Sarah Smarsh Heartland Memoir Analysis Essay PDF

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Essay analysis of Sarah Smarsh's Heart Memoir covering topics from Reagan era policies and rhetoric that further disenfranchised rural America....

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An analysis rhetoric, education, personal anecdotes on Sarah Smarsh’s “Heartland”

The health and trajectory of the United States is heavily dictated by the efficacy of public policy; however, political polarization has become an ever-prevalent part of American Culture. With every passing election, the socioeconomic gap gets exacerbated because rural America is out of the political zeitgeist. Rural America comprises nearly 60 million people accounting for over 19% of the U.S. population (U.S. Census, 2011). Of these 60 million, nearly 25% of them live in poverty (U.S. Census, 2011). Sarah Smarsh’s book “Heartland” brings light to how these impoverished individuals that have been stereotyped and become caricatures for the “American Dream.” She illustrates how iconic phrases about American idealism paint a very different picture of the less than fortunate reality of rural America. Smarsh’s difficult upbringing wasn’t just a byproduct of circumstance, rather a series of heavy-handed rhetoric and legislation changes that resulted in fractured policy for those in need. A lot of her hardships can be attributed to the 1960s and the backlash towards “The Great Reform Period” under Lyndon B. Johnson. These changes cemented party affiliations for the working class (Martinez-Matsuda, 2020). Moving into the present day, these policy changes and rhetoric can be manifested in a personal anecdote about Scott Schawvers, a man who is overcoming financial instability in his own right to support his children, and he serves as the perfect analogue to Smarsh’s memoir.

Rhetoric has a powerful influence on social norms and invokes deep engagement in a community. In “Heartland” Smarsh attempts to navigate the paradoxical nature of rural America's political affiliation. Historically, rural americans have voted for the conservative party, but over the past two decades their party’s policies stand to hurt more than help these individuals.

Smarsh’s analysis comes down to one main discussion on how social welfare is perceived as a charitable contribution. Very aptly Smarsh states that “People on welfare were presumed ‘lazy,’ and for us there was no more hurtful word” (Smarsh, pg. 86). Further contextualizing this statement, Smarsh’s age and anecdotes suggest that her family grew up with Ronald Raegan as president. His economic revitalization efforts worked only in the short term and left rural America with the idealism of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”. This rhetoric subjected poor white people and made them reason that their lack of financial prosperity was a lack of effort not poor policy. In this particular circumstance, her race was not a fact of differentiation especially with such poverty. This creates a perpetual negative cycle where those most disenfranchised by the conservative policy are the ones voting them into office. The economic policies favor those at the top and deny those in need of welfare by appealing to their hubris. She illustrates her firsthand experience with this when she discusses “how much [she] was struggling both emotionally and financially, because [she] didn’t talk to anyone about it or even understand how bad off [she] was” (Smarsh, pg. 83). While it seems as though this problem is a byproduct of false advertisement from the conservative party, they are only half of the problem in this multifaceted issue. The other half lies with the privileged and inadvertently condescending tone of the liberals as they support welfare policies. Smarsh draws attention to the hypothetical wealthy liberal who is advocating for their income to be taxed more generously to provide for those who “need help”. The last two words are of particular importance, The most demeaning characteristic for these individuals is that rely on welfare to temporarily help them in a time of financial crisis because they see it as a handout rather than an aid.

In an increasingly white collar workforce, educational standards became far more rigorous. The lack of education and strict adherence to religious beliefs ended up compromising their ability to accept new education to work in fields like medicine and technology. “They had a confidence in their own intuition, a sort of knowing deeper than schooling can render and higher than the dogma of a church. If they could bear the pain of experiencing their world long enough, without numbing themselves, they had what you might call “powers” (Smarsh, pg. 79). This willful ignorance as a method of self preservation was seen as a strength rather than an inhibitor. This lack of pursuit in higher education also reinforces the social norm of idiosyncrasy and self help. This idea, coupled with the fact that the status quo in rural America doesn’t mandate the need for higher education, propagates the lack of skilled labor. The religious afflictions are used to suppress rural America allowing for the exception of all reason. Working in an industry that has the ability to overproduce, trying to gain any level of social mobility is difficult without an education. This is comparable to a caste system of predetermined levels of success and occupation potential. Smarsh reasons that empowering these communities in a way that doesn’t threaten their religious beliefs is a difficult but plausible endeavour considering the historical precedent of mobilizing rural america in times of war and economic recessions.

Evident parallels can be seen in social reform from a labor union perspective. The mid 20th century served as a period of vast policy implementation that resulted in the social regression as experienced in rural America. As spoken about in class , “any civil rights activists were union/labor activists through the 1930s and 1940s. In the 1950s and 1960s, they reinvigorated the notion of “social unionism” by challenging labor unions to address the prevailing social and economic problems and drastic inequalities.” (Martinez-Matsuda, 2020) The investment towards collective success and pride in labor is prevalent in Smarsh’s narrative:A new sense of

citizenship and participation for everyday working class people. Though beneficial in some regards, this sense of collectivism has ultimately held them back. Social welfare and the industrial revolution deeply segmented blue and white collar labor forces. The concept of the “Great Society'' and the implementation of health care and other welfare services. From a fiscal perspective, Johnson’s policies stood to benefit the masses; however, the conservative party reframed these services as an over extension of government power in personal lives and as a methodology that deincentivized individual success. The conservative policies of this period were actually bolstering the lives of blue collar workers, as seen through President Johnson’s landslide victory and a very liberal American political culture. As policies and ideals shifted, liberals began catering to disadvantaged populations, but as Smarsh outlines, Conservatives held the moral high ground and still retained this population. Smarsh notes this “moral high ground” when she stated, “Our sense that our struggles were our own fault, our acceptance of the way things were, helped keep American industry humming to the benefit of the wealthy” (Smarsh, pg. 44). It’s clearly evident that these policies implemented nearly 20 years before her birth had significant ramifications on her generation's outlook on government aid.

I had the privilege of becoming acquaintances with an Uber driver by the name of Scott Schawver. Over the course of an intimate series of conversations, I retrospectively saw many parallels and outlying features between his life and that of Sarah Smarsh. Scott, unlike Smarsh, grew up with a highly educated set of parents that conducted research at Stanford University on natural language processing and computational linguistics. However, after the passing of his father, Scott didn’t have the bandwidth to pursue and a traditional college education. He reconciled with me that this became a significant inhibitor of his earning potential, but also recognizes that he has the unique ability to supplement his lack of formal education with

upbringing and intuition. Much like the people mentioned by Smarsh he’s very idiosyncratic and prideful about getting any help to provide for his family of two daughters. Scott is 10 years older than Smarsh, but both their parents grew up with Raegan as president. The ramifications of Raegan's set social norms can be seen as a universal outcome of his generation. The most intriguing part of his narrative is how his two daughters are the manifestation of the author’s abstract unborn child. All the concepts of alluded to by Smarsh of raising,educating, and providing for this child plays out in reality for Scott. Smarsh illustrates this scenario where “poverty makes motherhood harder, and motherhood makes poverty harder. Single mothers and their children are, by far, the poorest type of family in the United States.” (Smarsh, pg. 20) Scott is a man with a heart of gold and chooses to pull himself by the bootstraps and shows compassion in the face of adversity much like rural America . Effective policy changes and progressive social norms can significantly help individuals in Scott’s position.

Sarah Smarsh’s book is an informative, well delivered, and eye-opening autobiography on growing up in rural America. Her story serves as a perfectly orchestrated exposè of modern political campaigns using euphemisms to cover the lack of support provided to rural America on both sides of the aisle. The 1960s was a turning point for laborers by way of policy and rhetoric. She carefully examines historical precedent that has made ramifications in her own life providing a novel and contextualized view American labor history. Policies from this period and two decades after during the Raegan era are a perfect demonstration of what caused the social regression that has occurred in rural America. Scott is another example of how those subjected to poverty by circumstance find themselves in similar mindsets regardless of intellect. He was presented with a varying set of cards but ultimately found himself in a similar position to Sarah and is making his way through poverty by ascertaining a more formal education and fighting

social stigma. This book is a representative culmination of America’s policy implementations over the past century.

Bibliography: United States Census. “Story Map Series.” Mtgis, United States Census, Jan. 2011, mtgisportal.geo.census.gov/arcgis/apps/MapSeries/index.html? appid=49cd4bc9c8eb444ab51218c1d5001ef6. Martinez-Matsuda, Veronica. “ILRLR 1100: Introduction to U.S. Labor and Working-Class History.” Class Lecture. Class Lecture, 2020, Ithaca. Smarsh, Sarah. Heartland: a Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth. Scribner, 2018....