The Effect of Place in "Tits-up in a Ditch"

In Proulx’s short story “Tits-up in a Ditch, the rural Midwest setting contributes to the death of Dakotah’s child. In the rural Midwest there is an attitude that hard work and labor is valued. Dakotah’s father, Verl, gets upset when one of his neighbor’s refers to the people in Wyoming as lazy. “It got around that she had said Wyoming people were lazy. Lazy! Verl was outraged” (84). Verl values hard work, and he and his wife, Bonita, have too much pride to accept handouts from anyone. When Dakotah considers accepting money from the government, “Neither Bonita nor Verl would hear of Dakotah’s going on welfare or accepting social services” (91). They would not accept money from anyone because they believed that, as citizens of Wyoming, they were not lazy people. Also, Living in Wyoming, Dakotah’s family holds the stubborn mindset that everything is fine the way that it is. When someone refers to the need of a traffic light at an intersection, Verl states that nothing is wrong with the intersection, stating, “Always been O.K. the way it is. Just got to be a little careful. People here never had trouble with it” (84). This stubborn mindset is evident in the way Verl treats Dakotah’s baby. Growing up in the rural Midwest, Verl thought that baby Verl needed to be tough. “Big Verl was so proud to have a boy and wanted him to be tough” (93). This prideful mindset leads to baby Verl’s death when big Verls puts him in the bed of the truck. Therefore, the rural Midwest and the prideful mindset associated with living in Wyoming effect the actions and decisions of Dakotah’s family that lead to the death of baby Verl.