Analysis Of Hillbilly Elegy

O’Connor also poses the contrast between the old and new South in her short story “Good Country People”. Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman represent the old South because of the way in which they carry themselves and their traditional beliefs and values. Mrs. Freeman works for Mrs. Hopewell who states “the reason for her keepin her so long was that they were not trash. They were good country people”(O’Connor 272). Mrs. Hopewell describes Mrs. Freeman and her two daughters as “two of the finest girls she knew and Mrs. Freeman was a lady and that she was never ashamed to take her anywhere or introduce her to anybody they might mett”(O’Connor

The book Hillbilly Elegy, A Memoir of A Family And Culture In Crisis written by J.D Vance is not like anything I have ever seen or read about. Vance begins his book by introducing the most important people around him, his family. Mamaw, Papaw and his sister Lindsey were his biggest support system and in many cases, his safe haven. In Middletown, Ohio where Vance spent the majority of his childhood was described as a town that didn’t have much money nor opportunity. What I learned from Vance was that being a “hillbilly” wasn’t an attitude or simply one’s lifestyle they chose, it's a culture. What they saw, learned, heard and adapted to was generational and it was surrounded all around them. One positive aspect of the hillbilly culture was

Other than being white, there is another major reason generalized personas arise specifically for Appalachia, and that is isolation. Unlike most ethnic and cultural groups, Appalachians, are from and in Appalachia and only Appalachia. Of course, hillbilly is thrown around not always in direct description of the group, but the persona associated with term is completely rooted in

In Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance talks about his rise from the poor, working class Hillbillies of the Rust Belt to the more affluent middle class. In doing so, he talks about the work needed to move up the economic ladder (to a different social class), expressing that it is always possible but very difficult. Vance talks about the struggles he faced within his family and his community, as well as how he overcame them. Vance’s reason to write this book was because he accomplished something ordinary, which does not happen to most children that grow up like him.

In the world of Appalachia, stereotypes are abundant. There are stories told of mountaineers as lazy, bewildered, backward, and yet happy and complacent people. Mountain women are seen as diligent, strong, hard willed, and overall sturdy and weathered, bearing the burden of their male counterparts. These ideas of mountain life did not come out of thin air; they are the direct product of sensational nineteenth century media including print journalism and illustrative art that has continuously mislead and wrongfully represented the people of Appalachia. These stories, written and told by outsiders, served very little purpose to Appalachian natives other than means of humiliation and degradation. They served mostly to convince readers of the

As the book progresses through the years, Blevins begins to introduce several famous faces that call Arkansas their home, in what he calls the Heyday of the Hillbilly. He mentions everyone from musicians to actors, athletes to novelists, and intellects to political figures. For each one mentioned, Blevins describes their experience with the Arkansas image, whether they found a way to embrace it or let it bring them down. It's

Daugneaux, Christine B. Appalachia: A Separate Place, A Unique People. Parsons: McLain Printing Company, 1981. Print.

People in the south often get stereotyped based off their appearances or the way they act. Most southerners have rituals they follow, but some are just living life. The way Flannery O'Connor deals with the traditional social structure in the South in her fiction shows that it was of major concern to her and was the source of much of her power and humor. O'Connor's exposition of a southern society which values a good, moral person yet struggles to identify Three of her short stories deal with the relationship between Christianity and society in the South: "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," "Good Country People," and "Revelation.”

Every year, there are millions of people that suffer from mental illness, addiction, or both. Not only do the people who have a mental illness or addiction suffer, but so do their families, friends, and loved ones. Therefore, mental illness and addiction are two topics that can easily spark controversy when it comes to two areas of concern: blame and solutions. Many people have strong feelings when it comes to the institutions and processes surrounding mental illness and addiction. Ex-marine, Yale Law School Graduate, and hillbilly-at-heart J.D. Vance wrote a book titled Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis which includes parts his connection to addiction primarily through his mother and his personal view on the

Southerners are known to be proud of their traditional beliefs. To Kill A Mockingbird allows its readers to question and consider those beliefs. Maycomb represents a typical old southern town. Not many people move into Maycomb and not many people who live there journey beyond its boundaries. As a result, the opinions held by many of the citizens of Maycomb are left to grow and foster in the same families for many generations. The circumstances in Maycomb are less than ideal for generating change and more prone to sustaining traditionally accepted codes. Two codes embedded within southern social beliefs are class and race.

“Moral orders are socially created, expressed, and (re)constructed in the practices of various groups of persons” (Pearce, 1989, p. 59). “Each [role] denotes a whole new system of rights, duties, and obligations” (Pearce, 1989, p. 59). As a hillbilly, there are many moral orders to follow, such as; loyalty, honor, and toughness. In chapter 8 of Hillbilly Elegy, Vance reveals that Ken’s oldest son constantly fights with Vance’s mother. One night Vance overheard him call his mother a bitch and he admits that “no self-respecting hillbilly could stand idly by, so I made it abundantly clear that I meant to beat my stepbrother to within an inch of his life” (Vance, 2016, p. 126). The moral order of a hillbilly is to honor one's family and so even

Set in the Antebellum South, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn documents a landscape that differs greatly from the poised and picturesque scene associated with the contemporary South. Today’s South is synonymous with with ice cold pitchers of tea, ceaseless etiquette exuded on wraparound porches, and seemingly romantic drawls. However, the South that Huck resides in, tells a different story. Specifically, his South is a place where suitable behavior is associated with the acceptance of slavery, and racist slurs pepper every sentence. As a result, any deviation from these behaviors leaves an individual ironically branded with a connotation of being uncivilized. Due to this distorted view of ethics, any character with even a shred

First, we look at what Vance believes to be the reason for the Hillbilly culture. Vance spends much of Hillbilly Elegy’s first chapter discussing his family. The family history is the most important factor of the Hillbilly identity. As a child, Vance idolized his great-uncles, whom he characterizes as “the gatekeepers to the family’s oral tradition.” They would always tell stories about themselves and their relatives. the stories were often violent and inappropriate for a child, Vance reveled in the family lore; “Some people may conclude that I come from a clan of lunatics. But the stories made me feel like hillbilly royalty, because these were classic good-versus-evil stories, and my people were on the right side. My people were extreme, but

On the other hand, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn showcases class issues while demonstrating Jim’s humanity and encouraging us to see him as a kind person who cares for friends and family, and in that regard he is no less human than his white counterpart, Huck. What Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and American Salvage reveal is that even despite varied time periods of turmoil, in landscapes that may be historically or geographically unfamiliar, a commonality remains across regions and chronology. Regional literature will always be relevant because even in a world that in increasingly “flattening” with technology and universalism, there are always traits found within each of us that are historically and regionally unique. Reading regional literature is an act of pulling at those remnant threads to unravel the complexities of cultural difference; in doing so, we both appreciate how the structures of tangles came to be and also how we are ultimately made of the same

After I watched the episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, I agree with Dean that people used the hillbilly stereotypes to apricate the Claimpetts’ family. The film begins with the image of the family on the old and fogy car that makes the film become humor. The memberships in the family show the happy faces when they move to the new house. They are the industrious farmers who live in the American’s countryside. Then, their land locates on the oil field so they have to move to the new house. When they come to the new house, they are surprised with the difference at here such as the cement pond, the pink bird (flamingo), and the luxurious stairs. After that, they recognized that the new house was not as convenient as the old house. They did not