Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze
Country roads, take me home
to the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads.
to the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads.
— "Country Roads", John Denver
This is an index for all tropes related to the rural countryside.
Compare to Deep South, Small Towns, and Sweet Home Alabama. Note that Country Matters has nothing to do with the country.
Tropes:
- Agri World: A planet or world dedicated solely to growing food.
- Arcadia: An idealistic pre-modern countryside setting where residents enjoy the simple pleasures of life.
- Call to Agriculture: Powerful figures retiring on farms.
- The City vs. the Country: Moving from the country to the city or vice versa to show the contrast between the two environments.
- Big Town Boredom: When a person who lives in a bigger city or suburb wishes they could move to a smaller or more rural place, potentially in the countryside.
- Small Town Boredom: Life in a small rural town is boring and uneventful compared to larger urbanized cities.
- City Mouse: Someone from an urban area tries to adjust to rural life.
- Country Mouse: Someone from a rural area tries to adjust to urban life.
- Big Town Boredom: When a person who lives in a bigger city or suburb wishes they could move to a smaller or more rural place, potentially in the countryside.
- Corny Nebraska: Nebraska is a land of corn farms.
- Country Cousin: A relative who lives in the rural part of the country.
- Determined Homesteader: A person or family who seeks to claim land by improving it through agriculture.
- Developing Nations Lack Cities: Poor countries are stereotyped as being completely rural and lacking any large urbanized cities.
- Down on the Farm: Classic farm settings.
- Dying Town: A town that has lost its main reason for existing, or the support systems it needs to thrive, casuing it to lose its inhabitants far faster than they're replaced.
- Farm Boy: The Hero hails from a rural farm and receives a Call to Adventure, usually due to a Secret Legacy.
- Farmer's Daughter: An innocent-looking rural girl.
- Farm Life Sim: Games about the life of a farmer.
- First Contact Farmer: Aliens meet rural farmers first.
- Flyover Country: Everything between the East and West Coasts in the USA.
- From New York to Nowhere: Relocating from a big city to a small town in the middle of nowhere.
- Half-Witted Hillbilly: A person from the countryside who is backward, ignorant, or outright stupid.
- Hayseed Name: Stereotypical names for hillbillies or country bumpkins.
- Healthy Country Air: Air in rural areas is cleaner and healthier than that in urban areas.
- Hillbilly Incest: Incest that is associated with poor, rural people.
- Idyllic English Village: An Arcadian and often romanticized rural English settlement.
- Kiddy Coveralls: Kids in the country wear overalls to keep "nicer" clothes clean.
- Overalls and Gingham: People from rural areas wear gingham and/or overalls.
- Pastoral Science Fiction: Science fiction set in the countryside.
- Roadkill for Dinner: Eating an animal you ran over with your car, usually a trait of poorer rural folk.
- Roll in the Hay: Doing the do while lying in a hay barrack in a barn or one in an open field.
- Rough Overalls: People from the country wear overalls, with or without gingham.
- Rural Gangsters: Gangsters from the countryside.
- The Simple Life is Simple: Farming life being depicted as simple in fiction.
- Small-Town Tyrant: Evil, corrupt rural authority figures.