Essay Prompt of JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy
In the Rusty Belt of America, there a minority number of people whose earnings levels have surpassed the poverty mark. The majority of the poorest white Americans come from the state of Ohio. In the book Hillbilly Elegy, the author and narrator J.D Vance recounts how he was raised by her drug addict mother and various boyfriends of her in a lower-income home in Middletown, Ohio. Vance also spent much of his youth in Jackson, Kentucky. He narrates how his family members struggled with drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, violence, and lack of mobility.
Consequently, he moved to live with his grandparents, making his grades improve. He then joined the Marine, and also graduated from Ohio State University. He later joined Yale Law School and graduated. Years later, he became a VC at Mithril Capital. Vance transitioned from being poor to a successful law graduate. Using Texas paragraphs, this essay prompt will discuss the two different places where Vance lived, that is, (in Middletown, Ohio and Jackson, Kentucky) and explain how the two areas have influenced his development in life both negatively and positively.
In his foreword to Hillbilly Elegy, Vance writes, “I want people to understand what happens in the lives of the poor and the psychological impact that spiritual and material poverty has on their children” (p. 2). Vance adds that to the people of Appalachia (the people he identifies himself with), “poverty is a family tradition” (p. 3). Indisputably, poverty is a state of lifestyle common among the majority of people around the world; however, why does Vance believe the series of generational poverty is constant in the region of Appalachia and its neighboring cities? Why does it look like the American Dream is elusive to the people of Middletown and Jackson?
Vance believes the series of generational poverty is constant in the region of Appalachia and its neighboring cities because they are limited by high barriers that delay the success of their economy. Generational poverty has continued due to the social inclusion that the Appalachia region is undergoing. The author elucidates, churches are alluring to the emotions of such a populace instead of offering such communities social support. Moreover, the American Dream looks elusive to the people of Middletown and Jackson because of the nature and demographic history of America. The United States has various racial groupings that lead to social isolation and does not help in understanding the poverty citizens from different races fall in. As Vance emphasizes, poverty is a family tradition where characters such as being loyal result in a different kind of thinking by the outsiders. Hence, the American dream may feel elusive for the people of Jackson and Middletown because they are facing social isolation, and to them, poverty is a family tradition.
Vance narrates how he is battling inner conflict because of transitioning from a lower-income lifestyle to a higher social class one. He writes, “Sometimes I view members of the elite with almost primal scorn… But I have to give it to them: Their children are happier and healthier, their divorce rates lower, their church attendance higher, their lives longer. These people are beating us at our own damned game” (p. 253).