No Man's Land
Eula Biss
 Note From No Man's Land

The title essay is divided into 6 sections each one designating a place ( On the Border, In the Water, In the Prairie.) It is an extreme version of the place essay we are working on. She uses place as a motif to ground the essay while she explores the theme of fear. The essay is primarily her experience. She quotes other people and The Little House on the Prairie books but they are in relation to her experience with them.

A found that the statement her cousin made to her "I realized this is what white people do to each other- they cultivate each others fears. Its very violent." Biss writes fear as a branch of racism. When she first moved to Chicago she didn't know what she was supposed to be afraid of and therefore she wasn't. Ignorance--innocence-- is bliss. She said once she learned what she was supposed to avoid she no longer felt compelled to because she knew better.

Biss creates a wholesome image of the park near her home during the summer-- "Spanish-speaking families make picnics on the grass and Indian families have games of cricket and father dip their babies in the lake and black teenagers sit ont eh benches and young men play volleyball in great cloud of dust till dusk." She contrasts what her landlord says about how the summer "brings out the riffraff." Biss uses description to leT the reader draw their own conclusion about whether or not these people should be feared.

Questions:
What is the area like today? was it completely gentrified?
When your husband comments about how he likes the area you live how it is were you in agreement with him or making some larger point about romanticizing an area?