Bastard Out of Carolina Study Guide

Chapter one opens with an introduction to the narrator, Ruth Anne Boatwright, although she has been called "Bone" all her life. Bone's name is important because her oldest aunt, Aunt Ruth, names her while her mother is unconscious following a car accident. She is named Ruth for her aunt and Anne for her mama. Her nickname comes after her uncle says she is no bigger than a knucklebone. In the hospital, when her grandmother gives one last name and Aunt Ruth gives another, the clerk gets mad, and Bone is labeled a bastard by the state of South Carolina. When Mama learns of this, she's quite unhappy, and spends the next few years trying to have the birth certificate changed. Every year she visits the office, and every year she is denied. (read more)