What is The Midwest?
Clear borders and a uniform landscape? Shared traits and recipes? Is Wisconsin the most Midwest of all?
Indiana Cornfield
A cursory dive into Travel Writing reveals two pervasive types of writing: about the trips we’ve taken, or want to take; and about the places we reside in. For my own TW class, most of the work we do is on the journey, but for our last unit we focus on Place, the Sense of a Place, with one specific place in mind: The Midwest.
We wrestle with what constitutes the Midwest. Is there a specific geography or landscape? Are there shared traits, behaviors, jobs, recipes? An overlooked beauty?
The opening activity asks students to identify the states and traits they believe constitute the Midwest/Midwesterners. (For those curious: with over seventy responses, and though residing in Indiana, the students’ top picks were Illinois and “family-oriented,” respectively) Students are baffled that peers say Idaho is in the Midwest, and that not enough picked Wisconsin. (“Wisconsin is the most Midwest state of all!” one student shouted, upon seeing the results.)
We read four texts:
“It’s Amazing How Many Americans Think They Live in the Midwest When They Don’t,” by Ben Kesling and Jennifer Levitz
“Sahara-Level Sand Dunes, Mediterranean-Blue Water: Welcome to Michigan,” by Lucinda Hahn.
Two essays by Fort Wayne native Michael Martone: “The Flatness” and “Manufacturing Place.” (Initially appearing in literary journals, these two became part of the collection The Flatness and Other Landscapes )
My hope for the unit, beyond our standards, is for students to wrestle with the meaning of this place—a place many of them are from, believe they know well, maybe a little too well, and are ready to move on from.
Though I’ve been fortunate to travel beyond the region, I’ve only ever lived in the Midwest (and here it is, according to the U.S. Census Bureau). I lived in Chicago from 2008 to 2011 (and “in the city,” not greater Chicagoland yet still claiming to have lived “in the city”), with the before and after all occurring in Fort Wayne. I’ve always been a Midwesterner.
And yes, as Martone points out, it is flat. How could you deny it. And there is a lot of corn. But it is also marsh and prairie, dune and cliff, woodland and coastline. And even if outsiders persist in saying, “But still, it is flat,” Martone argues it is because of the flatness that we are wise to the incremental gradations along the way. (Or as one student put it, “It’s because everything here is so flat and boring that we have a greater appreciation for the places that are actually beautiful.”)
Most summers going back to 2011 my family has spent time in northern Michigan; it has come to represent the season for me, this place that seems not very Midwestern (especially if you visit Sleeping Bear Dunes). And each weekday in Chicago, I took Lake Shore Drive, which runs beside one of the world’s great freshwater bodies, a body so vast it seems oceanic. And so that too is Midwest to me. And most weekends we head to Franke Park, to hike its woodland trails and walk its streams when low enough. It is one of my favorite places in the world. That too is Midwest.
Dune Trail at Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan
Oak Street Beach, Chicago
In “Manufacturing Place,” Martone argues, in part, that a place depends on what we make of it: “there is no such thing as a place, only our own inscriptions of it we carry around in our own nervous systems.” That in the Midwest, along with cars, steel, and wire, Place is also manufactured here.
Whether you are from here or not, I’d love to know: what is the Midwest to you? How do you define it? What lasting images or impressions hold court? Share in the comments or send a message.
As always, thanks for reading.
I wholeheartedly agree with your student who claimed, Wisconsin is the most midwest of all! 🤓Love visiting other states and countries but wouldn’t want to live anywhere else but the Midwest❤️🤍💚💛!
I polled Will before he had the chance to read, though I did send him the and he’s reading is now. His response to What is the Midwest? : “The Midwest is a distinct region apart from the coasts, south, and mountain regions. It is culturally focused on collective normality with a rejection of coastal elitism.”
I’d say I agree. Where can the most Midwest experience be found? Small town all-ages bars on a Friday night, which you can find in Wisconsin and Michigan.