Debra Marquart The Horizontal World Summary

There are many remote and bland places in America, but not many can top the Upper Midwest - at least, according to Debra Marquart, author of The Horizontal World. According to her experience growing up there, the entire region is remote, undistinguished, and unimpressive to even its early settlers. Generally, she depicts the area as a very montone and uninteresting place to be, a territory that must be crossed in order to find more interesting attractions. However, such a desolate wasteland can and does have its silver lining. To her ancestors, it was a beacon of hope as they immigrated from Russia; a movement that transformed a land of nothing into a future.
One strategy Marquart uses is simile. To illustrate her point of the Upper Midwest’s lack of character, she uses similes when she writes, “Driving west from Fargo on I-94, the freeway that cuts through the state of North Dakota, you’ll encounter a road so lonely, treeless and devoid of rises and curves in places that it will feel like one long-held pedal steel guitar note.” (1). Without any sort of attractions, the road just passes through a region “one must endure to get to more interesting places” (33). This comparison of an entire region and a singular, neverending guitar note show how devoid of life the area really is, invisible to tourists and passersby. Thus, the

abandonment of this area rings true in the words of Marquart.
Another name given by Marquart is unremarkable, using hyperboles to effective convey her message.

She cites Edwin James, chronicler of Major Stephen Long’s survey, who called the Upper Midwest a “dreary plain, wholly unfit for cultivation” (39) and “uninhabitable by a people depending on agriculture for subsistence.” (40) This commentary stemmed from its lack of potential he saw in the land even before its urbanization. This reveals how useless the territory was perceived to be, even by its earliest settlers. Because of James’s influence and his views on the area, its reputation has taken an irreversible blow to its

reputation.
Despite these negative outlooks, the Upper Midwest still had its silver lining: the possibility for a future. Marquart uses positive connotation towards the great-grandparents’ and grandparents’ immigration to America, stating that they “wouldn’t have known the etymology of the word [eureka], but they would have felt it, the anticipation, as they waited along with the other immigrants from Russia to receive their allotments of land.” (70) This demonstrates how even an empty space such as the Upper Midwest has the potential of hope.
In conclusion, the Upper Midwest of America is an isolated area few can live up to in terms of loneliness. According to author Debra Marquart, it’s lonely, unexceptional, and unimpressive to even its first inhabitants. Straight roads pass right through it with no intention of displaying what the region may have to offer. Even a renowned scientist of his time put such irreversible indignity to permanently damage its reputation. However, the land’s silver lining was acting as a beacon of hope as they started a new life in America; a movement that transformed a land of nothing into the dream of the future.