Heartland by Sarah Smarsh is a personal memoir about growing up in rural Kansas. As a successful writer for several national papers, Smarsh looks back upon how much she has overcome to arrive at her career. She grew up on a farm, raised mostly by her grandma because her mom had gotten pregnant when she was barely a teenager. Smarsh recalls the ups and downs of her childhood, focusing on the unique problems which poverty presents. In her maturity, she sees how easily people who have never encountered poverty could be tempted to dismiss it as someone else's problem or to view welfare as an unnecessary expense, but Smarsh's purpose in writing this book is to provide insight into the real effects of poverty and its systemic nature.
First, Smarsh observes how poverty is a generational problem; it's cyclical and consequently very difficult to escape. For example, she was born to a teen mom who was also born to a teen mom. Since Smarsh's grandma was constantly remarrying and moving and seeking a stable home, she was unable to provide her daughter with the advantages which wealthier kids experience. Smarsh and her mom both grew up facing the constant threat of homelessness and death. More importantly, they were not the only family struggling. They lived in a community of similarly disenfranchised people who grew tough and reserved through their constant struggles. Smarsh, herself, only is able to leave this cycle because she stayed focused on achievement and narrowly escaped teen pregnancy.
Smarsh observes how life in the big city had almost lulled her into complacency, causing her to forget her childhood. She's disassociated some from those experiences, but she also expresses a constant hurt and empathy for her family's continued financial struggles. Although she has left, she still feels like a part of that community, but she must fight to preserve this heritage. In her daily life, Smarsh feels no connection to poverty or rural life, so she can identify how her peers in the city remain largely unconscious of the real gravity and consequence of poverty. They casually complain about the expense of government welfare, but they have never benefitted from the essential service themselves. In writing this book, Smarsh attempts to reconcile this observed disparity by explaining how she bridged the gap between poverty and success in her own life.
