Christman assumes that there is value in classifying something or someone as normal. He writes, “Small wonder, then, that Midwestern cities, institutions, and people show up again and again in the...

Christman assumes that there is value in classifying something or someone as normal. He writes, “Small wonder, then, that Midwestern cities, institutions, and people show up again and again in the twentieth-century effort to determine what, in America, is normal” (par. 4).

What characteristics or features of the Midwest does Christman point to as setting the bar for normality? What value does Christman assign to calling something normal? How and why is this useful or important?

Are there other terms or categories that you think might be equally or more productive to describe what Christman calls normality?