Hillbilly elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (J.D.Vance,2016), is a part autobiography and part of social issues around J.D. Vance. He is a real-world “rags to riches” success story, which many dream of achieving. Many refer to it as the American Dream. He explains how he escaped poverty while people near areas of Appalachia still remained in poverty. Poverty and substance abuse are the chief reasons why the American Dream is out of the reach of many “hillbillies” or rural, white working-class Americans.
Vance was born into a broken family and lived with his over adventurous mother in rural Kentucky. Due to his mother always being occupied by other things, he was reared by his grandparents in Middletown, Ohio. Vance was always surrounded by idleness, joblessness and hopelessness. His future seemed bleak due to lack of resources around him and poverty running in his family. Everyone was too certain that his future would not be any different from the drug addicts and thieves around him. He refers to his culture as “a culture in crisis”, largely through the lens of his family. His family had escaped the poverty of Kentucky for a middle-class existence in Ohio, but they, …show more content…
He loved Mamaw and she was the only one who pushed him to study properly in school and achieve something in life. She often remarked that if anyone in their family “made it”, it would be Vance. The American dream is not easily achievable as Mamaw had always dreamt of becoming a lawyer for abused and neglected children. She came from a family that “would shoot at you rather than argue with you.” She got married at an early age and had a complicated relationship with her husband, Vance’s grandfather (Papaw) due to his drinking problem. She was a very hot-headed person who was about to shoot a guy who was trying to steal their family cow and she set her own husband on fire with gasoline, who later got saved by his
Vance was born into a broken family and lived with his over adventurous mother in rural Kentucky. Due to his mother always being occupied by other things, he was reared by his grandparents in Middletown, Ohio. Vance was always surrounded by idleness, joblessness and hopelessness. His future seemed bleak due to lack of resources around him and poverty running in his family. Everyone was too certain that his future would not be any different from the drug addicts and thieves around him. He refers to his culture as “a culture in crisis”, largely through the lens of his family. His family had escaped the poverty of Kentucky for a middle-class existence in Ohio, but they, …show more content…
He loved Mamaw and she was the only one who pushed him to study properly in school and achieve something in life. She often remarked that if anyone in their family “made it”, it would be Vance. The American dream is not easily achievable as Mamaw had always dreamt of becoming a lawyer for abused and neglected children. She came from a family that “would shoot at you rather than argue with you.” She got married at an early age and had a complicated relationship with her husband, Vance’s grandfather (Papaw) due to his drinking problem. She was a very hot-headed person who was about to shoot a guy who was trying to steal their family cow and she set her own husband on fire with gasoline, who later got saved by his