Analysis Of The Horizontal Word By Debra Marquart

The upper Midwest is a region often viewed as unimportant or boring due to its seemingly endless plains and uneventful daily life. In her memoir, The Horizontal World, Debra Marquart challenges this view to show her fondness of the upper Midwest. By using techniques including juxtaposition, realism, and references to well-known people/works, Marquart effectively manipulates her audience to agree with her perception of the region.

After the United States began implementing its Manifest Destiny Doctrine, the American people felt as if the lands to the west of the Mississippi River were entitled to them. Being plunged into the wilderness was an uncomfortable experience for many men and women from the east, who found themselves at times separated for weeks. "Life on the prairie was especially difficult for women. While their husbands went out and worked on the fields with other men during the day, the women were alone with their children, often with no neighbors near enough to provide day to day companionship." (2011, February

Every part of the country has their own stereotype the west coast has people in bikini and partying non-stop, east coast is where all the famous movie stars hang out and Arizona is where “cowboys” are. The middle states, on the other hand, get look down because they aren’t as incredible and exciting as the east or west coast. The Midwest really doesn't get mentioned during besides begin tornado territory. In “The Horizontal World” by Marquart she explains how the Midwest gets looked down for its dull appearances while using visuals, allusion, and anecdote to give the reader the sense of the Midwest.

Question 1: Scott Russell Sanders uses the appeal of logos throughout the passage, Staying Put: Making a Home in a Restless World, by appealing to logic, persuading the audience based on sense and reason. In this direct example from the text, “From the beginning, our heroes have been sailors, explorers, cowboys, prospectors, speculators, backwoods ramblers, rainbow-chasers, vagabonds of every stripe,” logos is introduced through excessive detail, giving more than plenty of examples in which we create our heroes to be free-spirits. This detail creates a sense of reason in which it’s logical to assume Americans like to move around based off the list of heroes presented. “In our national mythology, the worst fate is to be trapped on a farm, in

In the book “Montana 1948” written by Larry Watson, the author talks in depth about many different controversial topics and brings up many good points that can we can relate to our own world. The author uses many different strategies and techniques in this book that enhance the reading experience, there were not too many dull moments and It always left me wanting more.

Debra Marquart uses diction and tone to convey her feelings towards the upper Midwest. Marquart begins her memoir using diction to characterize the upper Midwest, which sets a negative tone. The author uses words: lonely, devoid, and unimpressive to describe her homeland, North Dakota, which is setting a tone in her writing. Using these words suggest that North Dakota is not viewed as a special or exciting place to be. The author acknowledges these views by stating: “the Midwest is a place that’s been considered devoid of stories, a flyover region one must endure to get to more interesting places.” This quote suggests that the upper Midwest was a place where she thought of as not important.

However, I specifically focus on South Dakota. In “South Dakota Findings,” a sub-chapter with in “Social Indicators and Infant Mortality” she explains that bad plumbing and liver disease were huge contributors to the post-neonatal infant mortality rate in South Dakota (Dewitt 1989, 154). In her introduction, Dewitt also explains some possible reasons why infant mortality occurs at a higher rate in some groups than others. She writes that most whites are born into privilege, while minorities who are non-whites are forced into economic discrepancies due to their location and limited income which in turn leads to psychological and social issues (Dewitt 1989, 42). In regard to South Dakota’s landscape, Native Americans that were pushed into reservations lack the resources that are available outside of their territory because of lack of record keeping, alcoholism, and poverty. On the other hand, white families do not have the need to suffer because of location and economic background which provides them with superior resources than Native Americans. This exemplifies how the landscape can be a representation of power because people’s actions can be used to manipulate the landscape

In the essay, “The Horizontal World”, author Debra Marquart argues that the Midwest remains unappealing in order to show how it has not changed since the start of Russian immigration. Marquart borrows geographic terms to repetitively illustrate the land.

The American Dream of relocating to the western frontier and pursuing newfound prospects was the supreme aspiration of countless Americans. Rovers knew that journeying to California meant starting over, colonizing, and creating a new identity for oneself. Nonetheless, this dream was spoiled as soon as it began, with many Americans never fulfilling what they sought after, their personal manifest destiny. The yearning for labor openings was scarce, for the travelers could not find flourishing jobs anywhere near their new home, California. Through this essay, I will express the importance of this destitute era for plenty of Americans. In analyzing the film, The Grapes of Wrath and the research of Nancy Taniguchi in Stigmatizing Okies published

There are many stereotypes that come to mind when thinking of the American West. Usually thoughts of down-to-earth men with cowboy hats and hillbilly accents riding horses in the meadows come to mind. At first glance at the advertisement I saw just that; two men, likely from the countryside, doing their job of taking care of horses. The milieu is a notable element of the advertisement. The men are in a meadow which has been painted with soft but dirty colours. A similar

The late 19th century and early 20th century were periods of rapid growth for America. As there were gold rushes in the West, new farms arising in the Great Plains, and the genesis of new factories in the North, each region developed its own subculture. The culture developed by each of these regions was directly reflected in the Regionalist literary works written at that time. Regionalism is a branch of Realism that includes literary works that focus on characters, dialect, customs, and other features of a specific region. Realism pertains to literary works that describe middle-class life and heavily focuses on character. Realism makes use of plausible, real events and characters. Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and Willa Cather are notable authors stemming from the Realist movement that occurred around the turn of the century. Mark Twain’s “Corn Pone Opinions” comments on the fickleness of the human mind, using the example of a slave minister. Bret Harte’s “The Outcasts of Poker ” tells the tale of a gambler and other rabble rousers who were shunned from the Western mining town of Poker , which had recently seen a moral reprise. Willa Cather’s My Antonia narrates the life of Jim Burden, an upper-class boy who grows up on a Blackhawk, Nebraska farm with his immigrant friend, Antonia Shimerda. Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and Willa Cather address Realism and more so Regionalism in their respective works “Corn Pone Opinions,” “The Outcasts of Poker Flats,” and My Antonia.

In the Novel “The women of Brewster Place” written by the author Gloria Naylor, the characters in the stories are all stereotyped to show how each character deals with the hardships brought by Society during the era. Some stereotypes that shaped the main characters is that African men are always leaving the women to be single mothers, children of poverty always end up with repercussions, and women always have to stay at home and take care of the children. They all function to develop the central theme of trying to belong and finding a home that surrounds all the characters in Brewster Place. One stereotype that shape the characters in the novel is that African-American men are always leaving. This stereotype is seen throughout most of the

The Western Frontier is an important part of American society that captures the archetypal curiosity that ever American has in search of new opportunities. Frederick Jackson Turner’s essay titled, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” explains the relevance of westward expansion in the late nineteenth century. Turner describes the western frontier as the “meeting point between savagery and civilization” because once one crosses the boundary from the East to the West; the laws of civilization no longer apply. The West is characterized by its lawlessness and violence as the settlers struggle to stake their claim on the rough terrain (Turner). Two western classics that are complete polar opposites—Willa Cather’s My Antonia and Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian— both depict the civilized but also the savage aspects of the western frontier. The difficult and ever changing geography of the American West shapes each character in both stories, since the American West is a harsh and tedious environment, it allows Darwin’s principle of survival of the fittest to be tested. In My Antonia, the protagonist, Antonia, is shown to the reader through the memory of Jim Burden as his childhood sweetheart. Antonia represents the captivating and peaceful beauty of the western prairie even as it endures harsh conditions. On the other hand, Blood Meridian portrays a horribly savage image of the West, where one is in a dog eat dog world and must choose to kill or be killed. McCarthy

Brannstrom and Neuman argue that through the promotion of specific ideologies, that railroad corporations and Imagery devices, e.g. “landscape painting, photography, and cartography as ideological representations” (124), were used to promote the “Magic Valley” as a growing agrarian economy, and also as a region of Anglo superiority. The Anglo superiority was propagated through several definitions of the Valley’s geography, and through the degradation of the Hispanic population. This was a common theme, portrayed in variations. During the early phases of its promotion, the “Magic Valley” was portray as a promise of profit and stability for Anglo investors, and would portray Hispanic natives as villains against progress, reinforcing the ideology of Anglo superiority, and referring to Hispanics as “degraded turbulent, ignorant and superstitious.” (126), were merely “agricultural workers, rather than

"Ignorant,” “polluted,” and “backward:” for many, these words come to mind when describing both West Virginia and India, places I am proud to call "home." I used to curse the close-mindedness, trash-lined streets, and frequent power outages and attempted to distance myself from these two regions to seem more intelligent and progressive. When asked where I was from, I would say “I recently moved from South Carolina” or “I am ethnically from the Maldives,” places where I had lived for small periods. However, I learned to adapt and see the limitations as challenges. Now, I recognize the positive impact these areas have had in shaping my life.