The novel I want to focus on is called Hillbilly Elegy, written by J.D. Vance. In the personal narrative, Vance was born in Jackson, Kentucky and moved to Middletown, Ohio, a poor town in America’s rust belt. Growing up in the Appalachia region, Vance suffered through a childhood plagued with high poverty rates, divorce, drug use, violence, and low social mobility. Unfortunately, most people living in these regions never broke these trends—Vance was exposed to them all. In his youth, his mother got divorced twice, attempted suicide, physically abused J.D, and became addicted to drugs after her father died. Needless to say, after his mother went to jail for various offenses, J.D. and his sister Lindsey were raised by their grandparents in hopes of a better life. Although they grew up with very low socioeconomic status and no access to quality education, Mamaw, Vance’s grandma, knew J.D. would one day break the cycle and become successful. She always believed in him, and without her full support, Vance may have never escaped his childhood life. After graduating high school, his work ethic and persistence led him to earn a B.A. in political science from The Ohio State University. Already defying the odds, Vance was accepted to Yale’s Law School. Clearly, when Vance went to college, he encountered individuals who came from different socioeconomic classes. Almost nobody who Vance grew up with attended higher education, so he hardly knew anyone who came to college with his same socioeconomic background. When he attended Yale, he experienced a big culture shock because many people came from very wealthy and successful families. In addition, Vance was not used to big cities like Columbus or New Haven. This example highlights how Vance encountered many people from different socioeconomic classes, and how he adjusted to the different lifestyle. After graduated from Yale, he became a lawyer and married Usha Chilukuri. They currently live in Columbus with their son and two dogs. In December of 2016, Vance started a nonprofit organization called Our Ohio Renewal to combat drug abuse in the Rust Belt. Recently, J.D. became the co-founder of a capital market company called Narya Capital, which invests long-term capital in people who use technology to solve important issues. Vance raised over 93 million dollars for the company.
Hi Connor,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your Context Research Presentation this week. Hillbilly Elegy is a fantastic book; I went on a road trip with one of my friends and he read the book out loud to us. It also reminds me of the book Educated, too, where a person from an extremely small town and low socioeconomic status goes on to thrive in college. I think that we have a lot to learn from these stories of those whose lives often differ so greatly from ours. Great work!