust again. He would be
good, he would be careful. One day, maybe months from now, there’d be something I’d done that would make it all seem justified. Then Daddy Glen
would take me into the bathroom again, crying that it hurt him more than it could ever hurt me. But his face would tell the truth, his hands on my body. He
would show me just how much he hurt when Mama left him in that parking lot, and
then when he beat me, we would both know why. But Mama wouldn’t know. More terrified of hurting her than of anything that might happen to me, I
would work as hard as he did to make sure she never knew Allison 117-8 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
As it is seen from the quotation above, Bone does not trust Glenn anymore after he has broken her tailbone and causes her to hospitalize. However, Glenn keeps
coming to her mother asking for forgiveness and a chance to be back as a family again. Bone does not trust him, but her mother does. She really loves Glenn and
need him in her life. However, again, for the sake of Anney’s happiness Bone sacrifices her body to be a place for Glen’s pleasure as long as he does not hurt
Anne. It is no wonder that when Ruth presses the question about Glen touching Bone, she denies the abuse. It seems that even if Bone is ready to tell the truth, her
family is not ready to listen. As a result, Bone mainly keeps quiet about the abuse because she fears of losing her mother and the family’s love.
4. Independent
