Where the Heart Is | Social Concerns

Where the Heart Is Social Concerns

Billie Letts tackles a number of contemporary American social concerns in her 1995 novel Where the Heart Is. The most pressing are issues of social class, teenage pregnancy, women's reproductive choice, and education; all told within the context of the classic pursuit of the American Dream.

When the novel opens, seventeen-yearold Novalee Nation is seven months pregnant and traveling west with her boyfriend, Willy Jack Pickins, the father of her child.

The westward odyssey, a historical path of adventure and hope, sets the tone for a classic American search for prosperity; in this case, however, a separate individual dream is being pursued by each character.

Willy's movement West is his ostensible quest for a secure railroad job, but in reality he is more enamored with the idea of suffering a work-related "accident" like his cousin's tragic loss of a thumb that resulted in disability...
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