Summary of Sarah Smarsh's Heartland

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 The farm was 30 miles west of Wichita on the silty loam of southern Kansas. It had three nicknames: the breadbasket of the world, the air capital of the world, and tornado alley. The area was known for its government-subsidized grain production, airplane-manufacturing industry, and its tornadoes.

#2 Betty and Arnie met at a dance, and after a few dates, she moved into his farmhouse. She learned how to cook for him and his field workers, and she fell in love with him. He treated her better than she had ever been treated.

#3 After a few months, Arnie asked Betty to marry him. She thought she was done with all that, but she ended up marrying him outside the Church anyway, in September 1977, at a little chapel on a highway next to a trailer park.

#4 Arnie had a huge impact on my life, as he was the one who asked Betty to two-step. He was such a bright light for us that I thought of calling you after his middle name: August.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669368281

IRB Media

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Insights on Sarah Smarsh's Heartland

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The farm was 30 miles west of Wichita on the silty loam of southern Kansas. It had three nicknames: the breadbasket of the world, the air capital of the world, and tornado alley. The area was known for its government-subsidized grain production, airplane-manufacturing industry, and its tornadoes.

#2

Betty and Arnie met at a dance, and after a few dates, she moved into his farmhouse. She learned how to cook for him and his field workers, and she fell in love with him. He treated her better than she had ever been treated.

#3

After a few months, Arnie asked Betty to marry him. She thought she was done with all that, but she ended up marrying him outside the Church anyway, in September 1977, at a little chapel on a highway next to a trailer park.

#4

Arnie had a huge impact on my life, as he was the one who asked Betty to two-step. He was such a bright light for us that I thought of calling you after his middle name: August.

#5

I liked the laugh that Arnie had, and I often followed him around the farm when I was a little girl. His name represents a corrective, or at least a defiance, on both counts. I didn’t know what august meant, but I knew how to pronounce it.

#6

I grew up on a farm in the Great Plains, which was spurned by more powerful corners of the country as a cultural wasteland. I didn’t know anyone who was truly middle class.

#7

Betty left Wichita with her baby daughter in 1963, and ended up in Chicago. She had no money, but she had a job and a cheap apartment. She was unimpressed with Chicago, but she