Bastard out of Carolina is a 1992 semi-autobiographical novel by American writer Dorothy Allison. It was a finalist for the National Book Award and was adapted for film in 1996. Set in Greenville County, South Carolina, where the author herself grew up in the 1950s, it chronicles the childhood and adolescence of Ruth Anne “Bone” Boatwright against the backdrop of poverty, class-based discrimination, and both physical and sexual abuse. Like much of Allison’s work, Bastard out of Carolina engages thematically with the experiences of the working class and working poor in the American South, coming of age, the intersection of gender, sexuality, and class, and the impact of abuse on early childhood and adolescent development.

The novel is rooted in Allison’s own experiences of abuse at the hands of her stepfather and of coming to terms with her burgeoning lesbian identity in a community that was rural, patriarchal, and conservative. Allison was the first in her family to attend college, and it was there that she first became active in the second-wave feminist movement and was introduced to Marxist theory, both of which she credits as driving forces behind this novel, and which highlight The Intersections of Class and Gender. She wanted to take what she had learned from Marxism and other class-based schools of analysis and use it to shed light on a set of issues brought into the forefront of public discourse by the feminist movement: increased opportunities for women at work and in the professional sphere, sexual liberation, protection from domestic violence, and reproductive justice. Other works of Allison’s that share these themes are the short story collection Trash, (1996) the essay collection Skin, (1995) memoir Two or Three Things I Know For Sure, (1996) and the novel Cavedweller (1999). Her essay “A Question of Class” is an especially succinct distillation of the key themes that run through her work, and it is a helpful analytical lens through which to read Bastard out of Carolina.

This guide uses the 1992 paperback edition by Plume (Penguin).

Content Warning: The source text contains depictions of rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, and accidental death; it contains offensive, racist language (including use of the n-word.) This guide contains discussions of rape, sexual assault, domestic abuse, and violence.

Plot Summary

Bastard out of Carolina is a bildungsroman narrated by Ruth Anne “Bone” Boatwright that chronicles her coming of age in Greenville County, South Carolina, during the 1950s. Bone’s family is impoverished, hard drinking, and not unfamiliar with incarceration, but they are fiercely loyal to one another and supportive of Bone. They will become her sole source of solace as she navigates discrimination, coming of age, and the physical and sexual abuse of her stepfather Glen.

The novel begins with Bone’s birth. Her mother Anney, barely 16 years old and unwed, feels a deep sense of shame over the fact that her child is marked as “illegitimate” on her birth certificate. Hating to be called “trash,” she unsuccessfully tries to have the document altered. At 17, Anney marries a sweet, caring man named Lyle Parsons and together they have a second daughter, Reese. When Lyle is killed in a car accident, Anney is left to care for her children alone. She obtains a waitressing job that she will keep for the entirety of the narrative. At the café where she works, she meets the brooding and intense Glen Waddell, who although more affluent than Anney, is the “black sheep” of his family and struggles to maintain a steady job. After a lengthy courtship, Anney marries Glen and Bone’s troubles begin. Glen begins abusing Bone almost immediately, on the night that Anney is in the hospital delivering his (stillborn) baby. Losing the child has a profound impact on the already troubled Glen, and they begin to move frequently as he loses job after job.

He takes much of his anger out on Bone, and her childhood becomes marked by self-loathing and shame. Although Bone takes comfort in her extended family, most notably her aunt Raylene and uncle Earle, she lacks stability and support from her mother, who repeatedly forgives Glen’s abuse. Her mother, however, is aware only of the physical and not the sexual abuse, and Bone cannot bring herself to admit the sexual assaults to anyone in her family. As the years pass, Glen’s violence intensifies. Though Anney half-heartedly tries protecting her daughter, she blames Bone for “provoking” Glen. After a particularly brutal beating, Anney sends Bone to stay with her aunt. As she has done in each previous instance, however, Anney forgives Glen. The cycle of abuse continues until Bone’s aunt Raylene discovers evidence of yet another brutal beating, and Bone’s uncles beat Glen so badly that he requires the assistance of a doctor. At this point, Bone is living with her aunt and tells her mother that she will not return to live with Glen. Because it finally seems as though Anney is going to leave him, Glen goes to visit Bone to insist that she move back in with him and Anney. When she refuses, Glen subjects her to a violent beating and rape, which Anney walks in on. To Bone’s horror, Anney responds to the incident by disappearing with Glen. Although she does visit her daughter one last time, it is clear that she has chosen Glen over Bone, and that the two will move away from South Carolina together. As the novel ends, Bone realizes that her mother was never going to be strong enough to leave Glen, but that she herself is resilient, and with the support of her family and the strength that she has gained during her adolescence, she will be able to move on.