Winter’s Bone

by

Daniel Woodrell

Sonny Dolly Character Analysis

Ree’s younger brother, a tough and hostile boy. He is ten years old, but already has a sense of responsibility and initiative, and is often shown to be itching to prove his maturity. He offers to get into fights on Ree’s behalf, and is eager to learn how to shoot and scrap. His true father is Blond Milton, one of Ree’s cousins.

Sonny Dolly Quotes in Winter’s Bone

The Winter’s Bone quotes below are all either spoken by Sonny Dolly or refer to Sonny Dolly. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Silence and Secrets Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

Ree’s grand hope was that these boys would not be dead to wonder by age twelve, dulled to life, empty of kindness, boiling with mean. So many Dolly kids were that way, ruined before they had chin hair, groomed to live outside square law and abide by the remorseless blood-soaked commandments that governed lives outside square law…The rough Dollys were scornful of town law and town ways, clinging to their own.

Related Characters: Ree Dolly, Sonny Dolly, Harold Dolly
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

Ree nearly fell but would not let it happen in front of the law. She heard thunder clapping between her ears and Beelzebub scratchin’ a fiddle. The boys and her and mom would be dogs in the field without this house. They would be dogs in the field with Beelzebub scratchin’ out tunes and the boys’d have a hard hard shove toward unrelenting meanness and the roasting shed and she’d be stuck along side them ‘til steel doors clanged shut and the flames rose. She’d never have her own concerns.

Related Characters: Ree Dolly, Sonny Dolly, Harold Dolly, Connie Dolly, Jessup Dolly, Deputy Baskin
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“Didn’t want you-all to fear we’d forgot you for good.”

Related Characters: Sonya (speaker), Ree Dolly, Sonny Dolly, Harold Dolly, Connie Dolly
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“Settin’ out food’ll draw em close—that’s likely how they’ll come too close and get shot, Harold. Don’t set no goddam food out. It looks like you’re doin’ nice, but you don’t. You’re just bringin’ ‘em into range, is all.”

Related Characters: Ree Dolly (speaker), Sonny Dolly, Harold Dolly
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

To have but a few male names in use was a tactic held over from the olden knacker ways…Let any sheriff or similar nabob try to keep official accounts on the Dolly men when so many were named Milton, Haslam, Arthur or Jessup… Jessups, Arthurs, Haslams and Miltons were born to walk only the beaten Dolly path, live and die in keeping with those bloodline customs fiercest held.

Related Characters: Ree Dolly, Sonny Dolly, Harold Dolly, Jessup Dolly, Uncle Teardrop, Thump Milton
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

“You son of a bitch. You go straight to hell’n fry in your own lard. Sonny’n Harold’ll die livin’ in a fuckin’ cave with me’n Mom before they’ll ever spend a single fuckin’ night with you. Goddam you, Blond Milton, you must think I’m a stupid idiot or somethin’—there’s horseweed standin’ chin-high inside that place!”

Related Characters: Ree Dolly (speaker), Sonny Dolly, Harold Dolly, Connie Dolly, Blond Milton
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

“I got two little brothers who can’t feed theirselves…My mom is sick and she is always goin’ to be sick. Pretty soon the laws’re takin’ our house away n’throwin’ us out…to live in the fields…like fuckin’ dogs. The only hope I got to keep our house is I gotta prove Dad’s dead. Whoever killed him, I don’t need to know that. I don’t never need to know that. If Dad did wrong, Dad has paid. But I can’t forever carry…them boys’n Mom…not…without that house to help.”

Related Characters: Ree Dolly (speaker), Sonny Dolly, Harold Dolly, Connie Dolly, Thump Milton
Page Number: 134
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 35 Quotes

Sonny said,“What’ll we do with all that money? Huh? What’s the first thing we’ll get?”
…Ree stood and stretched. Twilight dimmed the snow, but icicles overhead held that gleam. “Wheels.”

Related Characters: Ree Dolly (speaker), Sonny Dolly (speaker), Harold Dolly, Connie Dolly
Page Number: 193
Explanation and Analysis:
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Sonny Dolly Quotes in Winter’s Bone

The Winter’s Bone quotes below are all either spoken by Sonny Dolly or refer to Sonny Dolly. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Silence and Secrets Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

Ree’s grand hope was that these boys would not be dead to wonder by age twelve, dulled to life, empty of kindness, boiling with mean. So many Dolly kids were that way, ruined before they had chin hair, groomed to live outside square law and abide by the remorseless blood-soaked commandments that governed lives outside square law…The rough Dollys were scornful of town law and town ways, clinging to their own.

Related Characters: Ree Dolly, Sonny Dolly, Harold Dolly
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

Ree nearly fell but would not let it happen in front of the law. She heard thunder clapping between her ears and Beelzebub scratchin’ a fiddle. The boys and her and mom would be dogs in the field without this house. They would be dogs in the field with Beelzebub scratchin’ out tunes and the boys’d have a hard hard shove toward unrelenting meanness and the roasting shed and she’d be stuck along side them ‘til steel doors clanged shut and the flames rose. She’d never have her own concerns.

Related Characters: Ree Dolly, Sonny Dolly, Harold Dolly, Connie Dolly, Jessup Dolly, Deputy Baskin
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“Didn’t want you-all to fear we’d forgot you for good.”

Related Characters: Sonya (speaker), Ree Dolly, Sonny Dolly, Harold Dolly, Connie Dolly
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“Settin’ out food’ll draw em close—that’s likely how they’ll come too close and get shot, Harold. Don’t set no goddam food out. It looks like you’re doin’ nice, but you don’t. You’re just bringin’ ‘em into range, is all.”

Related Characters: Ree Dolly (speaker), Sonny Dolly, Harold Dolly
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

To have but a few male names in use was a tactic held over from the olden knacker ways…Let any sheriff or similar nabob try to keep official accounts on the Dolly men when so many were named Milton, Haslam, Arthur or Jessup… Jessups, Arthurs, Haslams and Miltons were born to walk only the beaten Dolly path, live and die in keeping with those bloodline customs fiercest held.

Related Characters: Ree Dolly, Sonny Dolly, Harold Dolly, Jessup Dolly, Uncle Teardrop, Thump Milton
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

“You son of a bitch. You go straight to hell’n fry in your own lard. Sonny’n Harold’ll die livin’ in a fuckin’ cave with me’n Mom before they’ll ever spend a single fuckin’ night with you. Goddam you, Blond Milton, you must think I’m a stupid idiot or somethin’—there’s horseweed standin’ chin-high inside that place!”

Related Characters: Ree Dolly (speaker), Sonny Dolly, Harold Dolly, Connie Dolly, Blond Milton
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

“I got two little brothers who can’t feed theirselves…My mom is sick and she is always goin’ to be sick. Pretty soon the laws’re takin’ our house away n’throwin’ us out…to live in the fields…like fuckin’ dogs. The only hope I got to keep our house is I gotta prove Dad’s dead. Whoever killed him, I don’t need to know that. I don’t never need to know that. If Dad did wrong, Dad has paid. But I can’t forever carry…them boys’n Mom…not…without that house to help.”

Related Characters: Ree Dolly (speaker), Sonny Dolly, Harold Dolly, Connie Dolly, Thump Milton
Page Number: 134
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 35 Quotes

Sonny said,“What’ll we do with all that money? Huh? What’s the first thing we’ll get?”
…Ree stood and stretched. Twilight dimmed the snow, but icicles overhead held that gleam. “Wheels.”

Related Characters: Ree Dolly (speaker), Sonny Dolly (speaker), Harold Dolly, Connie Dolly
Page Number: 193
Explanation and Analysis: