The Impact Of American Exceptionalism In The Novel Hillbilly Elegy

Over the past few weeks of class, we have covered the first five chapters of our textbook, written by George Brown Tindell and David Emory Shi called, “America, A Narrative History.” Each chapter told the reader a narration of the history of America, as opposed to an expository version of America’s history. Each chapter had its own main idea over a portion of history, along with many details that cover the importance of the main idea. As a reader, one may obtain a deeper appreciation for the country 's history, prior to entering the class on the first day. The most important aspect of history, besides the battles that are fought, is the different cultures that make up today’s modern America.

America by far is the most diverse country on the face of the earth. America today is known for freedom, equality, democracy, and a defender against tyranny. The foundation of American values lay in a belief of independence, nationalism, capitalism, and religion. However, many conflicts have arisen over these values in the past. Capitalism and other characteristics have made America great, but they have brought about their own set of inequalities. Those inequalities have deep roots in race, culture, gender, and wealth. In the 1800s two of the biggest conflict lies with the issue of slavery and women’s rights.

Throughout history society has to go through many changes that not only affect many of the people but also the areas around the transformation. The main point of Fredrick Jackson Turner’s thesis is what the real essence of America is, and how we’re all influenced by the many changes we have to go through. He believes that American history should not be focused on the extension of European enterprise. The society will have to realize that America will have to be emancipated because of the fact that we had a country with an unlimited amount of boundaries and have to come to realization that we have many closed-spaced limits. The views in the seminal essay share his thoughts on the idea of how the frontier shaped

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

The multidimensional expression “hillbilly” carries different cultural significances throughout the book Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. First, Vance utilizes the term “hillbilly” to refer to the working class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree (3). Second, Vance uses the term hillbilly to refer to a group of people from a specific geographic area, namely the area of the Appalachian Mountains. According to Vance, the area stretches from Alabama to Georgia in the South to Ohio to parts of New York in the north (4). Third, hillbilly indicates the way of life, behavior, or identity of the people of Greater Appalachia.

During the Age of Jackson, America was still trying to find it’s definite identity. America was making progress, but they were not where they wanted to be yet. The sense of optimism and ongoing expansion during the early 19th century that helped to bring America together for a period both contributed to a time of happiness and breakthroughs in which America is trying to be defined as a happy and thriving nation. The rise of democracy coupled with the the gradual political process, both magnify the degree to which America was still trying to find themselves politically. The rise of sectionalism and decline of nationalism point to the once wavering aura of togetherness and separateness and now complete dominance of sectionalism. These

The American Dream is a concept that has been instilled in the minds of citizens for much of America’s history. The Dream is the idea that everyone is equal and that anyone can start with nothing and become successful through hard work and perseverance. Unfortunately, due to prejudices and discrimination, the American Dream has not been attainable for all races and ethnicities that have immigrated to this country in search of a better life. Instead, it has been quite the opposite: no matter how much hard work and perseverance one puts forth, he/she is always beaten down by those in a higher social class. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird explores the concept of the failing American Dream by examining discrimination, prejudice, and social hierarchy in 1930’s Maycomb, Alabama.

In today’s society, the variation of social, cultural, political, and economic life mirrors our Founding Fathers dreams. Since then, America has learned to adjust and accept every citizen's differences with the help of The Bill of Rights, US Constitution, Northwest Ordinance, and the Declaration of Independence. As these documents represent the development of America then, books like the Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore reflect the variations of social, cultural, political, and economic life today. Over time, the definition of being an American has evolved and molded with society to make what the United States citizens know now.

Family is the mirror and foundation of culture, as it is the primary source of socialization. It is the agency through which children learn their roles and expectations of society, which ultimately shapes the culture we live in (Andersen 82). Studying family dynamics is a great tool to gain insight in the belief and value systems of a society, which is what J.D. Vance does is his autobiography Hillbilly Elegy. He analyzes his own upbring with a sociology perspective that gives the reader a deeper understanding on the conflicts of America’s white working class. In the following analytical book review of J.D. Vance’s work, Hillbilly Elegy, I will summarize the book’s contents, analyze how the content relates to the in class material, and

In Charles Murray’s journals he examines the changing American landscape and how it evolves from 1960 to 2010. He looks at marriage, honesty, industriousness, religion, and crime. The first journal to examines is titled “Belmont and Fishtown— On diverging classes in the United States”. He begins the journal talking about American exceptionalism and many different qualities that make up Americans. American exceptionalism is the idea that americans are exceptional. More specifically it is the idea that the way of American life is exceptional when compared to others around the world. He describes Americans has a group of hard working people always striving for something better. He talks about American neighborliness. He talks about how generosity

Known in every corner of the world, the United States is retained with admiration in everyone's eyes, recognized for its courtesy, orderliness, continuous prosperity, and viewed as a culture sanctuary. From an outsider’s point of view, the U.S. represents perfection; however, those in its confinement are aware of the cruel reality, perfection is but a myth, and south, located at the border, is Brownsville,Tx, the city that has the capability to shatter the world’s impeccable image of the U.S.

In the memoir Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, Vance is portrayed as achieving the American Dream. This comes from Vance being determined and by working very hard so he can make something out of his life. So, in the memoir Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, it is shown that Vance's argument about developing success is that hard work leads to success.

This essay will examine the rise of “modern America”, there were economic, religious, and aspect of life changes took place and it was greatly changed the Americans society’s perceptions, specifically, the north and the south. The rise of “modern America” was greatly motivated immigrants to come to the United States for economic opportunity, industrialization in the North after the civil war created new businesses and job regulations, and the demand for social changes; all of these factors shaped America socially, politically, and economically.

Such clashing ideologies of the Vietnam War are portrayed with tragic consequences within American Pastoral, due to the American Dream swiftly dying amid social turmoil and belonging to the nostalgia of the previous generations. With the emergence of protesting counterculture and the burgeoning Civil Rights movement, the narrative of American Pastoral eventually examines the inherent violence contained within the idealized American Dream, as well as depicting the nightmarish destruction of the social order.

Americans through the years of existence have adapted well to the radical changes throughout the world. Technology, independence and social equality are some of the diverse concepts the United States have adapted to and developed in order to become a more unified country. Our nation believes that it is exceptional when it comes to other countries worldwide. As can be shown through the popular reference to America as the ‘shining city on a hill’. The term “American exceptionalism” is derived from ideals held by many Americans throughout history. Different people have analyzed American exceptionalism through multiple literary devices. Works such as A Model of Christian Charity, What is an American and Acres of Diamonds illustrate the