Dorothy Allison's novel Bastard Out of Carolina tells the story of Bone Boatwright, a "white trash" girl and her "useless, lazy, and without change” (3). The novel explores some of the most common myths and realities that plague the Appalachian region, such as poverty, incest, and domestic violence. More specifically, Allison confronts the institutional system of gender relations through all the characters she plays in the novel. Bone's mother Anney, her aunts Alma and Ruth, her stepfather Glen, and Boatwright's other uncles and aunts consistently meet and respond to traditional gender expectations. That being said, Bone and his aunt Raylene are the only characters to break free from these gender roles and create a better future for themselves. Throughout Bastard Out of Carolina, Allison uses the aforementioned strong, independent female characters to challenge patriarchal gender relations, and ultimately, she creates a new standard for Appalachian women in the post-modern era. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Certainly, most of the characters in the novel fit traditional gender expectations. Overall, women are there to take care of the house and children while men are expected to provide and protect them. Yet, Allison uses these characters to denounce the physical, psychological, and economic domination that women must endure in a patriarchal system. For example, after Anney marries Dad Glen, she begins to deny her own agency and expects her new husband to take care of problems that would otherwise be his own: "Glen has to take care of that… He has to do it, and me. you have to let it happen” (57). After all, Anney needs Daddy Glen “like a starving woman needs meat between her teeth” (41). Within general gender expectations, Allison goes further by creating a distinction between Boatwright men and Boatwright women. Boatwright's men exacerbate masculine gender roles through their drunkenness, rowdiness, and inability to provide for their families when it is their sole responsibility. Furthermore, no matter how loving their wives, Boatwright's men will not "stay away from other women" and have no respect for situations that "couldn't be handled with a shotgun or a two-in-four” (24, 10). . That being said, women succumb to their husband's behavior and accept it as "what the men did is just what the men did", even if it leaves them to take care of the house alone and children while the men are stuck in prison (23). In this way, Allison sets up a cyclical pattern of female-male dependence in the novel that is ultimately only destroyed by Bone herself. Even Bone notes that "[his] aunts treated [his] uncles like overgrown boys—rambunctious teenagers whose antics were more amusing than disturbing" (23). Similarly, after Aunt Alma is cheated on by her husband, she tries but fails to survive independently of Wade and eventually returns to him, justifying it with "I guess he's no worse than n 'any other man' (91). Ultimately, Boatwright women bear the burdens of the family and do a better majority of the work while Boatwright men do as they please: "Men could do anything, and anything they did, no matter how violent however wrong it may be, was viewed with humor andunderstanding. » (23). That being said, by incorporating well-established gender constructs into her characters, Allison manages to both reinforce and resist the norms associated with gender roles and expectations. However, Allison's reinforcement of these stereotypes does not suggest her agreement or conformity. Instead, this representation allows Allison to juxtapose the "standard" Appalachian woman with her own alternative: a new role for women in postmodern Appalachia. Indeed, Allison's "weak" female characters are prisoners of the idea that nothing in their lives or their families can ever change. For example, when Anney's first husband, Lyle Parsons, dies, Aunt Ruth refers to Anney's permanent new air of despair and despondency as ultimately being "like a carpenter", but to Anney, "it didn't matter... more at what she looked like” (8). Likewise, Aunt Ruth and Anney resign themselves to the same inevitable roles and futures as the majority of Appalachian women. Aunt Ruth reminds the reader of the sole purpose of the women in the family: "Being pregnant was proof that a man thought you were pretty...the more children she had, the more she knew she was worth something" (230- 31). Likewise, Boatwright women base all of their worth on something that only a man can give them. However, as mentioned previously, Dorothy Allison's reinforcement of the stereotypical roles of Appalachian women does not imply that she adheres to these values. Instead, she creates a standard through these characters to expose the effects of a patriarchal system and similarly, she uses Aunt Raylene and Bone to demonstrate the potential of women once they are able to let go traditional views of what it means to be feminine. Before Bone begins spending time with Aunt Raylene, but she is unable to see beyond the patriarchal system. Feeling doomed to follow in the footsteps of her mother and aunt, Bone even wishes "she had been born a boy" so that she could enjoy the seemingly infinite freedoms that the men around her take for granted (23). However, Aunt Raylene's strong, independent, and self-confident disposition encourages Bone to transcend the stereotypical role of women in Appalachia. Aunt Raylene lives on the outskirts of town, away from her sisters' close-knit community, explaining to Bone "out here where no one can take care of it...the trash goes up" (180). Ultimately, this phrase becomes a metaphor for Bone's eventual "ascension" above standardized roles for Appalachian women. Aunt Raylene is the only character in the story "wholly content in her own company," an attribute she teaches Bone over the course of the novel (179). Likewise, Aunt Raylene's relentless autonomy is what allows her to escape the patriarchal system that her sisters perpetuate: "I made my life... out of pride, out of stubbornness, and out of too much anger" (263). In fact, Raylene embodies the exact opposite values ​​of her sisters. She smokes, uses profanity, has short hair, and wears “trousers as often as skirts” (179). By isolating herself from her family and their strictly defined roles for men and women, Aunt Raylene becomes "something magical" that Bone fervently sought (207). She tells Bone about her early years working at a carnival, defending herself against a man who made unwarranted sexual advances toward her, and her romantic relationship with another woman. For Bone, these examples represent a realm she had never considered before: the ability to live life as an independent woman in Appalachia, free from the confines of gender roles and expectations. Likewise, Aunt Raylene encourages, 1994. 69-85.