The recent publication of J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis depicts a culture of white working class men struggling in society, not to be confused with white-collar workers. An excerpt placed in the National Review highlights how “the rhetoric of hard work” can tend to differ between interpretations and reality. Vance advocates upon how a societal attitude solely based upon one interpretation of “hard work” has hindered a culture from venturing outside of its own niche of comfortability, and I believe that he is correct. While the article begins in medias res, the provided excerpt efficiently summarizes the article as a whole. Situated around Middletown, Ohio, an opening anecdote rapidly reveals a sense of cultural acceptance to the fact that the importance of education was not stressed, although the majority of the citizens don’t seem to mind this. Vance explains that “students don’t expect much from themselves, because the people around them don’t do very much.” This “phenomenon” may be an instance of learned helplessness, powerlessness in the grand scheme; what makes this…show more content… An error of passing a subconscious expectation of less academic success has lead to attitudes which “lurk below the surface” of the culture. Meanwhile, a misinterpretation of “hard work” has lead to “extravagant moochers” of the system, who believe themselves to be “obvious exception[s]” of their own criticism. It seems rather hypocritical to belittle others for acting the same way. However, this could after all be a type of projection; because the citizens do not expect much of themselves and it is known that many will not achieve, putting others down may be a way of coping with their own insecurities of themselves. Vance himself was able to persevere hard enough to positively defy the social normalities of his society; he describes his exposure to learning was what “might have saved
