Response to "A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative"

We have two very distinct views and options on the Dust Bowl.  One option, by Paul Bonnifield, is very hopeful and optimistic, while the other, by Donald Worster is very bleak and sad.  Bonnifield looks at the positive side of the story.  He looks at the people of the Dust Bowl and congratulates them on their “ability and talent… resourcefulness, fortitude and courage (page 2).”  Bonnifield goes on to talk about what the people did during those hard times when they were under the wrath of the dust storms.  He ends the paragraph with “Because those determined people did not flee the stricken area during a crisis, the nation today enjoys a better standard of living( page 2).” 

I recently was at a conference for Resident Assistants and one of the sessions I attended was all about creating a vision statement.  A vision builds on the positive things that have already happened and represents something bigger than a group of people can achieve together.  A vision statement needs to inspire others, be focused on the future, and be written with the end result in mind.  I think that Bonnifield has done a great job illustrating the people of the dust bowl.  With their help and determination, the nation “enjoys a better standard of living (page 2)."

            Worster’s point of view on the Dust Bowl is very negative.  He states, “The Dust Bowl… was the inevitable outcome of a culture that deliberately, self-consciously, set itself [the] task of dominating and exploiting the land for all it was worth (page 2).”  Worster’s point of view seems to say that dust bowl was created by the people because of their greed for the land and their lack of knowledge of what would happen if they tilled the land. 

            The Dust Bowl happened, and yes the people may have helped create the dust storms, but it is what they did afterward that counts.  The people’s ability to adapt or not also counts, some people where able to adapt to their surroundings while others moved to more stable environments and communities, such as California.  I think that it is the ability to take a negative situation and look at the positive outcomes, which is what Bonnifield has done.