I learned an amazing amount by reading The Hollow
Ground by Natalie S. Harnett. Set in 1960’s in Northeast Pennsylvania,
it focuses on the coal fires under Carbondale/Centralia and their impact on the
community and on the family of 11 year-old Brigid Howley. Even though I had
driven Route 6 through Carbondale, I did not know about these fires. Harnett’s vivid descriptions helped me to
image the smells, sounds and temperatures associated with this catastrophe:
“An entire playground had been condemned because the ground was too hot for dogs or kids to play. ... Sinkholes, quick and sudden,
plunging open at your feet."
We know that miners’ lives are extremely difficult, but this story recounts the horror of hearing about your neighbors’ death due to carbon monoxide poisoning from these fires, seeing others evicted due to the fires’ spread, and having inspectors checking air quality in your own family’s home in the middle of the night.
It was even more difficult to read about the sheer poverty,
lack of job prospects, and level of despair experienced from generation to
generation. None of the adults seemed able to financially or emotionally
support each other for any length of time and they barely held on for the
children in their care. In fact, the
idea of being "hollow" inside and the painful choices associated with orphanages and adoption is woven
throughout this coming of age story.
American Studies classes and some Junior Theme English
students may find The Hollow Ground to be as intriguing as I did.
Even the character's names are chosen with care: the name Brigid is associated with fire and she is the patron saint of children whose parents are not married; Dolores (Ma) means sorrow and Adrian (Daddy) refers to darkness - and possibly to water. Teachers could prompt discussions by pairing The Hollow Ground with the graphic novel and/or movie titled Winter's Bone which also deals with rural poverty and hard choices although it is set in the Ozarks. And I think students would find some very interesting parallels between the devastating coal fires and the more recent
fracking controversy that the author mentions in her online discussion guide. The Smithsonian
Magazine also ran a feature about the fires in 2005 and more info is available at
the Carbondale Historical
Society.
