Hillbilly Elegy

For those that still do not know, Hillbilly Elegy is the latest show on Netflix directed by Ron Howard. His name alone would drives many to watch this movie. The only problem is that it did not garner many good reviews. Needless to say it is not a hit. A rare thing for Ron Howard i supposed. The critics were mainly criticizing that the movie did not capture the main theme of the book and that it was apolitical. The book was rather blunt in its assessment of what went wrong with the country. This naturally piqued my curiosity and makes me want to find out more for myself.

The book Hillbilly Elegy popped up several times when i was searching for the next good read but each time i would ignore it. The reason? The title of the book just put me off. I cannot find any good reasons why i would want to read about Hillbillies. I finally decided to put aside my prejudism and picked up a copy from our National Library. Surprisingly i finished it in under 3 days. Could have been shorter if not for other ‘family distractions’. Hillbilly Elegy It is one of the best book I have ever read this year and one of the best ever.

The background?

True to the titled, the book is really all about Hillbillies as author J.D. Vance came from such a family. Hillbilly is a derogatory term used to describe people who dwell in rural, mountainous area of America like the Appalachians. He described the struggles of such communities and how they are not able to get out of the vicious cycle of poverty and hardship. The author was born poor and ‘brought up’ by a single mother. He overcame the odds and became the only one in his community to attend an Ivy league school .

The book attempts to describe the lack of social mobility among the poor with such similar background and how the environment is stacked against them. I am of course not doing justice to the book with just a short description as the author is able to eloquently described and explained in great depth.

To be fair, he tried to give a more balance view and has no qualms about blaming his own kind too for not doing themselves a favour. He felt too many of them is only too good at complaining. Always whining about the government instead of working hard to prove themselves. He gave examples of them going to work late or not showing up for work. Some even collects welfare regularly to feed their addictions. He felt that it is totally unfair to those that works hard like himself. That was when he was working two jobs paying for his own education.

I really admired his brutal honesty. An example was him feeling embarrassed not knowing which cutlery to use during one of my important black tie dinner cum ‘job interviews’. Well, we have all been there too. He also revealed not knowing many things due to his background and environment as he was never exposed to such, or never will had he not attend university. He is now a lawyer and he did not abandon his background. Though he felt shame at certain parts of his life, he still embraced it and willingly shares so that his fellow Americans might know and understand. That is pretty admirable and courageous i think.

Interestingly i can relate

The interesting thing while reading Hillbilly Elegy is that i am able to relate to the author. He was born poor but made something out of it himself and was able to achieve social mobility which eventually brought him out of the poverty cycle. It was definitely not easy if not for his ‘Mamaw’ and ‘Papaw’, his grandparents.

The main challenge he faced while growing up is the lack of an environment where he can have love, peace and stability to function well or even just being normal. His mother was a drug addict and single mom whom remarried 4 times. She was verbally and physically abusive. Without such a nurturing environment, he would not be able to develop healthily (physically or mentally) unlike his peers from wealthier (which is rare among hillbillies) or more stable family structures.

The environment is really crucial for a child’s development regardless of where you are. I can say that perhaps most of Singaporean families came from similar Hillbilly environment. Our parents generation would also speak or quarreled loudly or coarsely. Vulgarities are not uncommon too during my growing-up. Many of the first generation Singaporeans came from rural China. They are not intellectuals, merchants or government officials but mostly poor peasants emigrating to escape poverty during the turbulent period. Not much different from the Hillbillies that mostly originated from Scotland in search of a better life.

The difference though is that over here, there is higher chance of social mobility even though you are not born rich. Perhaps also Chinese are hardworking bunch and will always strive harder. The systems is pretty much meritocratic. Meaning as long as you do not stop your educations or work hard, the chance of upward social mobility is very high. Well, i am referring to the usual path one would take. Of course, you can still be an entrepreneur and do well too though it is the exception.

Hillbillies elsewhere

What is similar i realized is that if the parents are really poor or being a single parent, the social mobility naturally reduced dramatically. Reason being the child may not have a stable, secure environment to develop. Being poor also means that the parents cannot afford the tuition or enrichment classes that so most parents are sending their kids to. Without such, it is naturally not a level playing field.

The educated parents would know what to do, which school to go to, afford tuition for the weaker subjects and many more. Similar to him, I also did not realize many things and several years later until I started work. Despite having pretty good grades, i chose a secondary school (high school) with a notorious reputation for fighting and gangs just because my siblings also went there. Both of whom unfortunately were not too ‘academically oriented’. Very likely they went there also because the entry criteria was much lower. An educated or more well informed parent would slapped me silly and forced me to choose a much better school. That is the impact of what an education makes and the positive domino effects it can have.

The author also made some very interesting comments on the importance of networking which is again available largely if you are of a higher social standing. These made a lot of difference to employment and career.

My take?

I think the movie of the same name Hillbilly Elegy was a rather poor adaptation of the book though i am a fan of Ron Howard’s movies. It missed out several key messages that the author wanted to covey which he spent much of his time in the book doing in fact. The movie seem to largely avoid that and the outcome is a show that appears centered on the troubles of such a family. It fails to directly create a link to why the rural Americas feels that way and thus expressed in their votes likewise. It missed the chance to make the connection.

Well, at least this time I learned not to judge its book by its cover. The book is much much better than the movie. J.D. Vance is one good man.