As a tenth-generation Appalachian, Ivy Brashear finds J.D. Vance’s 2016 memoir ““Elegy for the Peasants” as “really one-sided and simplified image of the region.”
In pursuit of lend a hand people broaden their perspective on Appalachia, she decided to share her own story in a 2019 collection of writings. book, “Appalachia’s Reckoning: Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy.”
“(Elegy for the Peasants) this is not the only story you should watch” Brashear said. “You should broaden your horizons and see what other stories exist (in Appalachia).”
Appalachian Reckoning is divided into two parts which they include many different contributors — the first half are the comments’ replies Elegy for the Peasants The second part is a collection of stories and photos from people telling their own stories related to Appalachia.
“This is a book born of frustration,” the introduction reads. “It is a book born of hope. It tries to speak for no one and give a voice to the many. … It aims to start a conversation about why this book has touched so many people in the region so deeply, but it does not aim to demonize J.D. Vance.”
Appalachian Reckoning was edited by Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarroll and published by West Virginia University Press.
“Our goal was to show that Appalachia is a huge, diverse place with many different stories and many different voices,” Harkins said.
Appalachia is a region spanning 13 states, stretching from New York to Mississippi.. There are 32 counties in the Appalachian region of Ohio.
Elegy for the Peasants
“Elegy for the Peasants: Memories of a Family and Culture in Crisis describes the challenges Vance faced growing up in Middletown, Ohio — which is not part of Appalachia. Vance’s mother and her family were from Eastern Kentucky, which is part of Appalachia.
Elegy for the Peasants has been experiencing a renaissance recently since Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump chose Ohio Senator Vance as his vice presidential running mate, catapulting him to the top Amazon bestsellers. The book was previously a New York Times bestseller and was made into a film by Ron Howard.
But Vance The memoir was criticized for generalizing about Appalachia and the working class.
“It was continuing to shape the concept of the region for the rest of the world, the rest of the country, I think, in a mostly negative way, in a way that reinforced notions of people as violent, ignorant, lazy and responsible for their own problems in a way that didn’t really explain the socioeconomic history of this place or how it came to be and how it is,” Harkins said.
Elegy for the Peasants influenced how people outside the region view Appalachia, he said.
“It has framed the region through one lens and hidden many of the more complex, diverse parts of its history,” Harkins said. “It reinforces the idea that this is a monocultural space and hides many of the ranges of voices and experiences.”
Brashear said it basically reduces Appalachia turned into a caricature.
“When you paint a very complex, very diverse place with a broad brush, you lose a lot of the nuance of what it means to be part of that place, to come from that place, to advocate for that place, to fight for that place and to really feel rooted in that place,” she said. “When you lose that nuance and you lose that humanity, it really makes it harder for other people to relate and harder for them to see that this place is worth investing in as well.”
Vance’s Memories Has perpetuating stereotypes about Appalachia, said Tiffany Arnold, coordinator of Appalachian studies certificate programs at Ohio University.
“Hillbilly Elegy hurt the region, Vance hurt the region because people prefer to believe rhetoric that reinforces what they already believe about us, because if they believe we are who they think we are, they can continue to use us as scapegoats for everything they think is wrong with this country and not take responsibility for the institutional and systemic poverty that has existed here for generations, and Vance certainly reinforced stereotypes that already existed,” Arnold wrote in an email to the Capital Journal.
Appalachian Reckoning
Brashear wrote about her Kentucky family in a chapter Bill entitled, ‘Keep Your ‘Elegy’: The Appalachian Mountains I Know Are Very Much Alive.
“I come from a culture and family of dignity, grace, laughter, and joy—none of which exists in J.D. Vance’s fictional Appalachia,” she wrote in her chapter. “Hillbilly Elegy actively and deliberately ignores and excludes the real, lived experiences of all but a minority of Appalachians.
Brashear writes that he does not minimize the difficulties Vance experienced as a child.
“But I have a serious problem with the way his narrative of the region erases and destroys any experience of Appalachia beyond his own non-Appalachian experience by constantly insisting that the culture of Appalachian “hillbillies” is somehow flawed and morally depraved, and that it must be overcome and escaped without looking back,” he writes.
Bob Hutton, assistant professor of Appalachian studies at Glenville State University in West Virginia, wrote his response to Elegy in a chapter of Reckoning entitled “Peasant elitism.‘
“Vance shares the view that poor whites are limited by their regressive culture,” Hutton wrote in his essay. “Vance’s view of poverty has profound racial and geographic limitations that limit his ability to understand it. … His book ultimately illustrates the oxymoron that capitalism and its defenders require: Any hard-working individual can rise to the top, but at any given time many more individuals must remain at the bottom.”
Harkins said the response to “Appalachian Reckoning” over the years has been encouraging.
“So many people… wanted to see more voices represented, so we tried very hard to include as many diverse voices, texts and approaches in this book as possible,” he said.
Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Twitter.
