Beyond The Story of J.d. Vance 'Hillbilly Elegy'

Introduction

The memoir Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance is a well-written book that awakens my mind and allows me to connect to a part of this country I never knew existed. In his story, Vance not only focuses on his own family crisis, with his mom’s addiction, poverty, and domestic violence, but he goes on to discuss social issues within his community and between the hillbillies and the outsiders. The author writes in an understanding manner, using data and applying sociological perspectives to support his arguments. I will admit that if it were not for this Sociology class, I would never have read this book. Nonetheless, I am glad I have. To write my sociological essay on this book, I will be using class stratification to illustrate my arguments. The reason is simply because of the obvious class issues present in Vance’s community. But what is class stratification? A dictionary-based definition would be the hierarchical or vertical division of society according to rank, caste, or class, which is a bit too general. Yet, in sociology, class stratification has a more explicit definition, which is based on divisions within our society based on access to important resources. For instance, in Hillbilly Elegy, we have on one side the Appalachian people, the lower strata living in deprived neighborhoods with meager resources, and on the other side the upper strata already living in affluent neighborhoods with more resources.

Beyond The Story of J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy

Karl Marx, the father of communism, was a philosopher and sociologist who introduced a major theoretical perspective in sociology known as social conflict theory. This theory focuses on the way inequalities contribute to social differences and preserve these differences in power. The analytical view of conflict theory on class stratification is that it perpetuates inequality and unfairness. Conflict theorists try to bring awareness to inequalities, such as how a rich society can have so many poor members, by drawing on the work of Karl Marx. Since Marx’s time, bourgeois capitalists owned high-producing businesses, factories, and land, while the proletariat were the workers who performed the manual labor to produce goods. Sadly, today, while working conditions have improved, conflict theorists believe that the strained working relationship between employers and employees still exists. A perfect illustration of this inequality is shown in the struggling lives of the Scots-Irish families who were coal miners and steelworkers desperately crawling their way toward prosperous living conditions by migrating north for better work opportunities. In addition, unlike the functionalists who believe that different strata are necessary to maintain social order and that class mobility is possible for everyone if one works hard enough, the question arises: how hard does one have to work before accomplishing upward mobility? If we are being honest, the chances of that happening are slim. Conflict theorists argue that class stratification is maintained to protect those at the top from having to share the prestige and privilege.

“I grew up poor, in the Rust Belt, in an Ohio steel town that has been hemorrhaging jobs and hope for as long as I can remember.” (Vance, 2016, p. 9) J.D. Vance starts his story this way not to indicate his tragic childhood but to make readers have a more sympathetic understanding of people who, like him, had or are still living in such conditions. However, J.D. Vance wants to show that he found a way to achieve upward mobility despite being statistically labeled to fail based on his ancestors’ failure to achieve it. Yet, the community that he loves still suffers for the simple reason that although he grew up in that community and poor as he says, he still had more social capital than most of the people there. There are different types of poverty, such as absolute poverty, relative poverty, deprived, and subjective poverty. For instance, he quoted in his memoir that “As the manufacturing center of the industrial Midwest has hollowed out, the white working class has lost both its economic security and the stable home and family life that comes with it.” (Vance, 2016, p. 18) This perfectly demonstrates absolute poverty, which is the lack of basic needs required for a healthy life. In this world, being different so often gives rise to stereotypes and prejudice.

Ethnocentrism and Social Perceptions

Similarly, having a different culture than the society one lives in gives rise to ethnocentrism. Vance says that hillbillies mean poverty because the white working class is considered by the white upper class to be "white trash," meaning the shame of the white races. Unfortunately, it is a sad truth; the Appalachians are poor. Why is that? “Although the nation has faced the Great Recession that rocked our nation’s economy, where people struggled through a long and extremely high unemployment season, those in the lower classes felt the impact most profoundly.” They were already poor, and theoretically, after that chaotic event, they were left without government assistance, so their situations worsened because they were stereotyped as being xenophobic just for having strong values and cultural traditions. The reason is that the system has always been planned that way to maintain the order of class stratification. Consequently, their offspring inherit their poverty because even the education system fails to prevent poverty from taking root in those areas. Kids, who are the future, were condemned to fail just because their families were at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, and their teachers would give them a palpable sense that they would never make it (Lannamann, 2016). Then most end up quitting and hoping to work in the famous Armco or other big steel companies. “The public schools are so bad that the state of Kentucky recently seized control. Nevertheless, parents send their children to these schools because they have little extra money, and the high school fails to send its students to college with alarming consistency.” Moreover, to most, achieving a higher living standard has become an unrealistic dream. Therefore, most give in to deviance and despair. “Federal housing policy has actively encouraged homeownership, from Jimmy Carter’s Community Reinvestment Act to George W. Bush’s ownership society.” and “As jobs disappear in a given area, declining home values trap people in certain neighborhoods.” (Vance, 2016, p. 143) As a result, many people are trapped by that law and unable to move out of these poor neighborhoods towards better opportunities since it is costly to do so. “For many, part-time work is all they have access to because the Armcos of the world are going out of business and their skill sets don’t fit well in the modern economy.”

The Capitalist System and Its Impact

The capitalists have always gained their comforts at the suffering of the proletariat. For example, big companies like Armco will move their operations to poorer areas to create job opportunities with good wages. Then, the workers become content with having wages that help support their families and feel like they have accomplished upward mobility from the lower class to the middle class. Though, if we take the time to analyze it closely, they are set to forget about their dreams. Who wants to go to school when he can make $16 an hour without a degree? The real problem erupts when the skills they gained while working in those well-paid jobs become no good to them in the modern world. There again, they find themselves right back where they started, in the lower class. How could they escape this poverty if even when they worked as hard as possible, they were given less than no opportunities? They might be hardworking, but what good is that if there are no job opportunities?

Conclusion

In conclusion, J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy provides a vivid portrayal of class stratification and its impacts on individuals and communities. By examining the systemic issues and societal perceptions that perpetuate poverty, the memoir encourages readers to reconsider the societal structures that maintain these disparities. It challenges us to think critically about the role of social capital, education, and economic opportunity in achieving upward mobility and highlights the need for systemic change to address these entrenched inequalities.

References:

• Vance, J. D. (2016). Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. Harper.
• Lannamann, T. (2016). How the Education System Fails the Poor. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com