Plot Summary of Hillbilly Elegy by J.d Vance

Hillbilly Elegy, a memoir written by J.D Vance, opens with Vance reminiscing over his youth and various experiences of him growing up in Jackson, Kentucky. Vance spent many of his early years in Jackson, Kentucky, where he established many family values as he stayed at his grandmother's house for much of his childhood. Vance proceeds to move to Ohio, and along with moving he essentially loses the tight knight family aspect of his life. 

Vance is among many “hillbillies” to move from the Appalachian region towards the Midwest. After the family moved to Middleton, Ohio, Mamaw (Vance’s grandmother) proceeds to remarry and have 3 children. Papaw’s (his grandfather) drinking problems emerge as Vance grows up in Ohio, and Papaw often gets in heated accelerations with Mamaw. A stigma of labor surrounds Middletown, Ohio, which is that the labor that your parents have done is where you’ll end up. Vance trying to to make a path of his own, turns to his Grandfather who helps him with his academics often. As Vance advances through school he is surrounded by aggressive behaviour among his classmates including many schoolyard fights. When Vance turns nine, his mom and stepdad move away and this ultimately ends the structures family values that he had with his Grandmother and Grandfather. Disconnected from the only values Vance once had, and in the middle of abuse between his parents, he started doing badly at school. Following an attempted suicide attempt by Bev (Vance’s mom), the him and his mom moved back close to Mamaws and Papaws. 

One day, after a heated arguments between Vance and his mom, Bev started speeding and saying that she was going to kill both of them. Bev was eventually arrested, and Vance was able to permanently live with his grandparents, As life went on, Vance starts communicating and visiting his biological father, Don. In the following years, Papaw passes away, which brings along multiple family issues, for example, the emergence that Bev had developed an addiction to prescription pills. Following Vance’s graduation from middle school, his mom decides that they were moving to Dayton, Ohio with her boyfriend. Amongst even more family issues with a new boyfriend of Bev, Vance starts to experiment with alcohol and marijuana as a path of escapism. After Vance is demanded to give his urine to his mom for her to pass a drug test, it was decided yet again that Vance was to live permanently with Mamaw. With this new chance of life, Vance gets a job at the local grocery store and starts to focus on his academics. 

Against all odds, Vance gets accepted into Ohio State University, but he decides to join the Marines instead. During Vance’s time in the military, Mamaw passes away and he eventually goes back to Ohio to attend OSU. Vance then proceeds to go to law school, and attends Yale to pursue his career as a lawyer. Just as he is finishing law school Vance learns that Bev has turned to heroin and is an avid user. The book finishes with Vance reminiscing over his life and how he got to experience both the rich and poor social classes in his lifetime.