The Mighty Red

“A few months before, his mom had worried about field chemicals. Ever since Diz had started using Gramoxone which contained parquat, she had been paranoid that he might slip up. A mistaken taste of the stuff would destroy your liver and kidneys. Even getting it on your skin was very bad.”

The environmental degradation caused by large-scale farming looms in the background of this novel. Hugo understands that corporate farming and the widespread use of pesticides destroy the environment, and he also reflects on how unhealthy sugar is and how problematic it is to allot so much of the earth’s arable land for its production. Through depictions such as these, the author draws attention to real-life conditions not only in the Red River Valley but in rural regions all across the United States.

“There was something mysterious and magical about Kismet and dating her helped Gary feel sane. He suspected it was her Indian, oops, Native American blood, though he never mentioned it again after the first time.”

Gary believes that he loves Kismet, but passages like these demonstrate that he sees her through the lens of difference. Because she is not white like he is, Gary exoticizes her. He uses words like “mysterious” to describe her just because she is Indigenous. It is clear that he perceives whiteness as “normal” and Indigeneity as “other.”

“Now, in the valley the aquifer was being tapped out to make perfect potatoes for McDonald’s fries. There were no more secret bubbling springs.”

Many of this novel’s critiques of the corporatization of contemporary culture come from Hugo. Here, he reflects on the death of small farms and how an increasing percentage of the United States’s farmland is dedicated to growing crops that do not provide healthy food to American people. Instead of growing vegetables and edible grains, much of the area’s land is dedicated to animal feed or genetically modified potatoes to sell to fast food chains.