Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth

Author Sarah Smarsh’s Prologue functions as a letter to August, who is the voice in her head and imaginary friend she talks to throughout her life. Although August is not real, she “took the form of a baby I either would or would not have” (1). Smarsh references August frequently throughout the book and uses the imaginary child as a sounding board for many of her decisions, as she considers what she would want for her own child. 

By explaining to August that she was raised in a family with few economic opportunities, Smarsh also explains to the reader that the book that follows is about her journey from a poor family into a different kind of life. August is a plot device that creates a sense of objectivity about the circumstances she faced growing up. Still, Smarsh admits that this kind of objective view is new for her, as she “was raised to put all responsibility on the individual, on the bootstraps with which she ought to pull herself up” (3). Contradicting this viewpoint, she learned while young that economic and personal outcomes have much more to do with environment than will.