Winter's Bone (131-162): Teardrop's Tears

Woodrell continues to give insight to Teardrop's character in the next few chapters of Winter's Bone. After Teardrop picks up Ree from Hawkfall, he exposes a facet of his character that he typically masks from the world: his sentimentality. When Woodrell first introduces Teardrop, he focuses on Teardrop's scars and tattoos. The scars on Teardrop's face disallow him from forgetting about the past or the dangers of his family's business. More importantly, Woodrell notes the three tattooed teardrops on his face, which "folks" believed "told you everything you had to know about the man" (24). Although they believe his teardrops represent the three times he is sentenced to prison, one questions why he would choose teardrops to represent shameful deeds. However, after learning more about Teardrop, and although he tries to maintain an intimidating and unsympathetic disposition, one identifies that perhaps the purpose of his teardrops is to give insight to his unveiled, emotional self. In fact, Teardrop proves he does respect his family and blood even though he is originally unwilling to help Ree search for Jessup. He now comforts Ree by telling her that he will "help [her] some" and that she "owns [him] now" (140-141). Furthermore, he explains his unwillingness to help her originally because if he were to know who killed Jessup, he will not be able to restrain himself from killing the murderer. Teardrop exposes that he does care about Ree and Jessup, and he originally purposefully tries to stay away from conflicts to not cause more problems. Thus, one returns to Woodrell's introduction to Teardrop to question how his tattooed teardrops "told you everything you had to know about the man." Unlike most folks, Woodrell divulges that Teardrop's tears represent that despite his horrifying countenance, he has compassion and love within his soul.