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Hillbilly Elegy: Why Poor Students Struggle

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Hillbilly Elegy is a testament to the challenges that children in rural communities face. It discusses the struggles that comes with poverty, crime, and the losing battle against drug abuse and how these problems mold a child to be either successful in life or fail. In the book, J.D. Vance exposes his readers to the hillbilly culture through his personal experiences with the hope that it will promote an understanding of the obstacles poor adolescents face from a young age while attempting to break down the stereotypes his community is painted with. Throughout his life, Vance has learned many life lessons from the adverse experiences of his past, and those lessons have given him the opportunity to achieve upward mobility unlike any other member …show more content…

Socioeconomic status is what caused many of the challenges that Vance endured during his attendance at Yale and some of these problems included social alienation and isolation, but sadly these issues are not unique to Vance, for a number of low income student fail to attain a higher education due to these factors. Furthermore, students that come from a low income background find that their very identity is being criticized the moment they step on campus. However, these experiences are far more subtle then one may expect, and they often materialized as offhanded comments that result in low income student questioning their right to be on campus such as Vance did during the dinner party he attended. These cultural differences are what trigger a countless number of underprivileged students, including Vance, to develop the belief that they are an outsider in their own community; especially as the income gap continues to widen, making it harder for people to smoothly transition into higher social classes. However, having the right teachers to support them as well as friends can cause those feelings of inadequacy to slowly lessen over time as proven by Vance’s success in school and later his career. The road to success can be a formidable battle that may take years of hard work to overcome, but it is possible and literature such as Hillbilly Elegy and Why Poor Students Struggle suggest that providing understanding and support to those who are

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