Cultural or Personal Testimony “We don’t study as children, and we don’t make our kids study when we're parents.” (Vance 147) In discussions of Hillbilly Elegy, a controversial issue is whether the book can be an example for the entirety of hillbilly culture. While some argue that the testimonies of J.D. Vance in Hillbilly Elegy can’t possibly depict the entirety of hillbilly culture, others contend that his personal experiences bring out truths about the lives of hillbillies.(Graff and Birkenstein xviii) Often times throughout Vance's memoir he uses the word “we” as if the statements, stories, and situations he recounts in his memoir are synonymous in every hillbilly life. “We choose not to work when we should be looking for jobs.” (Vance
In John Hubner’s 2005 book, Last Chance in Texas, readers are given insight into the fundamental curriculum that is embedded at Giddings State School. The book is divided into two parts, it begins by giving the point of view of the boy’s at Giddings and then shifts to the girl’s perspective. A significant chapter in the girl’s portion is chapter twelve, in which Hubner centers on Candace, a subject of the book. Readers learn her life and crime story and are able to understand the effects Giddings has had on her life and also how she, herself, affected the campus life. Chapter twelve not only further develops Candace as an individual, but also introduces more depth into the Special Services Committee.
In the world of Appalachia, stereotypes are abundant. There are stories told of mountaineers as lazy, bewildered, backward, and yet happy and complacent people. Mountain women are seen as diligent, strong, hard willed, and overall sturdy and weathered, bearing the burden of their male counterparts. These ideas of mountain life did not come out of thin air; they are the direct product of sensational nineteenth century media including print journalism and illustrative art that has continuously mislead and wrongfully represented the people of Appalachia. These stories, written and told by outsiders, served very little purpose to Appalachian natives other than means of humiliation and degradation. They served mostly to convince readers of the need for so-called civilized people and companies to take over the land and industry of the region, in particular the need for mineral rights, railroads, and logging as the mountain folk were wasting those valuable resources necessary for the common good.
As a teenager, Bud had to milk cows, in the morning and in the evening. They had about 36 milking cows. Bud’s favorite subject in school was music class and choir. He attended Yale high school, and Eastern Michigan University. The one family tradition Bud participated in was going to church every Sunday morning. Bud had a curfew of about 10 o’clock p.m., but it got a little later as he got older. He lived and worked on his family’s dairy farm. It was in the countryside of Yale, Michigan. Bud was in college when the Vietnam War was taking place and because of the fact he did not want to be drafted he was motivated to stay in school.
McCullough, intertwines logos and pathos to emphasize the importance of doing things for self–enrichment, instead of the established ideal of competition. These students are not the first ones, last ones, or only ones to graduate high school in Massachusetts. He lists, “no fewer than 3.2 million seniors are graduating about now from more than 37,000 high schools. That’s 37,000 valedictorians, 37,000 class presidents...2,185,967 pairs of Uggs”. He drives
How truly grateful are we for our possessions and what we have earned from the work we have done? Are we thankful for what we possess, or are we still jealous of that one friend, colleague, coworker, or even extended family member that has nicer belongings than we do? Jacob Riis opened our eyes and gave us a true, vivid description and idea of how American families in New York during the late 1800’s lived and worked. This eye opening account shows us today that we should be grateful for what we have and never think that everyone is better than us. Throughout How the Other Half Lives, Riis uses a variety of writing techniques such as word choice, imagery, and.
Literature: Penguin Edition. The American Experience. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. 561-562. Print.
Jim Burden’s early years follows the structure of the idealized childhood of the American West, one where he can run freely in the country and is surrounded by the natural world. However, prejudices are still prevalent in his community, and have a noticeable effect on its inhabitants as they mature. From a young age, members of the Black Hawk, Nebraska community are instilled with the idea that daughters
Lareau, Annette. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2011. Print.
For many people in the 1930’s living conditions were not as adequate as they needed to be. The stock market had just crashed in 1928, and the US was in the midst of the Great Depression. Many people suffered from lack of money, and many others suffered from lack of food. One group of people who suffered greatly during this time period were the southern share croppers. Factors that caused the substandard living conditions of the southern share croppers in the 1930’s include lack of education, poor health care, and inadequate living facilities. The first factor that caused the substandard living conditions of the southern share croppers was their lack of education. There were several reasons the share croppers didn’t get the education they needed. One main reason was because many children didn’t go to school. Harold Walker writes that Southern cotton states ranked lower in rate of attendance for each student enrolled than any of the other states in the nation (4). A factor that contributed to this was their excessive mobility, which inhibited many children from going to school (Corder 27). It is common knowledge that any child who constantly moves around will not be able to attend school on a regular basis, and even if they go to a school when they get a chance they will be so far behind they would have a difficult time catching up. Another factor that impeded on a child’s attendance at school was the fact that they never went to school when there was cotton to be picked (Walker 8). This may not seem like a large task, but some times it could take weeks to pick all the cotton. These few weeks that a child spent picking cotton was valuable learning time, and missing it could put a child too far behind to catch up. Another reason share croppers didn’t get the education they needed was because many southern rural schools had short terms (Gentry 21). Because of this teachers would not be able to cover all of the material that they needed to cover, or they would have to rush through the material they did cover. A final reason the education of the southern cotton states was not as good as other states was because their teachers were not as good. This was reflected in the fact that the salaries of Southern teachers were not as high as the salaries of other teachers (Mckeon 98).
Prentice Hall Literature, The American Experience. Saddle River, New Jershey: Pearson Education, 2004. Print. Georgia Student Education.
Jean Louise “Scout” and Jem Finch experienced life in the 1930’s living in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. Their childhood was a nonstop adventure that brought jocund days and testing trials that teenager’s today experience even with the world around us changing every day. The moral upbringings, educational importance, and the crime rate of small towns all contributed to the childhood memories that were built every day in Maycomb County. These attributes to childhood experiences have changed a lot over the vast time period between the 1930’s and 2000’s. The moral upbringings are different in the way that children living now are experiencing a different surrounding in their everyday life and have lost morals that were taught in the 1930’s. Education is more important now than in the 1930’s because of the many laws that have been established to keep children well educated to help them succeed. Living in a small town had many advantages like the low crime rate; crime rate has risen and caused an effect on small town life. There are many similarities as well as differences between the childhood in the 1930’s and the 2000’s. The changes that have occurred affect my life as a young Alabamian every day in many ways.
Our Young Folks was a children’s magazine that ran from 1865 until 1873. Although the magazine didn’t last long, it was widely read by children across the country and even abroad, and circulation eventually exceeded 75,000 (Kelly 345). The magazine began publication just four months before the end of the Civil War, and during this time of upheaval Our Young Folks was an ethical guide for the nation’s children. Nearly every story offers the reader a moral, and children were continually urged to put others before themselves.
In the novel Ragtime, many aspects of the American society are explored. The reader gets an understanding of the history and hardships of different social classes, races, and cultures during the last century. A persistent theme established is the existence of the American dream. Doctorow expresses his fascination of the social mobility since it includes the impoverished and underprivileged. However, he highlights that when attempting to reach success, one is required to make sacrifices, negotiating his morality and identity. Tateh and Coalhouse are crucial examples of how the demands, prejudices, and opportunities of the American society can change a man’s mentality.
Students are always taught about slavery, segregation, war, and immigration, but one of the least common topics is farm women in the 1930’s. Lou Ann Jones, author of Mama Learned Us to Work, portrayed a very clear and clean image to her readers as to what the forgotten farm-women during the 1930’s looked like. This book was very personal to me, as I have long listened to stories from my grandmother who vividly remembers times like these mentioned by Jones. In her book Mama Learned Us to Work, author Lou Ann Jones proves that farm women were a major part of Southern economy throughout the content by the ideology and existence of peddlers, the chicken business, and linen production.
In early American history, society believed that women did not have a place in education and high-level learning. They were told not to bother their brains with such advanced thinking. Middle and upper class women learned to read and write, but their education ended there. A woman’s place was said to be in the home, cooking, sewing, and taking care of the children. In the case of upper class women, their “to-do” list was cut even shorter with the servants present to do the work.