Coercive Control Through Religious Justification in Near the Bone

The Thematic Claim: Religious Justification as the Engine of Captivity

In Near the Bone, Christina Henry builds a portrait of coercive control in which religious framing is not decorative but structural. William does not merely hit Mattie; he builds an entire theology around his violence, one that recasts his cruelty as divine duty, her suffering as spiritual correction, and her captivity as God's will. The novel's central claim is that religious justification is the load-bearing wall of domestic abuse: strip it away, and the whole edifice of control collapses. Mattie's escape is therefore not just a physical flight down the mountain but an intellectual and spiritual break from the belief system William has installed in her mind.

Religious Justification as the Foundation of Control

The novel establishes William's religious justification early and with chilling precision. When a young Mattie asks why he hits her so often, William strikes her again for the impertinence and then explains that disciplining her is his duty as a man and husband, meant to teach her the proper obedience of a wife. He then hands her the Bible and makes her read aloud from Ephesians: Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. The scene is devastating because the violence is not an aberration from William's religious worldview but its direct expression. He kneels before her afterward, gently cradling her head, and tells her that God wishes for her to obey him, that he takes no pleasure in hurting her, that if she would only perform her duties properly he wouldn't have to.

This is coercive control at its most insidious. William does not merely threaten physical consequences; he frames those consequences as the natural and righteous outcome of Mattie's failure to be a proper wife. The beating becomes a form of spiritual correction, and Mattie's obedience becomes a religious obligation rather than a survival strategy. Notably, Mattie herself notices the contradiction—she thinks William should do some more contemplating on the part about husbands loving their wives—but she does not voice this thought. The religious frame is powerful enough to suppress even her private awareness of its hypocrisy.

William's control extends beyond physical discipline to the very structure of Mattie's identity. He renames her