Questions :
1. Which reason do you think is the most convincing for why we became bipedal? Why?
2. What one fact or idea from either the film, the book, or the lecture, did you find the most interesting about Neanderthals? Does your choice make Neanderthals more like modern H. sapiens or less like H. sapiens?
3. One topic from this week was peopling of the New World. Your book doesn't go too much into detail on the topic, but Hodges (2015) provided more info and I touched on it in lecture.
This post is designed to give us even more data on the topic. Please look up one early site in the Americas (North, Central or South) that is at least 10,000 years old. State where it is, what has been found there, and how it was dated (for example stone tools and cooking hearths, dated by C14). It is OK if the site is controversial because many are- just state why there is doubt about its' age.
Hillbilly Elegy p. 1-80
Please respond to one of the following questions in paragraph form.
1. According to JD Vance, what are some of the negative and positive traits of the Scots-Irish hillbilly? How do his family members demonstrate these traits?
2. Why does Vance dismiss industrial decline in the Midwest as a reason for the social problems among working class whites?
3. What do you think is his point in telling the story of his family and himself? Why?
4. Describe Jackson, Kentucky and how this place and its people have informed Vance's identity and instilled him with pride.
5. Vance cites a sociological study of Appalachian teens who use avoidance and wishful-thinking strategies to cope (20). What is this and why do you think Vance's narrative insists on raw honesty?
6. Vance describes his grandparents' northern migration to Ohio for a better life as linked to their belief in the "American Dream". How does his vision of the American Dream differ from Coates' vision? Why are these visions so different?
7. Compare the public private split in JD Vance's grandparents' life and in the life of Marjane Satrapi. What ways are they different and similar.
8. Describe the value of hillbilly loyalty. How does it strengthen the family? How does it hinder their psychological well-being?
9. Describe the socio-political structure of Middletown, Ohio--both how Vance perceives it as a child and his observations on its decline in his adulthood. What are the factors shaping his town? What created upward mobility in Vance's childhood? What are the obstacles to this same upward mobility now?
10. Vance writes, "In my immature brain, I didn't understand the difference between intelligence and knowledge. So I assumed I was an idiot"(59). Describe his childhood experience with formal education. Is education a way out for kids like Vance? Why or why not?
11. How did Vance's mom's abusive and unsteady relationships impact him? In what ways was he able to find stability?
12. Describe the lives of either Jimmy (Vance's uncle), Bev (Vance's mom), or Lori (Vance's Aunt Wee). In what ways did they repeat the cycle of violence and upheaval they witnessed in their youth, and in what ways were they able to break out of this cycle?
13. How did Vance begin to formulate a sense of identity after his visit to the courthouse? Why?
14. What are some of the values Vance inherits or learns from his Mamaw and Papaw? Are they valuable ones? Why or why not?
Hillbilly Elegy Reading Part Two Discussion p. 81-177
Please choose one of the questions to answer in paragraph form.
1. Why do you think JD Vance chooses to reach out to and replicate the positive role models in his family: Aunt Wee, Uncle Jimmy, Lindsay, his birth father, and Mamaw and Pawpaw? Why doesn't he replicate the erratic behavior of his mother?
2. Vance describes how his Mamaw breaks down after he asks her, "Mamaw, does God love us? (85)" Why is this moment a testing ground for his faith? What is the faith that Mamaw has handed down to him?
3. How does Vance's stay with his biological father deepen his religious belief?
4. Vance mentions a study that demonstrates "we [of the South and the Midwest] think we attend church more than we actually do" (93).
This study demonstrates a divide between belief and behavior. Does Vance's life attest to this? Why or why not?
5. Like Satrapi, how does Vance grapple with his desire to believe in God and the behavior of fundamentalists?
6. After Pawpaw's death, Vance realizes that his grandmother is "not invincible" (110). How does this make him feel? Why?
7. How does JD's mom's addiction impact him?
8. Why does Vance believe he was failing in school? Does he think educational institutions shoulder an unfair amount of responsibility in the lives of children? Why?
9. Why did Vance feel shame about his Mamaw? How does this differ from his perception of her today?
10. How does Vance use his experience working as a grocery clerk to explain the political shift of Appalachia and the south from Democrat to Republican?
11. What are Vance's grandmother's political beliefs? Why has he changed from seeing her as ignorant to seeing her as wise regarding the struggles of her community?
12. What is the "emotional poverty"(143) that Vance perceives in his hillbilly community?
13. Vance writes about sociological texts he has read describing the black urban poor as they relate to "hillbilly transplants from Appalachia" (144). What are the parallels and what can be learned from them?
14. Vance states, "It would be years before I learned that no single book, or expert, or field could fully explain the problems of hillbillies in modern America. Our elegy is a sociological one, yes, but it is also about psychology and community and culture and faith" (145). Describe how one of Vance's memories relates to any of these fields and how by exploring these areas more deeply, a family like JD Vance's could discover healing and recovery.
15. What is the contradiction Vance perceives in working class values and working class reality? What is "the broken connection between the world we see and the values we preach" (147)?
16. What were the "two worlds" (148-49)that JD straddled? How did this give him a conflicted sense of self?
17. What does JD learn in the Marines about the psychological term, learned helplessness and his term, "learned willfulness"(163)? Why does he need a sense of power to make his next move into adulthood?
18. What is the "transformative" (173) that Vance experiences in the Marines? Why is this significant?
19. Vance writes,"I'm not saying ability doesn't matter. It certainly helps. But there's something powerful about realizing that you've undersold yourself--that somehow your mind confused lack of effort for inability. This is why whenever people ask me what I'd most like to change about hte white working class, I say, 'The feeling that our choices don't matter'" (177). How does his time in the Marines teach him that power comes from within? How can you apply this lesson to your own life?
Hillbilly Elegy Reading Question p. 178-257
Please answer one of the questions in paragraph form.
1. Although JD Vance is successful at Ohio State University, explain a few of his challenges there. Can you relate at all to his experience to get his undergraduate degree? Why or why not?
2. Vance writes about the current cultural/political climate for the white working class, "Nothing united us with the core fabric of American society. We felt trapped in two seemingly unwinnable wars, in which a disprorportionate share of the fighters came from our neighborhood, and in an economy that failed to deliver the most basic promise of the American Dream--a steady wage" (189). Does he feel this same disconnect from American society that he writes of? Why or why not?
3. Vance writes about the importance of patriotism in his community to feel connected. He states, "Mamaw and Papaw taught me that we live in the best and greatest country on earth. This fact gave meaning to my childhood" (190). Is this feeling that Vance has a myth? Why or why not? Compare his feelings of patriotism to Coates' feelings of being an American.
4. Vance states that many conservative white voters believe that "Obama is a Muslim...or has ties to Islamic extremists, or is a traitor, or was born in some far-flung corner of the world" (190). He argues that this belief system regarding our ex-president is not related to racism, but to a feeling of inadequacy, or a feeling of distance from the upper-class word that Barrack Obama inhabits. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
5. Vance touches on "a deep skepticism of the very institutions of our society. And it's becoming more and more mainstream" (193) in his analysis of white working class conservatives distrust of the media, and since Donald Trump has become president, this distrust for the media appears from both the white working class conservatives and within the white house itself. What are your feelings about the media, fake news, and the current state of affairs? Should we question publications like the New York Times or CNN? Why or why not? Does this political stance obscure the truth or clarify the truth?
6. Vance writes about the latest trend for people within his community to blame "society or the government" (194) for their problems rather than taking on personal responsibility for the direction of their lives. Do you believe in personal responsibility? How does this notion intersect with the idea that a government should serve its people? Compare this idea with both Satrapi and Coates's views on government.
7. What keeps Vance from applying to Stanford? Why? What lesson can you gather from this for your own experience applying to college?
8. Vance writes, "The New York Times recently reported that the most expensive schools are paradoxically cheaper for low income students" (199). Yale "cost considerably less for [Vance] than any other school" (199) and he discusses his friend Nate who didn't apply to University of Chicago because he didn't think he could pay for it even though Vance argues that Ohio State University probably cost his friend more. Does this information surprise you? Why or why not?
9. How does Vance fit in at Yale? Why do you think that here he is able to finally release his shame about his grandparents and recognize their important role in life?
10. Vance writes, "As I realized how different I was from my classmates at Yale, I grew to appreciate how similar I was to the people back home. Most important, I became acutely aware of the inner conflict born of my recent success" (205). What is this conflict Vance feels? Do you think he resolves it within the confines of this book? Why or why not?
11. What are some of the problems with upward mobility that Vance identifies?
12. Why does Vance feel insecure at his meeting for potential law firm employers? How does his social class make him a foreigner here?
13. How does he explain his Yale education and career path in terms of "what economists call social capital" (214)? Who comprises his social capital at school? Why are they so important to his success?
14. What does Vance discover during his early relationship with Usha about how his early childhood experiences have shaped him?What is the effect of early childhood trauma on Vance? How does it impact children in general?
15. Vance writes, "How much of our lives, good and bad, should we credit to our personal decisions, and how much is just the inheritance of our culture, our families, and our parents who have failed their children? How much is Mom's life her own fault? Where does blame stop and sympathy begin?" (231). What's your opinion of JD Vance's mom?
16. Vance cites an economists' study of a "poor kid's chances of rising through the ranks of America's meritocracy" and finds "By their metrics, a lot of European countries seemed better than America at the American Dream. More important, they discovered that opportunity was not spread evenly over the whole country" (241-242). How does Vance make sense of this and what are his ideas for solutions? What solutions can you think of to keep social mobility a reality and not a myth of our country?
17. What does Vance see as hindering education as a source of opportunity for all? Do you agree? Why or why not?
18. In his conclusion, Vance ponders the fate of a boy much like himself, growing up a hillbilly. What hope does he offer for this boy? Has Vance himself found the key to making peace with his ghosts and moving forward? Why or why not?
Analyzing the Language of the Quote Hillbilly Elegy p. 1-80
Please choose any quote that resonated with you from this first section of Vance's book, and then attempt to analyze the language of the quote.
Since you will be including quotes and analysis in your comparison essay (just as you have done in both literary analysis essays) and the midterm, I wanted you to get extra practice here.
An example: "I remember sitting in that busy courtroom, with half a dozen other families all around, and thinking they looked just like us. The moms and dads and grandparents didn't wear suits like the lawyers and judge. They wore sweatpants and stretchy pants and T-shirts.
Their hair was a bit frizzy. And it was the first time I noticed "TV accents"--the neutral accent that so many news anchors had. The social workers and the judge and the lawyer all had TV accents. None of us did. The people who ran the courthouse were different from us. The people subjected to it were not...Identity is an odd thing, and I didn't understand at the time why I felt such kinship with these strangers" (79).
You might analyze how Vance, as a child, notices his difference from the power structure he inhabits. Where does he rank in this scale? Why?
How does he feel about this difference? What is his awareness of who he is within American culture? OR You might analyze this according to classism. How does this passage identify an upper and lower class? Is there a sense of community on both sides? Why or why not?