Conclusion

Abstract

The conclusion of Spoon River America argues that postmodern portrayals of small towns in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries broadly fell into two categories: the exotic and the surreal. The book concludes with brief analyses of popular media portrayals of small towns in films like Heathers (1988), Fargo (1996), Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017); television series like Twin Peaks (1990), Stranger Things (2016-2019), and Ozark (2017); and the radio program A Prairie Home Companion (1974-2016), all of which display variations of Masters’s character tropes. The book ends with a consideration of why Spoon River Anthology’s popularity continues despite changes in perceptions of the small town as representative of the nation.