Criminality
Much of the conflict in Winter's Bone revolves around criminality—activity that is forbidden by the law. Early in the novel, the narrator comments that the Dolly family—and their many extended relatives spread throughout the Ozarks—live outside "square law" and abide by the remorseless "blood-soaked commandments" that govern their lives. As a notorious "crank chef," Ree's father, Jessup, is a career criminal deeply enmeshed in the organized crime network run by Thump Milton. Jessup's lifestyle has meant stints in prison and a constant antagonistic relationship with law enforcement. Things become untenable for him when the police threaten him with a ten-year prison sentence unless he switches allegiances and begins providing incriminating information about his associates. When Sheriff Baskin leaks the fact that Jessup is working with him, Jessup is murdered on Thump Milton's orders. While her father's life has been lost, Ree hopes her younger brothers can avoid the fate of so many other Dolly children, who are "ruined before they have hair on their chins." Although a life of crime ends up being the only means of eking out an existence in the Dollys' world, with Ree's guidance, the boys may escape their fates.
Drug Production and Use
The production and use of drugs is another major theme in the novel. Woodrell introduces the theme through the narrator's commentary on Jessup's notoriety as a skilled "crank chef" (i.e. methamphetamine producer). The theme arises again when Ree goes to visit her uncle Teardrop, who has a large bag of cannabis sitting out casually next to smaller bags of meth. He also has a large burn running down the left side of his head as a reminder of a meth lab explosion he lived through when cooking crank. Ree leaves her uncle's that day with a joint rolled by Teardrop's girlfriend and casually smokes it as she walks home. Ree also recalls a time the previous summer when she ate hallucinogenic mushrooms and had sex with a man while high. Later in the novel, Teardrop sniffs powdered meth from a baby bottle and offers some to Ree. While Ree has no issue using pot, mushrooms, and alcohol, she has seen enough of the manic behavior and dependency that results from meth use to know not to experiment with the harder drug. For Ree, to use meth would be a step too far toward the hopeless criminal world that has captured so many in her family.
Poverty
Poverty—the state of being extremely poor—is a major theme in Winter's Bone. Despite the organized crime network the Dolly family and their neighbors are associated with, no one in the community is earning enough to be living above the poverty line. In an already impoverished community, Ree's family is particularly poor after Jessup's jailing and disappearance. The novel opens with Ree considering how little food is left in the house and looking hopefully toward the venison drying in her neighbors' yard. Luckily, the neighbors perceive the family's need and bring over boxes of canned goods along with deer meat that night. While the Dollys own their home, their only valuable possession, it was passed down by Connie's parents. Aside from Jessup's Ford Capri, the family has nothing to show for the decades of illegal business in which Jessup has engaged, and Ree sees enlisting in the military as her only way of escaping the poverty she has grown up in. The central conflict in the story arises when Ree learns that bail bondsmen will seize their house unless Jessup shows up in court to face charges. With no money of her own and no hope of receiving enough charity from her poor family and neighbors, Ree's only means of saving the house is to locate her father. At the end of the novel, Ree's fortunes unexpectedly change when she receives money that had been posted anonymously for Jessup's bail. Flush for the first time, Ree intends to use the money to buy a car that will enable her to work for the bail bonds company, hunting down people who have gone on the lam.
Responsibility
Responsibility is another major theme in Winter's Bone. From the outset of the novel, Woodrell establishes how Ree has taken responsibility for her family following her criminal father's latest disappearance and her mother's mental illness. Although only sixteen, Ree has taken on the role of parent to her younger brothers and the role of primary caregiver to her mother, who can no longer look after herself. While Ree's routine responsibilities include chopping firewood, cooking meals, washing her mother's hair, keeping the house warm, doing laundry, getting her brothers to school and teaching them how to shoot, she is also the only one who can save the family home from seizure. Once again fixing the disorder left by her irresponsible father, Ree risks her safety to uncover the truth of his disappearance and protect her dependent family from being made homeless.
Composure
Composure—being calm and in control of oneself—is an important theme in Winter's Bone. The theme arises in Chapter 1 when Ree twists her brother Harold's ear in a reprimand that shows a peculiar blend of aggression and affection. Harold's near-indifference to the twisting suggests that physical and emotional toughness is instilled in the Dolly children as a virtue from a young age. Ree displays her own ability to maintain a cool head through trying circumstances as she trudges through slush and snow to confront the fearsome members of her extended family, many of whom openly threaten her. Even when her life is threatened by Merab and her sisters, Ree doesn't show any weakness. Following the ambush, the women come to her porch and Ree answers the door with a steely attitude and a shotgun on her hip. Despite the women's recent attack on her, Ree agrees to go in the car with them, overcoming her fear that they might kill her. Ree maintains her coolness even when confronted with the body of her dead father, whose hands she is ordered to remove with a saw. Ultimately, Ree's unrelenting sangfroid through so much adversity enables her to accomplish the goal of saving her family home from seizure.
Escape
Another key theme in Winter's Bone is escape. For Ree, the stress of having to be the most responsible adult in her family at only sixteen requires regular meditative escape by listening to ambient recordings of waves lapping tranquilly against a distant shoreline. By taking a moment to close her eyes and listen to these calming sounds, Ree uses her imagination to fool her nervous system into believing she has escaped to a faraway paradise. The theme of escape also arises when Ree considers the criminal path laid out for most Dolly men and hopes her brothers might avoid this miserable fate. Woodrell also emphasizes the theme in the novel's final paragraphs as Ree's brothers ask whether the unexpected bail money means she is going to leave them. But rather than abandon her family, Ree plans to buy a vehicle, which will open up the possibility of them all escaping their circumstances and discovering a better life.
Survivalism
Another important theme in Winter's Bone is survivalism. Having grown up in a rural community where extreme poverty is the norm, Ree and her neighbors use basic survival skills to get by. Woodrell introduces the theme in the first chapter when Ree smells drying deer carcasses in her neighbors' yard across the creek. The venison is a symbol of the abundance Ree's family lacks because they don't have the same resources to go hunting for deer. Instead, Ree teaches her brothers how to shoot a more easily accessible source of meat: squirrel. Rather than turn up their noses, the boys are excited to shoot, skin, and fry the squirrel in their yard, not seeing the meat as the survivalist compromise it is. The theme also arises when Ree gets caught in a winter storm on her way home from Teardrop's. Knowing the risk of hypothermia, she does as her ancestors have done for generations and seeks shelter in a cave where she strips off her wet clothing and lights a fire to keep warm through the night. Ultimately, a survivalist attitude benefits Ree as she sets out to protect her family home despite the risks involved in the endeavor.
