Debra Marquart's The Horizontal World

I grew up on a small farm just east of Williston, ND, which is located on the far western side of the state. This area of North Dakota is well-known for its beautiful badlands and rolling hills of buffalo

Knowing Our Place is and excerpt from Barbara Kingsolver’s SMALL WONDER. The excerpt is basically all about the places where her life stories and where important times in her life take place. They all end up having to take place in the wilderness in a small town, in a small house in the middle of nowhere; where she had actually grown up. She talks about how her log cabin at the end of Walker Mountain is near tobacco plants and also how it has old historic nature to it. She talks about how she loves the rain and how it sounds in her little log cabin house that was built in the early 1900’s. She grew up and spent most her childhood in these woods filled with neighbor’s miles away and

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

In the essay, “A Literature of Place”, Barry Lopez expresses the importance of nature as it applies to human life. Through this he states that humans’ imagination are inspired by the scenery around them. Lopez revolves around a central perspective; Ancient american literature has always been rooted in nature. By acknowledging that modern human identity has been interpreted by nature, Lopez describes how the landscape of an area can shape the structure of the communities and how it can help with spiritual collapse. Nature writing has often been summarised by being one of the oldest threads in american literature. With our nation's aging one needs to reflect on their literary past; therefore, Lopez insists that we find our path to nature that

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.

With her West Virginia upbringing and living in a coal town, she was inspired to write about “rednecks” in a more positive way. The main way of her doing so was to bring to light the characters of the novel and their loyalty to family, the land and values. The characters are very relatable, the characters manage to wiggle their way into the reader’s heart. It is easy for the reader to become attached characters and to the issues arising in the book. It is in fact a part of our history, native to Appalachia or

Historically, Chicago has been and always will be a city of change both industrially and agriculturally to the metropolis we know and revere today with skyscrapers and culture abound. In order for the city to become the industrial hub, changes were made to the natural landscapes to accommodate business and residency. Steel became the staple good, and green spaces were demolished during the expansion of industry in the Calumet region by the masses in the creation of steel for railroad tracks and structural steel for commercial buildings. For geographical ambiance, The Calumet region of Chicago is consisted of the following neighborhoods: Burnside, Calumet Heights, East Side, Hegewisch, and Pullman, South Chicago, and South Deering. In this

The multidimensional expression “hillbilly” carries different cultural significances throughout the book Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. First, Vance utilizes the term “hillbilly” to refer to the working class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree (3). Second, Vance uses the term hillbilly to refer to a group of people from a specific geographic area, namely the area of the Appalachian Mountains. According to Vance, the area stretches from Alabama to Georgia in the South to Ohio to parts of New York in the north (4). Third, hillbilly indicates the way of life, behavior, or identity of the people of Greater Appalachia.

Debra Marquart, in The Horizontal World, takes the reader through her life in North Dakota, travelling all the way back to between the years of 1885 and 1911 when her immigrant, Russian grandparents, first arrived in America. Marquart, from a more modern point of view, feels like her grandparents were deceived by a facade that enveloped the Midwest- claiming that the area is not as exciting as the media made it out to be. She uses intense diction to condemn the state, proves the deceitful tendencies of the North Dakota through juxtaposition, and manipulates the pathos of the reader by triggering sympathy for the incoming settlers.

As the book progresses through the years, Blevins begins to introduce several famous faces that call Arkansas their home, in what he calls the Heyday of the Hillbilly. He mentions everyone from musicians to actors, athletes to novelists, and intellects to political figures. For each one mentioned, Blevins describes their experience with the Arkansas image, whether they found a way to embrace it or let it bring them down. It's

She shows the audience that the midwest is not an interesting place to stay and make a visit to see. She does include what some may find an interest to, most perfect confluence of longitude, latitude, and countryside so well behaved that it laid itself down in neat, even squares for the surveyor’s instrument(49). Marquarts uses personification given that the states are unable to actually behave or to be laid out neatly. The Personification is to give the northwest side as more interesting feel, referring to the only interest people may have in the states is the flat well laid plain out land with the “even squares.” So she includes the “fly over region” there is some interest in the midwest with its well “neat” and with its “even squares.”

As the problems of their neighbors are broadcast into the Westcott’s living room, the weather outside begins to reflect the climate inside: "There were hundreds of clouds in the sky, as though the south wind had broken the winter into pieces and were blowing it north" (821). The Westcott’s view of society and of themselves is being changed from a beautiful, solid picture of appearances into many jagged, separate pieces that do not seem to fit together.

The North symbolized to me all that I had not felt and seen." (Wright pg.186 ).

The novel takes place on the “Divide,” within The Great Plains of Nebraska. Cather portrays the land as a scornful and independent force that possesses an inescapable control over those who inhabit it. The Divide becomes ageless and removed in a thematic sense. Cather writes that the land does as it pleases; In a sense almost forcing its settlers to comply with its unpredictable nature. The immense amount of influence the land has on the pioneers makes it seem as though it is void of any resolute or significant change. However, as time passes, it’s not the success of one single pioneer, but the cumulative spirit of many past generations of pioneers that become a combining force. Through the collective successes and failures of these individuals, the land is

Ever since the making of the colonies of America, large city areas such as New York and Massachusets were idiolized as America's industrial and fashion capitals of the U.S. As such, influences from Great Britain and France were strong compared to other places in America. "The Contrast" shows how strongly an impact other countries had on America within the cities and how patriotism was slightly lacking. This was shown in the fashion of the ladies (Letitia and Charlotte), contrast of a city man (Jessamy) versus a man from the country (Jonathan), and the actions and words of a man well traveled (Mr.