The Rural Way of Life in The River Warren :: warren

The Rural Way of Life in The River Warren Anyone who has taken a trip across the midwestern states has seen a different way of life. The River Warren gave the readers a sense of this rural way of life around the Two-Speed semi crash. Corn, wheat, and other agricultural products can be seen for miles and miles in all directions. As you drive through, you can see farmers hard at work, combines, tractors, and bailers all working at full speed, sun up to sun down. It doesn't take long too see how much these farms must work in order to survive. Why must these farmers devote so much of their lives to the profession? The answer to this question can become very complicated. When one sells any product, economics is the dominant factor with regards to price and the quantity of one's particular product. Many external factors play a huge role in the supply and demand of farm products. The focus of this paper is to explore some of the factors that make farming such a hard, volatile business. In the book, the Gruber family is a good example of a small farming family. Leo is the head of the household and, therefore, spends all or most of his time working on the farm. Jeff Gruber, Leo's son, speaks of his father's work in one passage. Leo stated his father's "capacity for work grated on him (76)." This family was always forced to work. At night, the tractor-trailer would come to load cattle. Jeff stated the days were full of "plowing, discing, harrowing, planting, cultivating, harvesting, and feeding the cattle (76)." Growing up in this setting meant work at a young age for the children. Jeff and his younger brother, Chris, are not exceptions. In the story, Chris is killed in a farming accident. Chris's youth and his inexperience with farm equipment were outweighed by the needs of the farm. Unfortunately, this kind of tragedy happens in real life as well. The book describes this way of life in many sections but never answered why life was like this. Why this muc h work was need was never answered. Now we will explore this question. First thing we need to look at are some of the external factors that apply to the family farm.