Bryan Funk
Professor Debra Williamson
ENG 122
19 September 2017
Book Review Hillbilly Elegy, written by J.D. Vance and published by HarperCollins books in 2016, is a memoir about the author’s, J.D. Vance’s, hillbilly family and how they differed the common ways of the rest of society, his childhood struggles with an abusive addict mother and her terrible boyfriends, and his early adult life through the military and college. Throughout the book Vance discovers himself intellectually, spiritually, and socially. He tells several stories about his life experiences that have changed the way he has thought and acted. During his adult life, he notices some poor qualities of the hillbilly way that he grew up with. He noticed that most hillbillies …show more content…
Vance had never experienced this determination to work as hard as he can to better himself in his hillbilly family. However, traditionally hillbillies are hard workers, but in their own way. Hillbillies are hard working at their factory jobs because they get a feeling of pride for being the breadwinner of the house hold. The marine’s version of working hard was different. Their version of working hard is overcoming obstacles to make themselves better. This hard work isn’t in the hillbilly culture; hillbillies are content with their current situation, so improvement was not necessary. The marine life style had been established into Vance’s mind by the time he left, so he kept all the morals and values that came with it. Vance turned his hillbilly self into a top-level law school graduate. He could have remained the stereotypical hillbilly and went into the workforce right out of high school, he stayed determined so he would not remain the same as his …show more content…
As Vance states “if you think it’s hard to get ahead even when you try, then why try at all” he is making a point that when someone lives on the government they think that the effort they put in wouldn’t be worth the reward (Vance 193). One of the workings of welfare is to “reduce the dependency of needy parents by promoting job preparation” as stated by the Office of Family Assistance (About Tanf). However, in most cases that may not the case. Not joining the work force makes the American Dream of moving up in the world by class or power more of a dream rather than a goal. The New York Times posted and article that states “if you pay them [welfare recipients] more not to work than they can earn by working, many will choose not to work” (Tanner). With welfare paying so much it totally reverses its initial purpose. Only by lowering welfare will give the incentive to find work and strive for the American Dream. Lowering welfare would be a good inventive, but alongside lowering welfare, increasing the minimum wage would accompany it perfectly. Increasing minimum wage would help get people off welfare by giving more of a difference between welfare and working for their earnings. Making more by working than on welfare would get people off welfare and into the workforce, cutting unemployment. The money saved by cutting welfare costs would be put into increasing the minimum wage which
Professor Debra Williamson
ENG 122
19 September 2017
Book Review Hillbilly Elegy, written by J.D. Vance and published by HarperCollins books in 2016, is a memoir about the author’s, J.D. Vance’s, hillbilly family and how they differed the common ways of the rest of society, his childhood struggles with an abusive addict mother and her terrible boyfriends, and his early adult life through the military and college. Throughout the book Vance discovers himself intellectually, spiritually, and socially. He tells several stories about his life experiences that have changed the way he has thought and acted. During his adult life, he notices some poor qualities of the hillbilly way that he grew up with. He noticed that most hillbillies …show more content…
Vance had never experienced this determination to work as hard as he can to better himself in his hillbilly family. However, traditionally hillbillies are hard workers, but in their own way. Hillbillies are hard working at their factory jobs because they get a feeling of pride for being the breadwinner of the house hold. The marine’s version of working hard was different. Their version of working hard is overcoming obstacles to make themselves better. This hard work isn’t in the hillbilly culture; hillbillies are content with their current situation, so improvement was not necessary. The marine life style had been established into Vance’s mind by the time he left, so he kept all the morals and values that came with it. Vance turned his hillbilly self into a top-level law school graduate. He could have remained the stereotypical hillbilly and went into the workforce right out of high school, he stayed determined so he would not remain the same as his …show more content…
As Vance states “if you think it’s hard to get ahead even when you try, then why try at all” he is making a point that when someone lives on the government they think that the effort they put in wouldn’t be worth the reward (Vance 193). One of the workings of welfare is to “reduce the dependency of needy parents by promoting job preparation” as stated by the Office of Family Assistance (About Tanf). However, in most cases that may not the case. Not joining the work force makes the American Dream of moving up in the world by class or power more of a dream rather than a goal. The New York Times posted and article that states “if you pay them [welfare recipients] more not to work than they can earn by working, many will choose not to work” (Tanner). With welfare paying so much it totally reverses its initial purpose. Only by lowering welfare will give the incentive to find work and strive for the American Dream. Lowering welfare would be a good inventive, but alongside lowering welfare, increasing the minimum wage would accompany it perfectly. Increasing minimum wage would help get people off welfare by giving more of a difference between welfare and working for their earnings. Making more by working than on welfare would get people off welfare and into the workforce, cutting unemployment. The money saved by cutting welfare costs would be put into increasing the minimum wage which