73 pages • 2 hours read
Daniel WoodrellWinter's Bone
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 16-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary
As Ree prepares dinner, she listens to Gail’s account of Floyd’s ongoing affair with Heather. Ultimately, Gail finds herself insulted by the flimsy lies he tells to conceal the affair from her, and she complains that “It’s her who he wants. I’m just what he’s got” (82). Gail later asks about Ree’s troubles and offers her in-laws’ truck so they can go to Reid’s Gap; the two women leave Ree’s family behind watching a period drama on PBS Masterpiece.
On the drive, Ree explains that she has to resolve this situation herself as it was a similar incident that first caused her mother’s mental instability. Gail then admits she, too, has a bad feeling regarding Jessup, because her father told her to mind her son, rather than becoming involved. As the two women drive, Ree recalls how Gail was her first kiss. The two had practiced kissing and foreplay for three years, and Ree was eventually disappointed in her first kiss with a man.
Once the two women arrive in Reid’s Gap, they go to April’s house. April greets them pleasantly upon recognizing Ree and invites them into her home. While April admits that she and Jessup have not been in a real relationship for several years, she has information regarding his present situation. As they smoke marijuana, April confesses that she had a brief affair with Jessup before his last stint in prison. The affair ended amicably and she saw him again 3-4 weeks earlier at a tavern with three rough-looking men, but Jessup pointedly ignored her when she approached him. April tells Ree and Gail she believes Jessup was protecting her by pretending he did not know her in front of his companions.
Chapter 17 Summary
As Ree and Gail drive home, they get stuck in traffic because there are loose hogs on the road. As they wait in traffic, Ree watches Gail breastfeeding and “saw in them a living picture illustrating one kind of future. The looming expected kind of future and not one she wanted” (93). In response to her melancholic thoughts, Ree decides to leave the car and help gather the hogs. As she herds the animals, Ree hears the familiar engine of her father’s car. Turning, Ree sees the car and approaches it, waving her arms. However, the driver quickly turns the car around and drives away.
Ree returns to Gail’s car, and they follow Jessup’s Capri up the ridge before losing sight of it. As Gail speeds after the lost car, she loses control when the car spins out on black ice. Ree and Gail decide that they should not continue to the chase in such bad weather and their drugged state. As they drive home, Ree confides her misgivings about the incident to Gail, because she knows the driver in the car saw her approach.
Chapter 18 Summary
Ree lies awake listening to The Sounds of Tranquil Streams as she contemplates the loneliness of living forever. She notes that in her heart she hopes for more, which leads her to meditate on how time spent with Gail “was like one of those yearning stories from her sleep was happening awake” (18). Ree eventually falls asleep only to be awakened by Gail knocking at her door. Annoyed by her spending all evening out of the house, Floyd had taken Ned and shut her out of the house. Gail then joins Ree in the bed.
Chapters 16-18 Analysis
Ree’s relationship with Gail becomes central to these chapters. Gail and Ree share a particular intimacy and have since childhood. In many ways, they, too, struggle with the new rules that have governed their relationship since Gail’s pregnancy and marriage to Floyd. While Woodrell obscures much of their interactions, particularly their physical interactions, he suggests that Gail and Ree find comfort and joy in their intimacy. Ree’s memories of learning to kiss with Gail correspond, in part, to her later disappointment in men. Ree’s first kiss with a boy was a disappointment, and this, combined with her intoxicated and possibly violent sexual encounter with Little Arthur, mentioned earlier in the novel, suggests that Ree’s only positive sexual experience has been with Gail. Furthermore, both of them lack unconditional love, and often search for that in each other.
When alone, listening to one of her New Age tapes, Ree admits to herself that she experiences some anxiety at the thought of living alone for the remainder of her life. In comparison, she thinks of Gail as a dream filled with yearning. Her comment alludes to her earlier thought regarding her mother’s affairs: companionship leads to dreams, ideas, and desires. Ree’s line of thought further expresses her complicated feelings towards Gail and serves as a form of foreboding against the pain that such an attachment could cause her.
Ree and Gail’s meeting with Jessup’s ex-girlfriend, April, also gives us insight into Jessup’s character. April’s assertion that he protected her identity when in the company of dangerous men shows a different side to his character. Her account also corresponds with Teardrop’s later assertion that Jessup was made weak by his love for people, particularly his family. Southern Gothic literature often emphasizes the questionable and ambiguous morality of its characters, and the development of Jessup’s character further places this novel within that genre.
