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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bastard_out_of_carolina_jena_malone.jpg]]
2
3->''"The day I was born started off bad, and it only got worse."''
4
5A 1996 drama film directed by Creator/AnjelicaHuston, adapted from the 1992 [[TheFilmOfTheBook novel of the same name]] by Dorothy Allison.
6
7Set in [[TheFifties 1950s]] rural South Carolina, the story centers around Ruth Anne "Bone" Boatwright (Creator/JenaMalone) and her mother, Anney (Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh). Initially, due to being born out of wedlock, Bone just lives with her mother and extended family in the poorer parts of town. Even though she loves Bone, Anney hasn't really grown up too much and gets tired from working to support her and Bone and is needed for attention, coupled with having to deal with the stigma from having a baby out of wedlock.
8
9After her kind and hardworking husband Lyle Parsons (Creator/DermotMulroney) is killed in a car accident, Anney goes on to remarry Glen Waddell (Creator/RonEldard), who at first seems nice and caring. However, after Anney has a stillbirth, things head south really fast.
10----
11
12!Includes examples of:
13* AbusiveParents: Bone's stepfather is very abusive towards her, beating her, molesting her, molesting her while masturbating, [[spoiler: and [[RapeAsDrama raping]] her in the climax]].
14* ComingOfAge: More so in the novel.
15* DeepSouth: More specifically in small ruralish town of 1950s South Carolina (as the title states).
16* DeliberateValuesDissonance:
17** The whole part about Bone and her mother being looked down upon because Bone was born out of wedlock, including Bone's birth certificate stating she's "Illegitimate".
18** In the book, the doctor is angry at Anney when he discovers Bone has a broken coccyx (tailbone) and makes it clear it could only be broken either purposely or through a really severe beating. He is then escorted away by the nurse, who says he's new here. At the time the book was set (the late 1950's) mandated reporting laws did not exist - and in the place the book was set (rural South) there was and to some extent still is a huge distrust of governmental bodies intervening in family affairs.
19* DisappearedDad: Plays a small part in the conflict, as, in the novel, Anney was in a coma when she gave birth, so she couldn't lie and say she was married, while, in the movie, Bone's grandmother refused to put the name of Bone's birth-father on the certificate (after she ran him out of town).
20* ForWantOfANail: If Lyle didn't die in a car accident, Glen would never have come into Bone's life, and so much pain would have been avoided.
21* ForcefulKiss: Glen gives one to Bone after he threatens her.
22* FromBadToWorse: As the quote above implies, Bone starts off in a bad situation, and it only gets worse from there.
23* HairTriggerTemper: Glen, though this is more obvious in the book, however, him having this is what costs him his job.
24* IWantMyMommy: Bone does this a couple of the times when she's in the hospital. The second instance is rather [[TearJerker crushing]].
25* LecherousStepparent: Glen begins molesting his young stepddaughter Bone [[spoiler:and eventually rapes her when she defies him]].
26* MamaBear:
27** When Aunt Raylene finds out that Glen had beaten Bone, she tells her [[PapaWolf uncles]] to "Kill him."
28** When she finds [[spoiler:Glen raping Bone, Anney's response is to hit him over the head with a bottle. But she still sides with him over Bone.]]
29* MatureWorkChildProtagonists: Both the film and the semi-autobiographical book it was based on are centered around Ruth Anne "Bone" Boatwright, a young girl growing up in 1950s South Carolina; she's no older than 12 when the story ends (her actress Creator/JenaMalone was around 12 during filming). As the title suggests, a big part of the story is the stigma Bone and her mother face due to her [[BastardAngst being born out of wedlock]], which young children may not fully understand. The part that ''really'' cements that this story isn't for children is Bone's WickedStepfather Glen, who physically and sexually abuses her (which is depicted graphically enough to earn the film an R-rating) while [[ParentsAsPeople her mother]] zigzags between trying to protect her and being a UselessBystanderParent.
30* {{Narrator}}: Creator/LauraDern as the adult Bone.
31* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Glen gets the holy hell beat out of him by Bone's uncles.
32* NoodleIncident: It's not really said what happened to Bone's actual father but, in the movie, according to Bone's narration, her grandmother ran him out of town.
33* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Our protagonist is named Ruth Anne, but she has been called Bone since birth, as, to her uncle, "she didn't look much bigger than his knucklebone".
34* ParentsAsPeople: Anney would be a tragic deconstruction. You see, she loves her daughter, Bone, but, due to being so young and feeling lonely, she wanted more attention, leading her to take up with a nice man named Lyle, who dies, and, wanting to fill the void, decided to take up with Glen -- and once she did, she couldn't imagine leaving him no matter what he did.
35* ParentalAbandonment: [[spoiler:Anney, still in love with Glen, at the end, leaves Bone with Raylene and Earl]]
36* ParentalFavoritism: For as nasty as Glen is to Bone, he's every bit the good and doting father to her sister Reese. The reason for this fairly extreme disparity isn't spelled out, although there are some hints in the movie that Glen resented Bone for not immediately accepting him as a father figure (such as when he gets mad at her refusal to call him "Daddy" and tears up her photo of her previous stepfather Lyle).
37* ParentalSubstitute:
38** Though it didn't last long, Aunt Ruth plays this role to Bone. Later on, Raylene takes over this role.
39** Lyle loved Bone like his own child until his untimely death.
40* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler:In the climax, when Bone refuses to live under the same roof as Glen again, he viciously beats and rapes her until Anney intervenes]].
41* TeenPregnancy: Though this isn't too clear in the movie, the book states that Anney was 15 when she had Bone.
42* TitleDrop: In the closing narration.
43-->"Would I be as strong as she had been? As hungry for love? As desperate, determined and ashamed? I wouldn't know but I was already who I was gonna be. Someone like her, like my mama, a Boatwright, a bastard, a bastard out of Carolina."
44* TragicStillbirth: Anney has a stillbirth and is unable to have children again.
45* UselessBystanderParent: Anney is this to a fairly significant degree. It's not a completely straight example as she does try to protect Bone from Glen's abuse, but she also keeps forgiving him. This contradiction is evident at the climax, where she [[spoiler:immediately intervenes when she catches him raping Bone]], but then forgives him minutes later, all the while Bone is sitting in the car beside her begging her to just drive away.
46* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Bone has a little sister, Reese, but she practically disappears in the film after Anney's marriage to Glen.
47* WouldHurtAChild: Glen has no qualms about this whatsoever.

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