All the Colors of the Dark

Content Warning: This section of the guide mentions violence against women and abortion.

The majority of All the Colors of the Dark takes place in the fictional town of Monta Clare, Missouri, in the Ozarks, and the landscape and history of the area inform the lives of the characters. The Ozarks are a geographical region in the United States comprised of parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. There are two mountain ranges within the region, and it is known for its natural beauty, including the Ozark Natural Forest, abundance of water resources, karst features, and steep, rugged terrain. Because of the geography, parts of the region were inaccessible to the outside world for many years, and inhabitants maintained a distinct culture. In fact, “One community [was] tucked so far back into the inaccessible hills […] electric power lines finally reached it the same year that humans piloted a rocket ship to the moon and back” (“An Introduction to the Ozarks.” Smithsonian Folklife Festival, 2024). This region is “often associated with stereotypical images of hillbillies and poverty-induced backwardness on the one hand and rugged, frontier-like individualism on the other” (“An Introduction to the Ozarks”). Some of these legends are due to the region’s early mining and timber industries, as well as moonshiners and smugglers.

Long controlled by the Indigenous Osage Nation, European settlers and later white pioneers from the Appalachian region settled in the Ozarks region. Until a few decades ago, the region was predominantly home to white residents outside of the Cherokee Nation. However, the Ozarks have experienced significant demographic changes in recent years due to the region’s corporate industries, including Walmart and Tyson Foods, among others. This has brought a new influx of non-white residents, with many diverse immigrant communities residing in the Ozarks. The region is also home to the Amish, an enduring folk culture of back-to-the-landers and counterculture residents, and retirees from the Upper Midwest—in-migration that counters previous out-migration due to widespread poverty and changing industries in the region (“An Introduction to the Ozarks”).

With a distinct culture due to its landscape, history, and location, Ozarks regional literature explores the culture from within and highlights the culture for outsiders. A 2019 anthology, The Literature of the Ozarks, edited by Phillip Douglas Howerton, explores two centuries of Ozarks literature spanning fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. While each work of Ozarks regional literature is distinct, they share commonalities including challenging dominant assumptions about backward ignorance, debunking the pastoral myth, and expanding on the meaning of wilderness (“The Literature of the Ozarks.” University of Arkansas Press). Notable Ozarks authors include MacKinlay Kantor, who wrote Andersonville (1955) and A Man Who Had No Eyes (1931), and Robert A. Heinlein, who wrote The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966), Citizen of the Galaxy (1957), Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), Glory Road (1963), Starship Troopers (1959), and All You Zombies (1959). Other authors hailing from this region include Donald Harington, Vance Randolph, and Harold Bell Wright.