Hillbilly Elegy: The Author's Personal Experience and the Decline of White Working-Class Americans

J.D. Vance, a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, accounts his experience growing up in an old, poor town and the perspective it gave him on America’s working class in his book Hillbilly Elegy. In it, he analyzes the crisis that is the decline of white working-class Americans using personal experience. In addition, he shares true stories that really depict the reality of the crisis. In this chapter, Vance explains his experience after returning home from college and the interesting aspects of his community he observed that represent his ideas on the white working-class in America.

Vance begins his account in 2007, when he attended Ohio State University after his time in the Marines. He describes that he was older than most students, but was able to relate to them because they came from similar environments as him. He took what he learned in the Marines and applied the same energy and principles to his schoolwork. In order to stay afloat financially, he explains to readers that he had to maintain a job at the Ohio Statehouse. Later, when he still wasn’t making his desired income, he was forced to take on a second job at a nonprofit. Although the busy schedule didn’t bother him, Vance describes the affects it had on his health. After learning about his deteriorating health, he talks about how his mother drove to the university to take him to the doctor. The doctor found that he had a staph infection and mononucleosis, so his mother decided to take him home to recover. Vance continues by describing his experiences after returning to Columbus. He explains his new job as an SAT tutor and goes on to illustrate all the hard work he put into his second year of college. He recounts one specific incident, when a young, judgmental classmate went on a tangent about how unintelligent and bloodthirsty soldiers are. This incident pushed Vance to get out of college as fast as possible. After careful planning, he was able to graduate in one year and eleven months.

Vance retuned to Middletown to get ready for law school, where he was able to notice the cynicism most people there had about their lives. He explains that the culture didn’t have any heroes to place their hope toward, and “certainly not any politician.” He describes the hillbillies suspicion towards Barack Obama, although he was looked up to throughout the country. He writes that “nothing united [them] with the core fabric of American society.” However, he believes that one of the most prevalent aspects of hillbilly culture is patriotism. He explains that, while growing up, he was constantly told that he lived in the best country on Earth. Vance concludes that since the white working-class no longer had a political role model, they were no longer aware of what had previously “bound them to their neighbors…’

Vance goes on to explain many white, conservative voter’s distrust in Barack Obama. He analyzes where this distrust and hate comes from and suggests that it stems from an inability to relate. Vance looks at this through a broader scope, by addressing the rhetoric of modern conservatives. He believes that “instead of encouraging engagement, conservatives increasingly foment the kind of detachment that has sapped the ambition of so many of his peers.” He notices that expectations are what separate the successful from the non-successful. He goes on to explain how this applies to hillbillies, as they are the most pessimistic group of Americans. Vance concludes that this is what establishes him as an outsider of his hometown, and what determined this was his optimism.