J.D. Vance is untrusting to other people because of his mother abuse, his constant change in father figures, and his taught perception of the outside world. All of his mother’s choices effected Vance in some way but her maltreatment is one that really stood out in contributing to his untruthfulness in expressed regret. On top of her addiction, his mother also aloud men to come in and out of his life, including his biological and legal father which led to cautiousness of relationships. However, his mother wasn’t the only person to alter his perception of the outward society, his family also taught him to use violence as defense for not only his honor but his families.
In some ways, it would be believed that his mother had the biggest impact in his behavior toward the people outside of his family. On top of her drug use, that she promised to stop but never did, she was also physically and verbally abusive to the people around her. One
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Vance’s family taught him to honor and hold the value of family above all else, which would otherwise be viewed as a good moral, was taken to an extreme. He was taught that violence to harmless jokes directed toward family was enough reason to harm someone. This perception can be traced all the way back to his grandmother, Mawmaw, who even encouraged violence rooted in the nature of defending or ‘honoring’ family.(66) This caused fury to rise through triggers because the simplest things. This mentality stayed with him through his adult life which can be proven when an act of road rage almost turned into assault. (246) Some may argue that this form of anger could have come from his ‘revolving door of father figures’, but this argument can be disproven because earlier in the book it is seen that Vance still ‘honored’ his sister before he had a chance to learn that the men his mother brought around were never