Summary Of The Fight Scene Analysis

Scene Analysis

The scene manifests the loneliness and troubles that Ree Dolly faces during her father’s predicament. It is evident that she is in-charge of all the affairs of the family because both her parents are incapable of performing them. Her mother is ailing and her father is on the run to avoid a conviction for making methamphetamine. The scene shows her as the dominant figure in the family and she is trying to convince the bondman that she will find her father’s killers. The scene reflects the thematic stance of the entire movie by showing Ree engulfed in the struggle to care for her family and also deal with the legal woos of his father. The themes of poverty, declining morality, breaking family ties, and the ferocity of gossip are explicit quite dramatically.
Ree’s face in this scene is emotionally hollow and certainly mirthless.
Even those she turns to as a source of advice and protection appear to be grappling with what seems to be a society on the brink of existence. In the rest of the film, local sheriffs frequent Ree’s home in anticipation that they will get some clue about Jessup’s disappearance. The terrain of the land and the quiet forests are an indication of the bleakness of Ree’s village. It shows that poverty and decadence have rendered the village quite desolate from the rest of the world for being on the wrong side of the law. Customs and traditions that keep family closely knit together in the execution of crime is also manifest in the scene. The logs of firewood, the fiddles, and banjos show rawness of the village. Listening carefully to Ree’s accent when she says, “I will find them”, reveals a lot about her indifference to the customs and cultures that are partly to blame for the predicament that her family is going through. Possibly these are the impediments of Ree’s belief s in
justice. Family ties and traditions hold Ree’s family together and it is responsible for they have maintained throughout their long history with drug-m making. In fact, Teardrop, Ree’s paternal uncle is addicted. He is also among many of Ree’s relatives that are worried about possible consequences after the arrest of Jessup. The shackles of poverty are worth mentioning in this analysis because the woes of Ree’s family revolve around the fact that his father could not be released on bond. He, therefore, puts much of family property for bond including the house. It is unimaginable for a seventeen year-old to face such challenges considering that she is a child herself. The challenges that poverty brings on her family’s life are scary even to adults. Nevertheless, she has to face it. She has to contend with the fact that her belief in justice is conflict with entrenched clan traditions. Personal choices in this village are quite elusive because one must prove that they are committed to upholding these customs. There are also fears that Ree might end up breaking this tradition prompting her kin to place her on strict surveillance and monitoring. The scene also shows the dilemma that Ree faces in the entire film. She is under pressure to uphold family customs and at the same time find his father who is on the run. Her family has a traditional code that expects them to be silent on family secrets. If she decides to betray this code, she risks facing destitution. In the scene, she tells his father brother that she will find those who killed her father. Jessup is Teardrop’s only brother as Ree discloses in the scene. The conversation reveals the hostility that Ree faces amid trying to find her father. Her kinfolk treat her with contempt to make her aware that she should be very discreet about whatever she says to the sheriffs and the authorities. Later in the film, rumors will emerge from that Jessup is dead. Teardrop also tells her that her father was killed by people who thought he is a potential informer to the authorities on their drug-dealing. some of her clan’s women who beat her up. Unsurprisingly, they are led by the wife of the clan foreman. Indeed, it is not just Ree and her family that are in trouble but the entire clan. Al members of the clan are in utter panic because the law is gradually catching up with them. They have turned to acts of sabotage so that Ree does not find his father as a tactic to avoid being in contact with law enforcers and the courts. The scene reflects the main themes of the film. However, one has to watch it to understand them in detail. Just as she is seen struggling to save her family’s property, Ree is also having an internal struggle with her society which has subdued her to submission and alienated her from her personal pursuits of justice. The rigid notions of obligation that her clan’s customs impose on her are far from what Ree feels is the right thing to do in these circumstances.