Winter bones
Teardrop Dolly is one of the main heroes of well-known book and movie «Winter bones». He is uncle of Ree Dolly who tried to find the way out of dramatic situation in her life. It is quite interesting to notice how her attitude to Teardrop evolved through the plot. Firstly, she was scared of him always looking as nightmare then after some events she started to see the real Teardrop who appeared to be the only person she could trust. He has amazing character that is impossible to understand without deep analysis. His three blue teardrops done in jailhouse fell in a row from the corner of his eye were to present everything that should be known by others about him. But probably his actions and life circumstances will be better evidence.
Family life and interactions
Teardrop Dolly represents the Dolly clan most of which members breached the law. His brother was charged with drug trade and as the result of giving testimony at the court he was killed by someone from Dolly family. In his conversation with Ree who was rather ashamed by betrayal of her father Teardrop explained her that a reason for such an act was his brothers love to the family. Such a point of view characterizes Teardrop as a man who under strong outer shell keeps tangible values. He lived with his fifth wife Victoria, who was a tall blunt-boned woman with long auburn hair.
His way of communication was rather harsh and intolerant. Teardrop did not speak a lot but all of his words were full of meaning. Sometime to show his power he could use force to persuade someone. Once he grabbed Rees chin and looked directly into her eyes to convince. When communicating with his nephews he pretended to be shy playing guitar.
The problem for Teardrop was his internal choose whether to open truth to Ree about brothers death and help her to survive or to remain silent and act as the Dolly clan required by the way ensuring his own safety.
Finally he made a decision. His values of mutual trust and love to his nephews were rated higher than his own life. He stood surety for Ree in front of clan authorities. Probably the conflict resolution took place when Teardrop drove to Ree at night and said that he was tired of waiting and ready to find truth as soon as possible. Through the plot his actions reflected his good side.
Speaking about money-management Teardrop always gave money to help Ree. He did not forget about them. This may be considered as result of his innate generosity. He was also quite economical person. He suggested Ree to sell the forest before coming of new owners whereby saving some money.
Recommendations
In general I was really impressed by this movie. But it has rather downer ending due to the fact of Teardrop statement that he knew who killed his brother. It is an invoice to the previous event. According to his words he would be also killed if he knew the killers name. At the End of the moview he told Ree that he had gotten to known this fatal information. It seemed as final farewell of him. My intervention to be proposed is omitting of this episode. It is better to end the movie on the moment when Ree, two children and Teardrop playing guitar are sitting on the porch singing. Teardrop should have slightly corrected his way of behavior towards others to become really good uncle to Ree and be trusted be her in everydaylife not only within ultimate circumstances. He had better to make some changes in his appearance, because he always looked as nightmare that limited the percepception him as good person. It would be really useful if he had stopped breaching the law. Because if Teardrop came to jail Ree would lost the only person to rely on. But to my mind these are not significant amendments and I appreciate the way the story is shown us very much.
Conclusion
The character of Teardrop Dolly may be understood only after thorough analysis. In general he is a positive hero whose decisions are really significant. He shows us the type of values that are crucial and rated higher than all the clan principles. These values are love to family, mutual trust etc. The film «Winter Bones» is true-to-life about a person who did not give up as others and overcame the fatal obstacles that could have happened.
References
Ebert, R. (2013, January 30). "Winter's Bone" 2010. Retrieved from http://www.metacritic.com/movie/winters-bone
Tourtellotte, B. (2010, November 30). 'Winter's Bone, 'Kids' come up big at Spirit Awards. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/film-spiritawards-idUSN3027005620101130
