The world made straight summary. THE WORLD MADE STRAIGHT 2022-12-08

The world made straight summary Rating: 6,7/10 170 reviews

"The World Made Straight" is a novel by Ron Rash that tells the story of Leonard Shuler, a young man living in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina in the 1970s. The novel is set against the backdrop of the region's tumultuous history, including the Civil War, the timber and tobacco industries, and the ongoing struggles of the working class.

At the beginning of the novel, Leonard is a high school dropout who is struggling to find his place in the world. He is drawn to the illicit world of marijuana farming, and begins working for a local dealer named Carlton Toomey. Leonard is drawn to the easy money and the sense of belonging that the drug trade provides, but he also struggles with feelings of guilt and the fear of getting caught.

As Leonard becomes more involved in the drug trade, he is forced to confront the harsh realities of the world around him. He witnesses the brutality of the drug business and the corruption that pervades every level of society. He also begins to understand the deep-seated injustices that have shaped his community, including the exploitation of the working class and the ongoing effects of the Civil War.

Despite these challenges, Leonard is able to find hope and redemption through his relationships with the other characters in the novel. He forms close bonds with his mentor, a former Vietnam War veteran named Travis, and with a young woman named Maddy, who helps him see the world in a different light. With their help, Leonard is able to confront his own demons and begin to build a better life for himself.

Ultimately, "The World Made Straight" is a powerful and moving story about the struggle for identity and the search for meaning in a world that is often harsh and unforgiving. Through the experiences of Leonard and the other characters, the novel offers a poignant commentary on the human condition and the enduring resilience of the human spirit.

The World Made Straight Summary and Analysis (like SparkNotes)

the world made straight summary

Why would he want to better himself? Meanwhile, the Toomeys, who do business with Leonard, are not finished exacting their pound of flesh, this time from Leonard. Nevertheless, he concludes that for most, music is less symbolically meaningful than it is background accompaniment to their leisure activities. Leonard is an authority on the 1863 Shelton Laurel Massacre, when Confederate troops killed their Union neighbors. Moreover, through other characters in the novel, Rash also shows how music can function as a tool of destructive manipulation. The houses, cars and clothes seem lived in rather than designed. Travis pushes his luck; his third time trespassing, Toomey and son Hubert catch him and cut his foot so badly he requires surgery.

Next

Marshall Digital Scholar

the world made straight summary

Candler, and learn of the county's seismic upheaval during the Shelton Laurel Massacre and its aftermath. Ponder Grandfather Carlton Store Manager Mr. He is the descendant of a Confederate doctor forced to participate, while Travis has kin among the victims. He starts off as a want to be tough guy who hangs with the rebels. He steals a few plants to sell to Leonard Shuler, a divorced and disgraced former high school teacher, who is living in a trailer and selling drugs.

Next

The World Made Straight Details and Credits

the world made straight summary

Travis is trying to find out who he is. DETAILS share BUY THIS BOOK close. Please see the supplementary resources provided below for other helpful content related to this book. The two meet when Travis steals marijuana plants off the land of Carlton Toomey, a notorious brawler, and sells them to Leonard. Rash's finely wrought third novel after Saints at the River follows the wayward trajectory of high school dropout Travis Shelton, who stumbles on a neighbor's crop of marijuana while out fishing in Madison County, N. Nevertheless, he concludes that for most, music is less symbolically meaningful than it is background accompaniment to their leisure activities. This sets him at an accomplishment something also his father never did.

Next

The World Made Straight movie review (2015)

the world made straight summary

Her research and teaching interests include twentieth- and twenty-first-century drama, English modernism, and contemporary Southern fiction, and her articles on those topics have appeared in The Carolina Quarterly, Christianity and Literature, The Cresset, Modern Drama, The Southern Quarterly, and Theology. Full Book Notes and Study Guides Sites like SparkNotes with a The World Made Straight study guide or cliff notes. Leonard Shuler, a former schoolteacher, now small-time drug dealer, whose career was ended by a student. Order custom essay The World Made Straight with free plagiarism report Major themes Knowledge vs. Dena, once a pretty young woman, who has become a heavy drug user.

Next

THE WORLD MADE STRAIGHT

the world made straight summary

Director Credit Director Writer Credit Writer Writer Cast Credit Lori Harvey Mrs. He gains knowledge by Leonard teaching him in the trailer. Knowledge never leaves you. Here Travis is trying to portray a tough guy, ignorant attitude when really he is a scrawny boy. Travis sees himself heading down a road of hardships, Success, and failure. The Civil War sections are less successful, but they convey the past's hold on the present and ground Rash's Appalachian wanderers in a shared vision of American immobility. There, Travis and Leonard study the Civil War ledgers and journals of a Dr.


Next

The World Made Straight Summary Example (400 Words)

the world made straight summary

He moves in with Leonard and his pill-popping girlfriend. In all, however , the metaphorical and historical weight that the film places on the story's shoulders sits rather awkwardly, and the characters just can't bear the weight, even with Earle's plaintive and heroically un-ironic songs ringing out on the soundtrack. Before long, he has moved out of his parents' home to live with a onetime schoolteacher who now lives in a trailer outside town, deals a few drugs, and studies journals from the Civil War. Civil War ghosts hover over a scrappy teenager and his surrogate father in a Southern tale that mixes suspense, coming-of-age and historical elements. Orr's photography pays loving attention to the texture of forests and hills and the way that sunlight flashes over a winding road at dawn. You certainly couldn't accuse the novel's adapter, Here, as elsewhere, the film goes the extra country mile to invest standard crime movie types with rich, eccentric life: Leonard is a former high school teacher who lost his wife, daughter and job in an incident tactically withheld till later in the story, and though he has a honeyed bourbon drawl and a beer-drinker's gut-first walk, there's something intriguingly private and sensitive about him. Atwell Mother Emily Mrs.

Next

The World Made Straight by Ron Rash

the world made straight summary

But Travis will learn from the mistakes and gain knowledge of the subject and move on to better himself for the future and what ever it may hold. Triplett Fairground Cowboy Wesley Leonard's Grandmother Kera Patient Shank Travis Hubert Dena Leonard Mr. Travis finds his way not the usual way of going through grade school but successfully gaining a GED. Characters: Travis Shelton, 17 years old, high school dropout discouraged from bettering himself by his tobacco farmer father. Short Book Summaries Sites with a short overview, synopsis, book report, or summary of The World Made Straight by Ron Rash. Do feuds ever really end? The filmmakers take care to situate the crime, threats and one-upmanship within the context of reality. After a brief stay in a clinic where Travis is tended by a kind nurse and future love interest named Lori As you've probably gathered, a good portion of "The World Made Straight" is an Appalachian-flavored realistic drama about hard people living through hard times.

Next

The World Made Straight (2015)

the world made straight summary

Is history ever really in the past? Anderson Producer Credit Associate Producer Co-Executive Producer Executive Producer Associate Producer Executive Producer Co-Executive Producer Producer Co-Producer Executive Producer Executive Producer Co-Executive Producer Executive Producer Producer Executive Producer Producer Line Producer Co-Producer. Presentation 1 Abstract or Summary In The Sociology of Rock Music, Simon Frith considers S. We found no such entries for this book title. . And the characters' economic distress always seems practical, never a storytelling conceit. Moreover, through other characters in the novel, Rash also shows how music can function as a tool of destructive manipulation.

Next

The World Made Straight

the world made straight summary

Ignorance - self knowledge is the most important part of the protagonist, Travis. Leonard Shuler, 20 years his senior, is a bootlegger, drug-dealer and former teacher who lost his job, wife and beloved daughter after being the innocent victim of a drug bust. Knowledge consumes us in the fact we are always looking for new information and trying to obtain that all knowing self. The novel drifts in the middle, as Travis gets serious with Lori, his first-ever girlfriend, while Leonard gets serious about his own life and stops dealing. Earle is a revelation here: he's given decent performances elsewhere, notably in David Simon's HBO series "The Wire" and "Treme," but this is a full-bodied character turn filled with right-on choices, including the measured, vaguely philosophical way that Carlton delivers threats, as if he's always speaking hypothetically even when describing exactly what he's going to do to someone. The movie never entirely rises to the height of its ambitions, though: there are moments when you can practically hear it straining to impart significance to what is, in the end, a fairly standard sensitive-young-criminal-in-over-his-head story, and the final stretch seems torn between wanting to resolve everything with violence and telling us violence never solves anything. Their fates become entwined as the community's terrible past and corrupt present lead to a violent reckoning with the marijuana farmer and with a Civil War massacre that continues to divide an Appalachian community.


Next

the world made straight summary

Then Lori makes a seemingly minor miscalculation, and Travis unravels again. Carlton Toomey, a ruthless and wily farmer and drug dealer. Rash's vivid prose depicts his characters' dependence on drugs, alcohol and hell-raising with sympathy, rendering their shared sense of futility and economic entrapment without sentimentality or easy answers. The Toomeys return, and the story roars back to life, with white-knuckle suspense right up to the end. Before coming to EMU, she taught at the North Carolina Correctional Center for Women and at Valparaiso University in Indiana, where she held a Lilly Fellowship in Humanities and the Arts from 2001-2003. Table of contents A Summary In 1970s Western North Carolina, a young man stumbles across a grove of marijuana, sees an opportunity to make some easy money, and steps into the jaws of a bear trap. Travis Shelton is a daredevil, a 17-year-old high-school dropout, bitterly at odds with his mean-spirited daddy, a tobacco farmer in the North Carolina mountains.


Next