By Ryleigh Simmons

Introduction: 

How would you feel about saving a world that doesn’t even know you exist? Well, this is the reality of the Winchester brothers’ lives in Supernatural. The Winchester brothers, Sam and Dean, live by the motto “Saving people, hunting things. The family business,” which means dedicating their lives to protecting their family and humanity from supernatural threats. Yet, they have received little to no recognition or support for all they do for humanity. This strikingly reflects the economic and social realities of the rural working class, who perform essential work but face a similar treatment to the Winchester brothers. For this essay, I examine how Supernatural’s hunters can be seen as a metaphor or a mirror to the experiences of the rural working class, rural families, and farmers by exploring the lack of recognition for their labor, their struggles with education, and the generational trauma they inherit. This comparison will reveal how systematic inequalities trap both groups in a cycle of labor, sacrifice, and hardship. Thus, through a socioeconomic lens, we can see how the Winchesters and rural laborers are undervalued and exploited by a capitalist system that prioritizes profit over people. 

Risk Without Reward

Rural workers, especially farmers, play a crucial role in our daily lives and are the reason why we have most of the food on our tables. Yet, despite being a central component in the U.S.’s $1.4 trillion agricultural economy, farm workers are overlooked, economically marginalized, and socially invisible (Almodovar). What makes this worse is that farming is one of the most dangerous jobs you can do, with“23 work-related deaths per 100,000 workers,” which is seven times higher than the national average, and a 2.4 million farm workers encounter work hazards (Geist; Blanding). Farm workers face risks from equipment hazards, hazardous chemicals, noise, musculoskeletal injuries, heat stress, and infectious diseases (“Agricultural Operations – Hazards & Controls”). Still, there seems to be a disconnect between farmers’ vital contributions and their lived experiences, which results in most farmers facing low wages, food insecurity, and a lack of labor protection (Almodovar). However, these risks and lack of support often go unrecognized by the government, media, and society. 

Just as farm workers face invisibility, so do the hunters in the show Supernatural. Hunters are people who have been exposed to the horrors of reality (demons, ghosts, monsters, etc.) and have decided or been forced to spend their lives hunting and killing those horrors to keep the world safe. They put their lives on the line to protect others from deadly forces, which often means they are living isolated lives with no income or benefits, and often suffer or die without anyone knowing their stories. We see time and time again, as Sam and Dean give up connections and endure loss, trauma, and Hell itself just to keep as many people safe as they can. Yet, no one besides their group knows what they have done, and they never get rewarded for their deeds, not even with good karma. So while farmers and hunters may have completely different jobs, their work is often treated as invaluable and thankless, despite both being essential to the survival of the human race. 

Educational Barriers

Another challenge faced by rural families is a lack of quality education. As someone who lived in a smaller rural town, I know many kids who couldn’t finish their education or take it seriously as they may have wanted because they had other jobs to focus on. Many students would have to miss extended periods of school during corn cutting season and sugaring season. This isn’t specific to just my town; many rural Americans face troubles with their education. So many students already have blue-collar jobs waiting for them, so they don’t feel the need to push themselves in their education. This is partially why only 59% of rural students attend college compared to 62% of urban students. Of those 59%, only 19% hold bachelor’s degrees or higher compared to the 33% nationwide average (“In Rural America, Too Few Roads Lead to College Success”). 

However, work is not the only reason rural students struggle with their education. Many rural schools face underfunding, understaffing, or classism, making it harder for students to pursue higher education or careers outside physical labor (Adukia and Evans). What I mean when I mention classism is that some rural schools decide who are labeled achievers or leavers, usually the middle-class, and who are designated stayers, usually the working-class. This means the school will use more resources on the “achievers” and spend less time and energy on the “stayers” (Niccolai et al.). Thus, once again discouraging the working class from education, which can cause a cycle of poverty or labor where children follow in their parents’ footsteps, not out of choice, but due to limited opportunity. 

That said, the Winchesters face many of the same limitations in their roles as hunters. Their upbringing consisted mostly of life on the road, with constant movement and a focus on survival. As a result, they were never really able to have a stable education, access to educational resources, or a chance at a better future. For example, Dean was never able to finish school, and he felt there was no need to because he already had a job, hunting. Sam, on the other hand, hated hunting. He wanted to escape hunter life, and getting a degree was the way to do that. However, even after securing a full ride to Stanford, which caused a lot of disruption in his family, Sam is pulled back into being a hunter, or the only life he has ever known. Therefore, it is not hard to see that the “family business” becomes or feels like it becomes their only option, just like how many rural children feel trapped in inherited labor roles due to limited educational access and a lack of support. 

Sam: Because I didn’t wanna bowhunt or hustle pool – because I wanted to go to school and live my life, which, to our whacked-out family, made me the freak. 

Dean: Yeah, you were kind of the blonde chick in The Munsters. 

Sam: Dean, you know what most dads are when their kids score a full ride? Proud. Most dads don’t toss their kids out of the house.

“Supernatural.” Season 1, episode 1.

Generational Labor and Trauma 

To expand on the idea of a cycle of poverty and labor mentioned in the previous section, I will address how work is passed down through generations as both a job and a burden for both hunters and rural families. First, we will look at generational trauma, which is defined as when an event causes economic, cultural, or family distress. That distress is passed down from generation to generation (Gillespie). The second term is collective trauma, which is an event or series of events that impacts a group of identified or targeted people (American Psychological Association). Both of these terms can be applied to the lives of farmers and the rural working-class families in poverty. For farmers, being stressed and overworked seems to be a badge of honor, and that collective trauma can be passed down to their children because land, tools, and responsibilities are commonly inherited, often without choice (Nargi). Then these children grow up and become workers before they’re old enough to understand the toll those duties will take on them. Thus, they not only have to deal with all of the physical labor, but also the economic instability, physical exhaustion, and emotional stress of taking over the family farm. Similarly, the working class living in poverty deal with a lack of access to safe housing, healthcare, and education  (American Psychological Association). This can lead to lifelong impacts like stress issues, mental exhaustion, anxiety, and depression (Nargi). This trauma can then be passed down to the next generation, and they can find themselves in a similar condition to their parents.

Supernatural shows us an example of this cycle. Sam and Dean are born into the hunter life because of their father, John, who was obsessed with finding the demon who killed his wife. Sam and Dean‘s lives were completely changed by the inheritance of the “family business,” which is just full of danger, grief, and trauma. For example, in the pilot episode, Sam talks about his childhood and says, “When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45” (Kripke). Dean’s response to him is basically saying there’s nothing wrong with that. The brothers’ lives have been so tangled with the lives of hunters that they don’t know what “normal” looks like. This reminds me of what Mireya Loza said in an interview for the Aspen Institute, where she talks about the trauma of agricultural work and its impact on families: “They don’t see what they’re missing out on… They don’t get to have a day off, per se. They don’t get to be full human beings at work (Almodovar).” I think that last line really resonates with hunter work and all they go through and give up. That said, Sam and Dean never chose to be hunters; it was chosen for them, just like how rural laborers and families inherit their parents’ economic struggles and social invisibility. Therefore, creating a cycle that is really difficult to break, just look at Sam for an example who tried to leave but got sucked back in.

A World Without Support 

Throughout the sections previously discussed, there seems to be one thing in common: a lack of meaningful support for the rural working class. Rural communities have little access to healthcare, childcare, mental health services, and labor protection (Almodovar). All things that are important in living a healthy and happy life. The jobs that are offered seem to be underpaid despite how essential they are, like farmers and teachers. Important places like schools and hospitals are frequently underfunded or nonexistent, causing communities to come together if they want their essential buildings to have the correct supplies (Adukia and Evans). All of this seems to stem from the idea of profit over people or valuing the money you can make from something rather than the people who are tirelessly working to make that money (Butcher). In this context, this is because urban areas tend to contribute more taxes to the government, and they are more likely to get more funding. Meanwhile, rural areas are overlooked because they are less economically productive (Swinney). Therefore, it reflects a broader pattern under capitalism: essential workers from marginalized or low-income areas are underappreciated or unsupported.

Similarly, in Supernatural, hunters also face structural abandonment. In this version of the world, the government doesn’t know about the monsters that lurk on earth, so it’s up to the hunters to do everything themselves. That means they have to fight and kill these monsters and find ways to pay for their daily life needs all by themselves. However, the government isn’t the universe’s top support system in Supernatural. It’s actually Heaven, and it’s divine forces. Throughout the show, Sam and Dean are seen giving up their lives to save the world from the apocalypse and receive little to no help from Heaven. One of the angels, Castiel, gets banished from Heaven for assisting the Winchester brothers and becoming too attached to humans. Even when they are specifically helping Heaven, in most cases, they don’t get anything in return or support. To me, this mirrors how the rural laborers are forced to fend for themselves and deal with a lack of resources. Both the rural working class and hunters exist in a world that uses and profits from their labor but refuses to protect them. Therefore, it highlights how embedded structural inequality and capitalist values once again prioritize profit and power over people. 

What This Means: A Socioeconomic Lens 

To understand what this all means, let’s look at everything through a socioeconomic lens. A socioeconomic lens examines the social structures, wealth disparities, and class hierarchies. It includes considering factors like class, income, labor, access to resources, and how these factors shaped people’s lives (Pellissippi State Community College ). When using this lens in terms of the comparison I’ve been making, we can see how it reflects the truth about how society views laborers, especially under capitalism. In this essay, I tried to capture the hunters or the Winchesters as a representation of the working class because they’re both treated as essential, but expendable. Both hunters and rural laborers are treated as invisible to society until they decide to stop working, at which point their importance gets recognized. By examining things through a socioeconomic lens, we see that value is only measured in terms of profit and not labor, sacrifice, or service under capitalism. Hence, the reason why hunters and the working class are undercompensated, underprotected, and undervalued. Their suffering is ignored by society, and their pain and sacrifice are expected and normalized.

Conclusion

Therefore, by using Supernatural as a way to show these realities, the show intentionally or unintentionally critiques systems like capitalism that exploit the working class. That said, it’s essential to recognize the parallels between the Winchesters and rural laborers because it helps us question how society views labor, supports its workers, and defines worth, especially in marginalized or lower-income areas. But most of all, I hope this essay has demonstrated just how much the rural working class goes through and how much they provide for us. We could all benefit from recognizing the struggles that people in rural areas face.

Works Cited

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Gillespie, Claire. “Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma Effects: Putative Role of Epigenetic Mechanisms.” World Psychiatry, vol. 17, no. 3, Wiley, Sept. 2018, pp. 243–57, https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20568. Accessed 5 May 2025.

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