Basic Information :
Synopsis :
Characters :
Thoughts :
Evaluation :
Book Group :
New Words :
Book References :
Good Quotes :
ReferencesBasic Information:
Author: J.D. Vance
Edition: eBook from the Fresno County Library
Publisher: Harper
ISBN: 9780062300546
Read: March 22, 2018
264 pages
Genre: Biography, Sociology
Language Warning: Medium
Rated Overall: 3½ out of 5
Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):
The author traces his
upbringing from being raised with essentially a single mother with
serial husbands to becoming a successful Yale Law school graduate.
But the book is not just a memoir, but observations of his upbringing
expanded to include all of what he would call a “hillbilly”
culture. This is not a rigorous dealing with the culture, but more of
the author critiquing his own culture from his experience.
Cast of Characters:
-
J.D. Vance: Author. Book follows from birth to Yale grad
-
Bonnie Blanton (Vance) Mamaw(ma’am-aw): Vance’s Grandmother, who both raised him and protected him
-
Jim Vance-Papaw: Vance’s Grandfather who dies pretty early in the story. Distant relations to the Hatfields or the McCoy-Hatfield fued
-
Mom: His mother who was addicted to drugs and had several husbands
-
Lindsay Ratliff: his sister
-
Aunt Wee (Lori Meibers): His Aunt and someone he looked up to.
-
Jim Vance: Uncle
-
Don Bowman: Vance’s dad who left him at an early age, but then shaped himself up through religion. While Vance never would have a father-son relationship. he started to understand him better.
-
Amy Chua: Yale professor in contracts and Vance’s mentor
-
Usha: Vance’s wife
Thoughts:
As Vance writes about his
mother, you sort of think about the story of Jesus and the woman at
the well. When Jesus asks her about her husband, she says that she
does not have one. Jesus says, that is true, you have had five and
the man whom you are with now you are not married to. This puts skin
and bones to the woman at the well. You start to see what kind of
life this woman had and maybe what kind of a person she was.
Does Vance accomplish what he
sets out to do? That is, one:
-
To portray himself as a hillbilly?
-
To create an understanding of modern hillbilly culture?
-
Critique why hillbillies fail at the American Dream
JD Vance took his maternal
grandparent’s name when he was old enough to decide.
Vance is considering a run for
the US Senate in 2018.
There is a column in the
Lexington Herald Leader (Kentucky) which thinks that Vance is too far
removed from the hillbilly culture to have an insider critique of
this culture.
Introduction
The purpose of the book is to
explore something many people take for granted. but is unique to
Vance’s environment: he was able to escape from the Rust Belt town
called Middletown and become something. Not many people were able to
do this.
The purpose of the book:
-
I want people to know what it feels like to nearly give up on yourself and why you might do it?
-
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.
-
I want people to understand the American Dream as my family and I encountered it.
-
I want people to understand how upward mobility really feels.
-
And I want people to understand something I learned only recently: that for those of us lucky enough to live the American Dream, the demons of the life we left behind continue to chase us.
This is not to know, but to
feel and understand which requires more of a sense of placing
yourself in the author’s shoes.
Which raises the question of,
who is the author? He says that he identifies more with day laborers,
sharecroppers, coal miners, machinists, millworkers, … the working
man-even though he is Yale educated, associated with a highly success
venture capital firm and a lawyer, and maybe a soon to be politician.
To summarize who who says he is, it is a Scots-Irish hillbilly. This
is both from heritage, upbringing and geography. Where is grew up was
in Middletown, Ohio, on the outskirts of the Kentucky hills country.
Kentucky is where his relatives came from and many of them reside.
He also sets his outlook on
things here. Many people take it for granted that they are entitled
to getting paid whether they work or not. He tells a story where a
co-worker who often missed work and was late and took long breaks was
fired. The response: “Don’t you know I’ve got a pregnant
girlfriend?” The attitude of things done to
them not
understanding why they deserve the circumstance or understanding the
larger picture. He sets the tone for the book: reacting
to bad circumstances in the worst way possible.
Chapter 1
Differentiates between his
address and his home address. His address is where he is currently
living, which was several places. But his home address was in Jackson
Kentucky. Home is where the heart is, not where the feet are.
He starts by saying that
hillbillies are respectful, helpful and friendly.
Vance differentiates between
his Ohio life and Kentucky. When he was in Ohio, he conformed to
whomever his mother was dating or married to at the moment. But in
Kentucky, all the men folk knew him for what he was because they had
been around him his entire life. No pretending.
Family name: Blanton
County: Breathitt-For an
interesting article on the county, read the Lexington
Kentucky
paper. 98% white with an average family income of $20,000. Places of
history: Wikipedia
Also Kim Davis came from there. The area around Jackson has
changed-drug have come in, people are not trustworthy. It is an area
full of contradictions-hardworking and people who prefer food stamps.
Despite their virtues, or
perhaps because of them, the Blanton men were full of vice.
Chapter 2&3
Not expecting the American
dream from the Appalachian Hills and K-12 school rooms. Yet, there is
still belief in the American Dream by hillbillies. There was a belief
in hard work getting you ahead. They also could not stand those who
felt the deck was stacked against them.
He notes that hillbillies
share many similarities as southern black in Detroit. As the
displaced hillbillies in Middletown rose in economic affluence
compared to those still in the hill, they no longer fit in with the
hill people. But they were viewed as inferior by the people in
Middletown.
There was a strong belief in
their family about helping family through hard times.
Chapter 4
Even though Mamaw and Papaw
were having marital troubles due to alcohol, when it came to outside
threats to family they were united, violently united. Such as
trashing a store and threatening a clerk.
Education in the 1990’s was
abysmal. 20% would not make high school graduation; very, very few
went to college. It was assumed that only the rich or the smart
succeeded. So if you were failing, you were probably not smart
enough. So it was OK to fail. Hard work did not enter into the
equation. It was more the mindset of OK to fail.
The example he uses of this
mindset is when in first grade he thought he was hot stuff by being
able to do subtraction. But another kid knew multiplication. There
was a feeling of stupidity since he did not even know what
multiplication was. He became depressed and was willing to admit
himself as a failure. This is the attitude of most families in the
area. His Papaw worked with him on multiplication until he knew it-
So the message Vance got was to learn what you do not know, do not
admit defeat. He felt this is what saved him.
Chapter 5
Social class in America
isn’t just about money.
It is also about roots and how you present yourself. Is this good?
Mamaw and Papaw was Vance’s
safety net. When his Mom moved away from Middletown-only 35 miles
away-the safety net disappeared. He realized this at the age of
nione. They were the gatekeepers to his mom’s sanity in raising
children. Because of her upbringing, Vance’s Mom would never be the
victim in marital disputes, but it also meant that she would do more
than her share of instigations. The take aways Vance had in how to
have a marital dispute included:
-
Never speak in a reasonable volume when screaming will do
-
If the fight gets too intense, it is OK to slap and punch, as long as the man does not start the abuse
-
always be insulting and hurtful
-
take the kids and pets to a motel, but do not tell your partner where.
The result of all of this?
Vance’s schooling began to decline.
Chapter 6
Rev. Donald Ison - Mamaw sent
money to him. Wrote a book called Able
and Willing
about faith healing.
Talks about religion. The
religious teaching included:
-
Hard work was a requirement-coasting through life was a waste
-
Take care of family
-
Forgive
-
Never despair.
And then is the many men whom
Vance’s mother brought home, many to marry. He understood some of
this was to give a father figure in his life. But in the end, the
lesson learned was not to trust that any of them would stick around
for very long.
Vance also talks about how the
people who he knew was religious, but not very church going. This
seems to be true across Appalachia.
Chapter 7
None.
Chapter 8
I recognized that human
beings aren’t very good at judging themselves…
Vance’s Mom felt that he had anger issues-it would seem to be a
miracle if he did not after the description of his home life. Instead
of being discussion, it was an ambush when we met with a
therapist.But he was able to explain himself well enough to this
therapist to have her understand the situation.
Chapter 9
There is the case for eternal
hope-not the religious kind, but the kind which you think if I give
one more chance, someone will change. When Vance’s mom recedes into
addiction, it is Mamaw, who has suffered through Vance’s mom’s
problems for years, convinces Vance to give a urine sample for his
mother. Why? Because this may be her opportunity to change. Isn’t
this something which we all hope whether it is our friends,
co-workers, relations, or even ourselves?
His mom gave him money when
she could. Mom
equated money for affection.
Maybe because it is easier to give than love. Love required
availability and Vance’s mom had her own problems just maintaining.
Back to schooling, While money would not buy affection, it was a sign
of devotion from Mamaw-she made sure made sure that Vance had the
things he needed to succeed in school. That got him to thinking that
if she thought it was important enough for her to spend the money,
then it was important enough for him to put out the effort. To his
surprise, he succeeded. She also has him looking ahead, particularly
at what kind of life he wants. Does he want to spend time with family
on weekends? Then get educated for that kind of job.
His Mamaw also convinced him
to get a job, so that he would feel good about himself, rather than
the feeling of dependency. As a cashier in a market, he was able to
observe people and started being able to classify them and puzzle
over their behaviors. He also saw the class divides which occurs-who
got credit and who did not. He also started developing a philosophy
of economics-this eventually leads to being conservative. There is
the observations that handouts created dependency and that even with
good intentions, sometimes government programs do not do what they
intended for them to do.
Is the solution then less
government? Better run programs,? More directed interventions? Or do
nothing and let everything continue to digress?
He also talks about what
happens when a factory shuts down. The poor do not leave as more of
their resources are centered around pace. While the rich are more
liquid and move away. This causes an even more spiral towards
despondency and poverty.
Also bad mind set does this
culture no favors. Spending money they do not have on unnecessary
items. Buy better than need, Not understanding how thrift can work
towards wealth. So there is no money left over to take their families
to a different level.
Mamaw was proof about what a
loving family could do for someone. If he had been left to fend with
his mother, then the steady stream of men spouses would have had a
different result. Stability brings better grades when one does not
have the uncertainty of where will I be next month.
Chapter 10
learned helplessness-when
you constantly get put into situations where you cannot do anything
about it.
transformations are harder
than a moment. This happens though when Vance started understanding
that even something as small as an eraser was big to a kid in Iraq
who has nothing. Vance understood that he had a lot to be thankful
for, rather than being centered on his own problems-there were people
around him with bigger problems.
The Marines taught Vance long
term, strategic thinking. It also taught him that he could do a lot
more than what he thought he could do. It also taught him to fail;
understand the failure; and give him another chance. The bottom line
is what his Mamaw tried to teach him: don’t
be like those who think the deck is stacked against them,
Chapter 11
Vance states that much of his
community’s and family’s identity comes from love of country. And
yet, there was little which his area of the world could identify
with-he names off a long line of things and people which are no
longer a source of pride or example. To top it off, the most basic
promise of the American Dream is a steady wage-this was lacking in
his area. It is probably that last part which is the most depressing.
If a person cannot earn their own way, then there is not a sense of
accomplishment and pride. This leads to discouragement and the lack
of drive to do something. Is this the malaise Carter was talking
about? The question then is how to rectify it? Is it a political,
spiritual, economic or personal problem.
Then Vance starts talking
about Obama, not so much misaligning him, but creating an
understanding of why many in Vance’s region did not trust or
understand him. Such as his fluent use of language, his schooling,
coming from a big city and so on. But then he hits probably the
biggest item-Obama succeeding beyond all measures of success coming
from the background he had destroys the myth that you cannot get
ahead by your own merit-the system started out working against Obama,
the same as Vance’s hillbillies-except for race being the factor
instead of geography. The two reactions could have been either if he
can succeed, so can I. Or hating him because he did succeed.
This feeds into the distrust
of the news organizations. With the free reign the Internet has on
gossip and misinformation, the hatred explodes into ignorance with
things like Obama’s birth or ACA having death squads or chips
embedded in us. Then you understand how hard it is to govern a people
who are ignorant and despondent.
Vance, who is a conservative,
issues this critique of conservatives: Instead
of encouraging engagement, conservatives increasingly foment the kind
of detachment that has sapped the ambition of so many of my peers.
He goes on and says that the separation he has found among his own
peers is expectations-what do they and others expect out of their own
lives..
Chapter 12
I just love the phrase which
one of Vance’s law professors wrote on his paper: This
is a vomit of sentences masquerading as a paragraph.
I shall have to remember this sentence.
There is this section where he
notes a dichotomy of thought. First, he felt somewhat like a traitor
to his own kind by going to Yale and exceeding the community normals.
He did this by sometimes disavowing he was going to Yale, or by his
thinking that he did not want to be different from his kind. But
there was also the attitude at Yale if you did not come from a big
name school (Harvard, UCLA, …) then what are you doing here? He
bristled at that thought as well.
Vance observes that upward
mobility is a two edged sword-you are moving towards something
better, but also away from those who you know and love. There are
times he feels like he is a cultural alien. A good term I think. He
asks questions along these lines at the end of the chapter:
-
Why doesn’t anybody else from his high school go on to good schools? Why are they so unreachable?
-
Why aren’t there “hillbillies” at the top schools?
-
Why is there so much turmoil in families like his?
-
Why do successful people feel so different?
Chapter 13
What
is a spirit guide? an entity that remains as an unembodied spirit
to act as a guide or protector to a living incarnated human being.
What
to do after Yale? Vance discovers that job searching when you go to
Yale is different than other places. Instead of flooding the market
with resumes and online requests, at Yale it is how you networked.
Emailing a friend to circulate your name; family members calling
their established friends. This is foreign to Vance as he does not
have that experience. The economists call it social
capital. Your
network has economic value.He notes that one part of this social
capital is that you can measure
of how much we learn through our friends, colleagues and mentors.
There are those who tap into the social capital and those who don’t.
Those who don’t, lose out.
Probably
one of the best things he was told during this process was to be
himself rather than someone who he thought others wanted him to be.
Chapter 14
Nothing compares to the
fear that you’re becoming the monster in your closet.
Vance was understanding that he was taking up the same mannerisms
which he detested in his mother. He would yell and scream at his
girlfriend, to be wife one day. It takes a conscious effort to
become a different person than your parents. His girl friend noted
the You’ve got to
make the effort because they’re family-that
is to make contact and act civil.
He also talks about something
called Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) which he lists seven
features of ACE. He lived with at least six of those.It is noted
those who had associated with in childhood was much more prone to ACE
behavior than those who had college education. Later on, Vance
realizes that every single successful family which he was related to
married outside of his culture.
Chapter 15
Vance was reluctantly
exploring the Christian faith.
He is also trying to figure
out the places which he can help his mother and places which it is
too costly for his own family. He does not shy away from a
relationship with her, but is trying to figure out the
boundaries-both financially, time wise and emotionally.
Is there a magic solution to
problems like his mothers? He does not think that getting the
ingredients of family, faith and community in the right proportions
will lead to a solution to community problems. The advice he got was
that you probably cannot fix things,
but you might be able to put your thumb on the scale.
Conclusion
As Vance was buying toys for
needy children at Christmas time, he realized there this provided a
moment of reflection to consider him place. How lucky he was that he
was in the position he now was in rather than where he was ten years
before.
But there is also the need for
needy families to keep up appearances-to have a “nice” Christmas,
they will over-extend their finances so they can get the hot toy of
the year. Yet he noticed his own fiscally secure relatives did not
feel the pressure to have the best gifts. There success at Christmas
was not defined by dollar value.
His conclusion is that there
is no government that can fix the problems hillbillies have. It is
more that there needs a space so that the children have a chance to
grow up in a stable environment where there is expectations to
succeed.
Evaluation:
While
Vance says that he does not consider this a memoir, it is pretty much
autobiographical. He talks about his upbringing
from a mother whose parents were from the mountains of Kentucky.
Eventually Vance also lives with this mother’s parents in some form
of stability. From there he is led to believe that education is
important. After a stop with the Marines, upon high school
graduation, he goes on to get a four-year degree. Then goes to Yale
law School and becomes a high priced lawyer.
Vance’ story is not so much
about poor boy succeeds, but about the people who he left behind. He
wants their stories to be understood through his own background.
These stories point to the role of stability in families as being
vital and the need to establish expectations to succeed.
While many people have
commented that Vance is telling the story of how come Trump won these
people during the 2016 elections, I think it really tells a story of
why sometimes despite good intentions, we lack success in
establishing safety nets for those in need. We establish dependency
rather than a floor.
The New York Times review puts
it this way, Mr.
Vance doesn’t have all the answers. But he’s advancing the
conversation. So
read this book for insight into many of our day’s economic and
social issues.
Notes from my book group:
Thoughts from OSHER book
group:
-
This is Vance’s story, but is it everybody else's in his community's?
-
Is capitalism the cause of financial issues?
-
Quote of the day: The only thing which likes change are babies.
My Questions which I did
not ask:
What is an elegy? Does this
book meet that criteria?
In Vance’s introduction, he
lists five things he wants the reader to feel and understand. Did you
get this book accomplish that for you? How so? What feelings were you
left with after reading this book?
Would you consider Vance to be
a hillbilly-he is two generations removed from being raised in what
would be considered hillbilly country.
Why does Vance find that this
book is absurd? Is it?
Why would it be the Trump
candidacy would resonate with the culture described in this book?
Is the American Dream real?
Available to everyone? Or for certain regions and ethnic make-ups?
Vance says that the most basic promise of the American Dream is a
steady wage. Is it? How do we insure it to be?
In chapter four, Vance talks
about the attitude of people he grew up with. It is an attitude of
defeat. His grandparents did not allow him to have it. Is this
attitude transferable to others? How? or why not? Is this the key or
one of the keys?
In Chapter Ten, Vance observes
that handouts created dependency and that even with good intentions,
sometimes government programs do not do what they intended for them
to do. Is the solution then less government? Better run programs,?
More directed interventions? Or do nothing and let everything
continue to digress?
In chapter Eleven, Vance
observes that the most basic promise of the American Dream is a
steady wage. This is lacking in his community. Three part question:
is this what American’s dream about-being able to work for a wage
which will keep family intact? Second, what does this say about those
who are not working? About how we treat unemployment and welfare?
Third, is it anybody’s responsibility to make sure this part of the
American Dream is fulfilled? If so who?
Vance, who is a conservative,
issues this critique of conservatives: Instead
of encouraging engagement, conservatives increasingly foment the kind
of detachment that has sapped the ambition of so many of my peers.
What would this engagement look like?
Questions from LitLovers
1. In what way is the
Appalachian culture described in HillBilly
Elegy a "culture
in trouble"? Do you agree with the author's description of the
book's premise:
The book is about what goes
on in the lives of real people when the industrial economy goes
south. It’s about reacting to bad circumstances in the worst way
possible. It’s about a culture that increasingly encourages social
decay instead of counteracting it.
2. Follow-up
to Question 1:
Vance suggests that unemployment and addiction are self-inflicted and
that the Appalachian culture is one of "learned
helplessness"—individuals feel they can do nothing to improve
their circumstances. Do you agree with Vance's assessment? What could
individuals do to improve their circumstances? Or are the problems so
overwhelming they can't be surrmounted?
3. What are the positive
values of the culture Vance talks about in Hillbilly
Elegy?
4. The author's mother is
arguably the book's most powerful figure. Describe her and her
struggle with addiction. How did the violence between her own
parents, Mawaw and Papaw, affect her own adulthood?
5. To What—or to whom—does
Vance attribute this escape from the cycle of addiction and poverty?
6. Talk about Vance's own
resentment toward his neighbors who were on welfare but owned
cellphones.
7. Follow-up
to Question 6:
Vance writes
Political scientists have
spent millions of words trying to explain how Appalachia and the
South went from staunchly Democratic to staunchly Republican in less
than a generation.... I could never understand why our lives felt
like a struggle while those living off of government largess enjoyed
trinkets that I only dreamed about.
Does his book address those
two separate but related issues satisfactorily?
8. Critics of Hillbilly
Elegy accuse Vance
of "blaming the victim" rather than providing a sound
analysis of the structural issues left unaddressed by government.
What do you think?
9. What does this book bring
to the national conversation about poverty—its roots and its
persistence? Does Vance raise the tone of discourse or lower it?
Describe a moment in Hillbilly
Elegy that demonstrated persistence, resilience, and/or grit. How
might these terms apply to you own identity, both personally and
academically?
J.D Vance makes it clear in
the introduction that Hillbilly Elegy is a memoir. How do you think
this affects the text? (Listen here)
Vance spent time in both
Middletown, Ohio and Jackson, Kentucky. In what ways might these two
regions of Appalachia be similar and different? Do you agree or
disagree with Vance’s description of these locations?
The LibGuide includes a number
of reviews on Hillbilly Elegy. Having read the book yourself, which
one of these stood out the most to you and why?
Vance has given many
interviews since the release of Hillbilly Elegy. What did you find
most interesting about what Vance had to say?
After reading the book and
taking a look at some of the interviews on the LibGuide, what
questions would you like to ask Vance if given the opportunity?
Hillbilly Elegy has been both
praised and criticized as a text draws attention to poor Whites
living in Appalachia. What do you make of Appalachia’s demographics
?
Think about how the book
approaches Hillbilly culture and take a moment to view Vance’s
viewpoint. Explain how you either agree or disagree with his
definition of a hillbilly.
Take a look at some of the
popular stereotypes of a hillbilly . What elements of Appalachian
culture are embellished or misleading?
View a few of Kamau Bell’s
clips on the LibGuide. How do these either reinforce or change your
viewpoint on Appalachians? Do you agree or disagree with Bell’s
interviewees? How might these compare or contrast with the book?
Art and Music serve as
important cultural elements in Appalachian culture. What are some of
the different types of Appalachian music and how do they speak to the
culture?
What are some of the major
themes found in Appalachian music? How might these give some insight
into Appalachian history and culture?
Vance clearly has a close
connection to his Mamaw. How would you describe her in your own
words? Do you have a Mamaw-like figure in your family?
What is an elegy? Why do you
think Vance chose to use that term in the title of the book?
What would you say are some of
the causes of poverty in Appalachia? Can you think of other places
that might have the same sort of issues?
------
Questions from University
of Wisconson-Madison
(There are five pages of
questions)
---------
Questions asked in Goodreads
This is being touted as book
to explain the rise of Trump in this country. Does it explain it?
Trump has never said exactly how he will deliver on his promise to
make America great again. Why do Appalachians believe empty promises,
especially from wealthy (well, if he would release his taxes we'd
know for sure) businessmen? Is it wishful thinking?
Was anyone else as horrified
as I at those aspects of the Hillbilly culture the author praises?
Mamaw was mean; she cussed, threatened and used physical violence and
he admires her- why?
After reading this book, I
find that any empahty I might have had for the people depicted in the
book has disappeared. They seem self-destructive in the extreme. Does
anyone else feel that way?
New Words:
-
elegy: a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.
-
inimical (chp 9): tending to obstruct or harm.
-
Space Brat by Bruce Coville
-
The Truly Disadvantaged by William Julius WIlson
-
Losing Ground by Charles Murray
-
First Line: Ny name is J.D. Vance, and I think I should start with a confession: I find the existence of the book you hold in your hands somewhat absurd.
-
Last Line: So I patted Casper’s head and went back to sleep.
-
We tend to overstate and understate, to glorify the good and ignore the bad in ourselves. Chp 1
-
Nothing compares to the fear that you’re becoming the monster in your closet. Chp 4
References:
-
Wikipedia-Book
-
Wikipedia-Author
-
Amazon-Book
-
Amazon-Author
-
GoodReads-Book
-
GoodReads-Author
-
NPR Review
-
Book Chatter review with questions
-
Betsy Rader's Sept 1, 2017 reply to JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy in the Washington Post opinion section: I was born in poverty in Appalachia. ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ doesn’t speak for me.
