Love in Allison's Bastard Out of Caroline "Love" is a word, a signifier, linked to many meanings, all different in context, cultures and ideologies. Love is used in many ways in Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina, by many characters. In Bone's character, love is a confusing, ever-changing thing, as Bone uses it to adapt his life on the fly. When it comes to parental love, Bone wants Daddy Glen to love him. However, at the beginning of the book, Bone's conception of "love" is obviously that of a child. On page 52, she says, "I wanted him to love us. I wanted to be able to love him. I wanted him to hold me gently and tell Mom again how much he loved us all." This idea of ​​love is simple, involving hugs, smiles, and friendliness, the kind of "love" Bone receives from Anny. However, as Bone's relationship with Glen changes, so does his perception of "love." On page 108, Glen asks Bone, “Don't you know how much I love you? "" Bone said to himself, "No, I didn't know. » This is almost the beginning of Bone's confusion about love, what it means and what it does. The moment he asks her, he harasses her. It's no wonder that Bone was confused, having love expressed simply, from her mother, and sexually (if it was "love") from her. Glen. This confusion causes Bone to question the idea of ​​love, and to look for it elsewhere, perhaps to compare. Love, she notes, is an important idea in the Southern Baptist church. Bone is fascinated by the black and white of Christianity, the definitive line drawn between good and evil, because she can see where love is and what it does. She believes she can see that others truly love one another, and in believing this, she thinks she better understands the abstract idea of ​​love. However, as Bone later discovers, love is abstract and, abandoned by her mother, she never truly understands it. The problem for Bone is that love is a conceptual idea and in reality means something different to each person. Not only that, but love is used by others, in ways that may not suit someone else's conceptions of the idea. So when Anney insists to Bone and everyone else that Glen loves her and her daughters, Bone tends, of course, to believe her, and so the idea of ​​love is transferred to the way Glen treats Bone..