Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth

Chapter 3 primarily concerns the impact of geography on Smarsh’s family and their prospects, as well as the common perception of an inherent difference between country people and city folk. Living in rural Kansas as farmers was rare when she was growing up and is even more so today. Making a living as a homesteader and a farmer is difficult, and many do not succeed. Smarsh grew up during “the farm crisis,” when banks were foreclosing on farms that had lost much of their land value. She grew up “in place people said was dying” (88).

Due to the fact that farming as a way of life was becoming harder, Smarsh explains how she was encouraged to move away, to “get out” of country life. Most notably, her Grandma Teresa, Nick’s mother, took a special interest in her education, treating her like she was special. She wanted Smarsh to be recognized for her skills and intelligence, not her body. This is important as Teresa was a woman who grew up on a farm, fought for an education and opportunities, but ended up going back to a farm when she married a farmer. There is the sense that Teresa wanted Smarsh to do and have things that she could not.

This sense of escape is tied to the common perception of a divide between urban and rural people. Smarsh describes people’s disbelief when she tells them about her upbringing on a farm, as if people can’t believe such lives still exist. Country life is a novelty, and people often pay to experience an imitation of that life with agritourism and hayrides, etc.

Smarsh points out that the divide between urban and rural is often assumed to be more than geographical; society presumes there is an innate difference between country people and city people. One of the ways this presents is through the use of slurs to identify and separate certain groups. For Smarsh, the terms that she remembers sticking are “white trash” and “trailer trash.” However, as “all sorts of stereotyped groups know, the popular image—selected or fixated upon by someone more powerful than you—doesn’t tell you much about the life” (100).

As a result of these derogatory terms and the prejudice that goes along with it, country people also see the divide between urban and rural as something inherent. In Smarsh’s words: “this bred in us a distrust of just about anyone who held a power we didn’t—even those who tried to help” (100). As economic turmoil continues to make farming life more difficult, eventually country people accept the hard work required of them without feeling owed a benefit. Instead, the blame for their disadvantages turns inward, in Smarsh’s view. Separated from big cities and politics by distance as well as experience only serves to deepen the perceived natural divide. Grim prospects also deepen the conviction among country folk that their children need to “get out” in order to have a better life—or survive at all.

Still, although the country way of life was dying around Smarsh—and continues to die—farmers and rural people produce the food and materials needed for city life. So, there is still a symbiotic relationship between the two. Unfortunately, as Smarsh often witnessed, the relationship is often one-sided in favor of urban society. The country is often coopted, both literally and metaphorically, by the wealthy and urban elite. For example, some of Nick’s land was taken by eminent domain to make a reservoir to provide water to nearby Wichita—and the people nearest to the reservoir could not use it. Similarly, “country chic” clothing, trucks, and styles are popular, though they are clumsy imitations of actual farm life. For Smarsh, the country is not a style, it’s a place.

Smarsh felt the disadvantages of growing up in the country, physically separated from places that would offer her more opportunity, as a frustration, like having a piano but lacking the training to play. As a result, she threw herself into her education. Even in school, however, she faced difficulties and was targeted by teachers who knew that her parents wouldn’t complain about her treatment. 

However, although Smarsh saw hope in education—and eventually did achieve a lot academically and in her career—she points out that the hope that intelligent and talented rural children will be able to leave implies they must go to the city and find success. Smarsh says that often results in failure; growing up in the country gives a person no experience with city life, and it can be difficult to adjust. For example, she tells a story about Betty deciding to buy a house in Wichita. Though she finds one that is available for her small budget, they do not even stay one night, as they find it infested with roaches. Not only does flight from rural environments devalue those environments, but it exacerbates the divide not only between classes but between geographic constituencies in America.

Although leaving is difficult, the country still faces the issue of “rural flight,” as more and more farmers move to cities (119). Growing up, Smarsh saw farms die when their farmers died, because almost no children were encouraged to become farmers themselves and take over from their parents. Even her own family moved toward town once her parents divorced and sold their small farmhouse. So, the country is becoming emptier as cities become more crowded. The result is that country people are caught between a rock and a hard place—rural living is becoming almost impossible due to industrial farming, but city living is also becoming more difficult due to overpopulation, high unemployment, and the pain of transition.

In the end, Smarsh concludes that there is a distinct line between urban and rural in America. However, she points out that “the United State developed the notion that a dividing line of class and geography separated two essentially different kinds of people” (125). She presents herself as an argument against this, saying that the divide is “about a difference of experience, not of humanity” (125).