Hillbilly Elegy Chapter Summaries

By Demondre Peak Hillbilly as defined by Webster’s dictionary is “an unsophisticated country person associated originally with the remote regions of the Appalachians.” Over time the word Hillbilly has developed plenty of negative connotations and some would even say that it is now even used as a derogatory term for those who live in the Appalachian heritage. Some also say that the connotation is two fold in the sense that there is a positive outlook and a negative one as well. The positive seems to be that they are very independent and self sufficient, while at the same time they are also considered to be backwards and violent. The interesting thing about “Hillbilly Elegy” is that JD Vance specifically speaks about some of the ways of the

In this novel there seems to be a recurring motif that I naturally picked up on as I moved on in the book. It seemed that no matter what people did bad in this novel there was always a natural instinct to protect their own and to always stay loyal. In this novel Mawmaw is the true definition of what it means to be loyal to one’s family. For example, when Bev threatened to crash the car while JD was in it, he ran to a neighboring house and called his Mawmaw and the police showed up. Mawmaw insisted that JD didn’t tell the police she threatened him because she didn’t want Bev to go to jail. Regardless of all the crazy things the ones she loved most did to her she always made sure she protected them because that was the culture she knew most. I believe that she was truly the pillar of her family and the novel clearly depicts her as one of the big reasons JD was a successful as he

When I think of Hillbillies I first recognized that my biases immediately play a role in my thoughts and that what I picture isn’t always accurate. However, I do think of alcohol when I think of Hillbilly culture and that is something that was very present and visible within this novel. The first obvious example of this is Bev, JD’s mother. In a lot of the scenes with Bev the audience understands that she is consistently dealing with an alcohol problem and drug problem. Even Pawpaw at a certain point in the novel was dealing with alcoholism and was affecting his relationship with Mawmaw. The most interesting example that really solidified that it was apart of the culture was when Vance lived in Miamisburg and started drinking and smoking marijuana. While alcoholism is an element of Hillbilly culture, I think the motives behind the drinking seems to be one of the novel's motifs. In all three cases it seems as if the alcohol or drug abuse seems to stem from a way to escape reality. I formed this opinion when looking specifically at Bev and Vance’s situations. Bev has always struggled her entire life and has been caught in this drug trap if you think about it, the struggle of her life leads her to do drugs and the drugs in her life lead to a struggle. In order to cope with the struggle she uses drugs, similar to Bev, Vance also used substances as a way to cope with the low quality of his