Clear but Bone-Cracking Cold: Nature, Danger, and Noir in Winter’s Bone and Wind River

My research explores the role of environment in the rural noirs Winter’s Bone (2006) and Wind River (2017). In this paper, I address the pride the protagonists feel towards their land, the reality of the oppressive forces of such lands, and how the personification of nature in these texts exemplifies noir. My argument is that Ree Dolly and Cory Lambert must respectively navigate their deceptive neighbors, their tenuous grips on their livelihoods, and survive the oppressive forces of their surroundings. Only when Ree and Cory understand their role in the natural world can they attempt to remedy their social world. I first establish my rural noir framework in order to analyze the land-locked contexts depicted in the texts and how nature further inhibits the protagonists from contentment. Then, I analyze the texts’ pivotal revelations, when the protagonists realize they must surrender themselves to nature in order to survive