www.goodreads.com/book/show/6215979-methland
Methland is a
story written by Nick Reding. The story
came about by what he had seen happening to the small towns across America. He himself had lived in Oelwein, Iowa. A small town just across the Fayette County
line. Oelwein is a typical small town on
the surface. The businesses in town have
been owned for years by the same families.
There will never be a Starbucks in Oelwein. In Oelwein is business as usual. Everyone goes about their normal lives but on
the darker underbelly it is a different story.
Down the back alleys by the burned out homes is a man in a coat shaking in
spite of the 90 degree weather (Reding par. 10). A drug has taken hold of the people and the
economy from farming and local businesses, this drug is methamphetamine. For more than six years Reding has watched
methamphetamine take over Oelwein, but it wasn’t until 2005 when news of the
methamphetamine epidemic began flooding the national media (Reding par, 11).
Like Methland, Winter’s
Bones shows the effects of a drug on a small town. Both these towns are slowly being consumed by
methamphetamine. This drug is easy and
less expressive to make. This is why
meth is dubbed the working man’s drug.
Both these stories illustrate how devastating meth can be once it takes
hold. Methland supports the story line in Winter’s Bone by giving it
weight, supporting the story line.
Reding actually did research on the meth epidemic. Reding lived, touched, smelled and documented
the methamphetamine epidemic that is spreading through small town across
America.
Works Cited
Reding, Nick. Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town. New York:
Bloomsbury Publishing. 2010. Print.
Woodrell, Daniel. Winter's Bone. New York: Bay Back Books. Little, Brown and Company.
2006. Print.
Reding, Nick. Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town. New York:
Bloomsbury Publishing. 2010. Print.
Woodrell, Daniel. Winter's Bone. New York: Bay Back Books. Little, Brown and Company.
2006. Print.
Kathryn, you did a very good job on summarizing the article and comparing it with the story "Winter Bones." I think that meth is also popular in cities and not just small towns. I used to live in a lot of major cities and one of the cities being Phoenix, Meth was commonly used there, but not reported so much by the media. I like how the author of Methland did a lot of research on his article regarding the use of Meth in the community.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Natasha. Meth is everywhere. It effects all kinds of people. I have read some posts who don't see meth as a "teenage drug", or popular among teenagers. The fact is meth is out there for anyone, and drug dealers will always target children and teenagers. Most drug dealers do hand out their drugs to children like candy, they do this because they will have a addict for life.
ReplyDeleteI know that the new fad in the drug world is heroin, which to me is terrifying. Most prescription medications for pain (that are popular) are opiate derivatives. To bypass federal regulations of prescriptions, people are now just smoking or shooting up heroin.
I think both of these stories are great and good for people to get a hold of. Education is power and if people want to battle the drugs that are giving small town America a bad name, its good to do the research.
Your summary was very well executed. The comparison to Winter's Bone was correct and well thought out.
ReplyDeleteThank you, very kind of you to say.
DeleteGood Post. You very clearly summarized not only Winter's Bone, but also Methland. I think you demostrate correlation between the two stories in a simple and effective way. Both stories depict the terrible events that occur when the powerfuk drug of meth is introduced to a humans life. Luckily I have never been involved with this drug but reading these two storied and your summarization of the stories put us in the front row seats of the potential this drug has on people.
ReplyDelete