Summary and Response to a Critical Article

For this week’s blog post in English 102, I chose an article that I had planned to use for my Essay #3. I summarized the article " Straight Dope" in response to how it relates to Winter's Bone and why it would be a good article to support my Essay #3.

The article “Straight Dope” written by Nick King, refers to the phenomenon of drug use in small town America. In the article he speaks of Nick Reding’s story “The Death and Life of an American Small Town” and how this particular article climbed to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. The article, “The Death and Life of an American Small Town” also won the Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize for 2009. Nick King grew up in the small town of Southeast Missouri and wrote about how the town that he grew up in was considered to be the meth capital of the world. Nick King mentions in the article “Straight Dope” that the DEA statistics states that Missouri leads the nation in the amount of meth labs discovered in the United States every year since 2003. Throughout the article he reflects over his youth and how he was exposed to meth and also how he used meth at the age of 15 and had become an addict by the age of 17. Nick King explains the importance of exposing the truth about drug use in rural areas and how many people do not understand the point he is trying to make which is that drug use happens more often in rural areas than in urban areas. Nick King also speaks of the sensationalism of meth use and how some meth users are just normal people and how others may at times die from using it but not often from his experience. He talks about meth use and how it is kept private for the user. He speaks of how the public doesn’t recognize when meth users are using. The important town members love to expose the meth users as much as they could which put fear in the meth users so they kept their meth use very private. Nick King also mentions that they use many other drugs along with meth use and that many of these drug users were at the top of the class. They were family-oriented and attended Sunday church services. The meth creators were proud of what they were doing because it was a business. In the town they had entertainment, but they still chose to do meth. They relied on drugs to have fun. They thought drug use was happening all over the country and not just in small town America. Nick King mentions a friend that he had who was a meth cook by the name of Hawk Bodean. Hawk Bodean was smart, nice, honest and sold drugs as a hobby. He also ate well, lifted weights and was involved with the drug trade. He could also become violent if crossed. Nick King and his friends respected the police even though there were some dirty cops who also used drugs. They didn’t like that they were dirty cops, but appreciated that they weren’t going to get busted by them. They also had a respect for Jesus, even though they were acid users. Nick King mentions his friend Matt and how he was a heavy acid user, but always went back to God. He was unstable in his relationships and had good reason for this. When he was young he attended a Baptist church where they abused him for memorizing Bible verses. In the school a tragedy occurred where a student’s throat was slashed by another student. This is what helped change Matt. Nick King didn’t realize how messed up his town was until he moved away to go to college. He attended Mid-Western University where the students there were locals from New York and L.A. His classmates thought him and his friend completely out of control meth users. The journalists who worked on the drug use in rural America thought the same about them. Nick King mentions that Redding does an exceptional job of looking through other people’s eyes. They both have found unstable people and speak about their lives and their situations and how they have made a difference.  He mentions that journalists can’t completely explain the way that it really is because they haven’t lived through it.

 The article “Straight Dope” relates to Winter’s Bone in many different ways. One of the ways that they relate to each other is by the comparison of meth use in small town America and how it affects the people that use it. In both the article and the story tragedies occur because of drug use. Guilt occurs in the article “Straight Dope” and in the story Winter’s Bone. In the story Winter’s Bone the dad Jessup is guilty because he lost the family home due to his irresponsibility. In the story “Straight Dope” they proved that they were guilty by attending church often, after using meth.  In both stories they wanted to make a better life for themselves. In Winter’s Bone Ree wanted to make a better life by saving her family’s home. In the article “Straight Dope” Nick King wanted to make a better life for himself by attending college. In both stories Nick King and Ree were around the same age, so they were both young. The article “Straight Dope” will be a good article to use in my essay about Winter’s Bone because both the article and the essay are about small town America and the negative effects of meth use. I will be able to connect sadness in both of the stories and the feeling of helplessness.

Works Cited:

King, Nick. "Straight Dope." American Conservative 2011: 24-7. Alt-PressWatch; Alt-PressWatch. Web. 25 Oct. 2012 .