Analysis Of The Horizontal Word By Debra Marquart

1. Utah is both a product of the times in which it emerged but also a unique entity that worked to shape its own future. Robbins and Malone both describe how the west, and by a large extent Utah is a part of the great narrative of the American West and sometimes differing from it entirely. By exploring the different facets and predominant activities of 1850's and beyond we can find clues as to the origins and ultimate fate of the region . By exploring Western American capitalism, various functions of manifest destiny, and how settlers adhered to the frontier pioneer spirit we can learn the overall narrative in which the region participates.

Marquart uses satires in the passage to inform the reader about the Midwest, as well as gain the reader’s attention through being comical. As stated in the writing, “This is the way I recently heard a comedian describe the column of states that holds down the center of the country, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, a region that spawns both tornadoes and Republicans” (Marquart 2). This sentence implies the use of a satire because Marquart is making a statement that is sarcastically funny, so that she can gain the attention of the reader. Marquart states that she once had a comedian describe several Midwest states to be the spawn of tornadoes and Republicans, which to anyone that has some sense of humor, this statement is overly humorous (Marquart 2). The knowledge of several tornadoes taking place in the Midwest and Republicans coming from the Midwest, then stating that the Midwest is the spawn of the two, is simply a comical statement addressing some information on the Midwest. Later in the passage, it states, “Being blond, fresh-faced, and midwestern makes their descent into ruthless behavior in places like Los Angeles and New York all the more tragic” (Marquart 3). This is another sentence that

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.

Though the inequality between genders was not fully resolved until later, the Women’s Rights movement was also beginning to take place at this time (Literature and Its Times…). An apparent problem of American society, then and now, is its tendency toward stereotypes, which will be further discussed later. Hansberry uses her characters and their dreams to draw upon the impact stereotypes have on a person’s ambitions and self-identity.

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.

In The Horizontal Word written by Debra Marquart was a memoir to North Dakota and the Midwest where she states “The Midwest is a place that’s been considered devoid of stories, a flyover region one must endure to get to more interesting places”(Marquart 31). In her memoir to North Dakota as well as the Midwest, she given in-depth example of stereotypes and views of that many Americans believed surrounding the Midwest. Then Marquart also gives a description of the Midwest history and even our ancestors overlooked the MidWest as they declared the region “a dreary plain, wholly unfit for 40 cultivation,” and, of course, “uninhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture for subsistence”(Marquart 39). Debra Marquart expands off this idea as her Grandparents that were immigrants from Russia saw this as a new opportunity of life as they were excited to receive their “allotments of land”(Marquart 73). In Debra Marquart’s memoir, The Horizontal Word, she utilizes hasty generalizations to outline the stereotypes of the Midwest she also incorporates allusions to give outsiders a clear picture of this portion of the country.

Native American literature from the Southeastern United States is deeply rooted in the oral traditions of the various tribes that have historically called that region home. While the tribes most integrally associated with the Southeastern U.S. in the American popular mind--the FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole)--were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) from their ancestral territories in the American South, descendents of those tribes have created compelling literary works that have kept alive their tribal identities and histories by incorporating traditional themes and narrative elements. While reflecting profound awareness of

Expert testimonials are used throughout this passage to inform the readers how people of knowledge see the states and to describe to them how boring and lifeless these states can be. In the passage The Horizontal World by Debra Marquart’s it states “In the 1820s, Edwin James, the official chronicler of Major Stephen Long’s survey, declared the region “a dreary plain, wholly unfit for cultivation,” and, of course, “uninhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture for subsistence” (Marquart 37). The author included this quote to support her reasoning on why states like north Dakota are viewed as plain. The quote tells how the land does not consist of importance and is nothing. This supports the authors points that growing up in the Square states can be very boring. Also in the passage The Horizontal World it states “What followed, Richard Manning observed in Grassland, was a war on roots: “The place was a mess, and it became young nation’s job to fix it with geometry, democracy, seeds, steam, steel, and water” (Marquart 57). The author used this quote to show the readers what people thought of the square states. They saw them as needing fixing and that there were a mess. This makes the readers think about how she grew up in this state and how it was viewed. The author uses these expert views to explain to the reader’s that growing up in North Dakota is a very plain place that

This book is placed in the Great Plains of the United States during the 1930’s. One

In the 20th century, the average home life in rural Oklahoma was full of hard workers in the pursuit of the picture-perfect home surrounded by plentiful land. As the sun rises over the land in the morning with a red hue, it signals the commencement of the day ahead. The farmer has already been awake since before the sun broke the horizon, preparing his little equipment and his animals for his land’s work. The farmer’s wife is in the kitchen, cooking her husband a warm breakfast as a sign of her gratitude. Their children wake, running into the kitchen, bellies growling. After gobbling up the breakfast, they run outside to play and do chores of their own. The rest of the farmer’s wife’s day is spent cleaning, cooking, and looking after the

One thing that it looks at is land allotments that the Indians would receive for moving west. Many of the Indians would receive “320 acres if it was a single family selling or 640 acres to ninety chiefs in the Creek nation” . Many Native Americans took the agreement for these lands that were west of the Mississippi. But soon trouble started. Some of the land companies forced Indians to sell their land even if the Indians didn’t want to move west. Other companies would pay Indians to pretend they were someone else so the companies could claim the land of an Indian who didn’t want to move. Sometimes white settlers would come onto the land they had bought before the actually time they were allotted. During this process many people were cheated out of their land and received very little compensation for their moving west

People in the south often get stereotyped based off their appearances or the way they act. Most southerners have rituals they follow, but some are just living life. The way Flannery O'Connor deals with the traditional social structure in the South in her fiction shows that it was of major concern to her and was the source of much of her power and humor. O'Connor's exposition of a southern society which values a good, moral person yet struggles to identify Three of her short stories deal with the relationship between Christianity and society in the South: "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," "Good Country People," and "Revelation.”

The United States during the mid-19th century was a country that was just beginning to develop. To capture what the country was like at this time, a man named Alexander Mackay journeyed from Scotland to the United States to stay for an entire year. He argued that staying for weeks or even months at a time was inefficient to understand the political, cultural, and environmental aspects of the country. Therefore, a year’s time was devoted to travel across the Eastern side of the United States while visiting all of the major cities including Richmond and New York City. Being an outsider, he strived to maintain an unbiased perspective on many things such as the slave situation in the south to give the reader an accurate and clear picture of the states. Spending this much time there, he was able to live with the people as opposed to existing along beside them. In

Tindall, George Brown, David E. Shi, and Charles W. Eagles. America a Narrative History. 10th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004.

The level of entitlement involved in Manifest Destiny might be considered childish when boiled down to the brass ideas around why the Americans of the nineteenth century felt promised to connect The east coast to the west coast, but the way in which Wilder shows this infant demand for the entire continent seems almost puritan in nature. Through the innocent perspectives of Laura and her siblings, the reader of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House on the Prairie,” is presented with an edited first hand response to the dogmatism of manifest destiny by means of overcoming every obstacle ever so seamlessly and the confusion of why they are allowed to just settle the west under new ownership.