"..and there I was -- a certified Bastard by the state of South Carolina"

"Just hang on, girl. Just hang on. It'll be better in time."

 

 Project Summary

        This hypertext project, as part of the ENGL-220 course requirements, aims to present and analyze dominant themes in Appalachian Literature through the close reading of a passage from a course novel. In these pages, we focused on pages 22 and 23 of Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina.  By selecting important terms and characters in this passage we have illustrated themes and messages that a relevant to understanding not only this novel, but Appalachian Literature as a whole.

    Through the often heart-wrenching story of Ruth Anne "Bone" Boatwright, Allison reveals the struggles of a young girl coming of age in Appalachian South Carolina. While Bone's life often seems bleak, she is able to survive the harshest of childhoods -- and, by the novel's close, even finds some form of redemption by understanding herself. In Bone's story, Allison also offers a view into how religion, family, violence, gender roles, alcoholism, music and community function as parts of Appalachian society. The goal of this webpage is to synthesize these ideas as an interconnected whole, displaying how Bone's reflects far beyond the life of one girl.

   

Appalachian Literature at Georgetown

Appalachian Literature is a literature class at Georgetown University offered by the English Department and taught by Dr. Patricia O’Connor. The course examines the literature, art, music, dance, and folklore of the Appalachian Mountains. According to the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Appalachian region is an economic zone that stretches from Southern New York to Northern Mississippi. Course readings include a variety of historical eras and geographic areas. Themes examined in the course include knowing and using the land, abusing the land, urbanizing the area and people, and the value of the homeplace. The course readings listed below are augmented by presentations in regional music, photography, food, song, and dance.

 

Course Readings

  
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Oral History, by Lee Smith

    In Oral History, Lee Smith uses multiple points of view to tell the story of the Cantrell family, a story that spans the better part of a century. The Cantrells are a mountain family who inhabit the hills and surrounding areas if Hoot Owl Holler. Jennifer, a descendant of the Cantrells, arrives to record an "oral history" of her family for a college course, and all the old stories come to life as she meets family members and learns of a mysterious curse that has followed them for generations.

River of Earth, by James Still

    James Still presents 3 years in the lives of an Appalachian family struggling to choose between the independence of their own farm land and the promise of material prosperity that the coal mining camps offer.  Told through the voice of a young narrator, the novel effectively recounts the life, love, humor, beauty and death the family faces on a daily basis in the hills of eastern Kentucky.

The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake, by Breece D'J Pancake

    Pancake, a writer who took his own life at 26, captured the life in the West Virginia hollows he called  home. The 12 stories in this collection  often depict the flux in which Appalachian people exist, where they alternately wish to leave their economically depressed home towns and yet feel a deep bond with their native place. In his "Trilobites," for instance, Pancake depicts a young man named Colly who is so tied to his West Virginian home refuses to even listen to the man who wants to help his mother sell their house and land. Yet, at the same time, Pancake's Colly asks an old girlfriend to take him with her when she returns to the new home she has made in Florida. Pancake further explores this problem of leaving the mountains in his "Salvation of Me," a story about tow friends -- one who has left home and one who is still there, holding the same old gas pump he did as a teenager. While Pancake's stories are written with a sparse, concise prose almost reminiscent of Hemmingway, he conveys very deep and multi-layered emotions about Appalachian life.

The Dollmaker, by Harriet Arnow

The Nevels family have established their homeplace on the Cumberland Plateau, in Southeastern Kentucky. The reader infers the story begins in Autumn 1944, at which point the United States has been at war for nearly three years. The war touches even the isolated mountain communities of Kentucky, and most men of fighting age are serving in the armed forces in foreign lands. Clovis Nevels leaves for Detroit to take a job in the steel industry, vital for the war effort. His wife Gertie, under intense pressure from her overbearing mother and grieving herself after the death of her brother Henley, uproots the family and sets off for Detroit to join Clovis. The differences between rural Kentucky and the slums of Detroit are striking. The Nevels family, especially the children, experience culture shock on account of their patterns of speech, mannerisms, and general appearance. As the war continues, the family gradually adjusts to the urban environment, though they still long for the open land of Kentucky. Gertie enjoys whittling and makes things for herself and for her children. After her talent is discovered, she makes wooden figures, dolls, and religious symbols for friends and neighbors. Her growing business is symbolic of the family’s increased integration into postwar Detroit. The Dollmaker demonstrates the struggle of urbanizing the Appalachian region, the perseverance of a people and their stubbornness to change, and  their adaptability when finally change is forced upon them by a massive social upheaval following the war.

Yesterday's People, by Jack Weller

   Jack Weller, an outsider to the region, spent several years living with and studying the Appalachian people in West Virginia. In this book he presents informal observations and anecdotes to effectively reveal that character and situation of the people living in the Appalachian region.  He carefully explores the stereotypes generally attributed to the region while comparing Appalachians to typical middle-class Americans.

Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier

Cold Mountain is a Civil War-era story of love and loss. Inman, a Confederate soldier who is not a draftee but not quite a willing volunteer, is injured in the 1863 battle of Petersburg. Inman finds himself in a hospital in Eastern North Carolina, longing to travel westward back to the mountains and the love he left. One morning he walks out of the hospital and begins a 300-mile journey on foot towards home. Inman meets many fellow travelers on the road, some benevolent, most benign, and some malicious and together they struggle to eke out a life while war rages on about them. After many setbacks, he finally reaches the crests of the Blue Ridge and his love, Ada. Ada, born and raised in Charleston, struggles to adapt to the wilderness of Cold Mountain. Along with her first worker and later friend Ruby, she recovers her farm from desolation and returns it to productivity symbolic of a new blossoming of hope. The war has changed Ada as well, and the two find they are nearly strangers after long years. As the two begin to weave their lives back together, the book ends tragically. Cold Mountain establishes the value of home and the importance of returning to it.

Storming Heaven, by Denise Giardina

    Storming Heaven is based on the Battle of Blair Mountain, the 1921 showdown between striking West Virginia mine workers and the coal companies that exploited them. Giardina's tale is set in fictional West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, but the feelings and meanings her characters convey are very much real. A polyphonic novel, Storming Heaven is told through 4 voices: Rondal Lloyd, C.J. Marcum, Carrie Bishop and Rosa Angelelli. Rondal Lloyd offers his view of the struggle as a Union activist and leader. Rondal, who has worked in the coal mines since childhood and has seen their perils, joins with his old family friend, socialist mayor C.J. Marcum, when the coal companies put make life even harder for Union workers. Carrrie Bishop, an outspoken, strong woman, also offers her side of the story as she uses her skills as a nurse first in the company towns and later in the tent city the strikers build. Finally, Sicilian immigrant Rosa Angelelli, who first loses her sun-drenched Italian homeland to an arranged marriage and then all four sons to the deadly coal mines.

   

Group Members

Kevin Burel – Senior in the College, Government major, History minor.

            I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta, but my mother’s family comes from Jackson County, Georgia, in the foothills of the mountains. It is a place they have called home for over a hundred years. I remember an event that happened this past summer. My great uncle, my grandmother’s oldest brother, passed away. All of the family gathered in the homeplace in Jefferson, GA, about an hour’s drive from Atlanta. They sat around and told stories about this man; who he was, what he did, what kind of a man he was. After his funeral he was buried in the family cemetery and their church cooked a massive potluck dinner for the family. There the process began anew, the storytelling, the laughter, and the family bonding. I realized I was, in part, defined by this man and felt a strong connection to my family. I enjoy having a sense of “roots” and that I always have a place to be “from”. In Bastard Out of Carolina, Bone is blessed to have a mother who loves her in spite of herself and loving aunts and uncles. Bone longs for a homeplace and describes her anguish at having no place to call home and little family to connect to. I related Bone’s experience to my own and strongly connected with her desire to have a place to belong.

Kerry Donovan - Senior in the college, English/Government major and French minor

        The summer following my Junior year of high school I spent two weeks in Dungannon, Virginia painting, spackling, hammering and sawing old and decrepit homes.  The service trip introduced me to much more than carpentry work and tough physical labor; it was my first introduction to the Appalachian land and people.  Potluck dinners hosted by friendly neighbors and hikes through the nearby mountains revealed a region rich in stories, beauty and culture. So far removed from my suburbanized lifestyle, I realized there was much for me to learn about this region. When I saw Appalachian Literature listed by the registrar I knew I must enroll before I graduated. When I heard rumors about 'Appalachian feast' as part of the course, I finally did. I have not been disappointed as we have spent the semester delving into all aspects of Appalachian life and culture. I hope our website will help you to do the same.

Robyn Russo -  Senior in the College, English major/anthropology minor

     I  was so uninformed about Appalachia upon beginning this course that I did not even realize she was from this region myself. But, according to the Appalachian Regional Council map, my hometown of Sewickley, PA (just outside Pittsburgh) is indeed part of the region. Although I may not have ever classified myself as Appalachian, I have always felt a certain connection to the literature of this region -- namely the themes of home and family. As the granddaughter of Italian immigrants who settled in Pittsburgh to work the steel mill, I have always had a very close relationship with my large extended family. Thus, I  personally identified with the themes about family's closeness. For instance, while I am lucky enough never to have to depend on my aunts in quite the same way abused Bone had to, I can think of countless times when aunts, uncles or cousins have helped me through problems. Since a decision to attend an out-of-state school like Georgetown was atypical at my public high school, I also found links to my own life from themes like the fear and problems of leaving the "homeplace."