Bastard Out of Carolina

Bastard Out of Carolina Summary | Chapter 1 Summary

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.

By the end of the chapter, however, the courthouse burns to the ground, and Mama leaves work to burn the copies of the birth records she has at home. Mama marries Lyle, and before he dies in an auto accident, she gives birth to Bone's little sister, Reese. Mama is nineteen years old when Lyle dies. Throughout the chapter, the reader is introduced to a number of Bone's family members, including her Aunt Alma and her uncles Travis (Ruth's husband) and Earle. Glen Waddell, a young man who has Mama in his sights and is awed by the uncles' reputation of causing trouble, is introduced as well.