Bastard out of Carolina

A person’s bio-psycho-social-spiritual development is very important to consider when examining that person’s behavior. There are many different areas of development and it is important to know what they are and how a person’s development can be affected by different factors in their environment. The novel, Bastard out of Carolina, by Dorothy Allison, is a wonderful novel to use to examine the different ways environment can affect a person’s development. This novel has many examples of how the main character, Bone, is affected by her surrounding environment.

Bone’s biological development has been affected greatly since she was born. She was not born under ideal conditions. Her mother was in a car accident when she was eight months pregnant with Bone. She was thrown through the windshield of the car she was in. While she was unconscious in the hospital, Bone was born (Allison, 1992, p.2). She was born a month early and under terrible conditions. Biologically this environment is not healthy for her development. According to our textbook, Dimensions of Human Behavior, by Elizabeth Hutchison, Hutchison (2008) says that poor health outcomes are associated with low income, inadequate health care, and unsafe physical environments (p. 112). Bone was not only born in an unsafe environment, but she was also born into a low income family. Those two factors already affect her development at put her at a greater risk to develop health care problems as she grows up.

Bone’s stepfather, Daddy Glen, affects Bone’s biological development every time he beats her. “The musculoskeletal system supports and protects the body and provides motion.” This system allows us to make voluntary movements (Hutchison, 2008, p.104). Throughout the whole novel Daddy Glen beats Bone. He is putting her danger of seriously injuring her body. Towards the end of the book Bone’s arm gets broken, “Something gave, crunching audibly, while a wave of sickening heat followed, and my arm flopped uselessly under my body” (Allison, 1992, p.284). According to Hutchison (2008), “Bones serve as sites for the attachment of muscles. It may not seem so, but bone is a very active tissue, supplied with nerves and blood vessels” (p.105). It is not good for Bone’s development to get broken bones. It takes time to heal, and since Bone isn’t fully grown yet, it can disrupt her growth. Also, constant physical injuries can wear her body down and make her body weaker.

Bone’s psychological development is greatly affected by her environment. Right in the beginning of the novel we learn that on her birth certificate her father’s name is not listed, so she is considered a bastard (Allison, 1992, p.3). Knowing this Bone doesn’t feel good about herself. She feels that a part of her is missing because she doesn’t know her father. She also knows that other people look down on herself and her family, and this affects the way she thinks about