Role Of Social Class In J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy

The classified social system in America has oppressed people, based on economic standing, into certain boxes that are filled with limited expectations. The lower the class in society, the lower the expectations and the expected intelligence are. The social system has dictated many people for generations, on how they are supposed to act, until the people within that class do not expect anything more from themselves, and tend not to aspire past their class.
“White trash” or a “hillbilly” is a common term to describe someone coming from a specific lower class level and sometimes from a certain area. The connotation of these two phrases are mostly seen as negative, and they are mostly used to describe dirty, or trashy, types of people. In a way, …show more content…
Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy, is one of the few cases seen in the social class of hillbillies that has made it past the societal oppression. Vance is a Yale law school graduate, and is moving in life on a successful path. Throughout his memoir, Vance takes a look into his past to try to explain what has made him into what he is today, and how he got out of that stigma in the lower classes. In an article called “Being a Bumpkin”, author Oliver Lee Bateman looks at Vance’s memoir as a way of explaining the steps into breaking the norm. Although that is what Bateman thinks Vance is trying to portray, he disagrees with some of the things Vance says. He points out that not everyone will have the same advantages as Vance in their lives as “anything is indeed at least theoretically possible in the United States for a white …show more content…
They are seen as lazy, dirty, gross and trashy. But for many hillbillies, this is the only way of life that they know, and always have known. Their ancestors lived this way, and so do all the people around them. Looking into this idea of the “hillbilly” lifestyle Bateman takes an interesting perspective into why people still live this way. He sees it as some sort of tradition that they live and do not want to abandon. A hillbilly lifestyle is a way of life that many people take pride in being one; they see it as their heritage. Vance states in his memoir that some of his relatives are seen as “hillbilly royalty”, giving them a status in this hillbilly life (Vance/Bateman). There are many rules that hillbilly’s must live by and those rules are just how it 's always been. Everyone is brought up by almost the same rules and people consider it the norm. Many people’s ancestors lived this lifestyle and they feel as though it is their duty to live this way and keep up the