The image of a hillbilly transcends mere representations of Southern Appalachia & the Ozarks. Hillbillies are and are seen as “other” in the terms of American society. Hillbillies do not fit the mold, part of both minority and majority identities. Hillbillies are less a social group but an evolutionary group, a brutish predecessor to the middle-class suburbanite/urbanite. To further solidify the status of the middle class, hillbillies are constantly belittled and used as a source of humor in mass media. However, hillbillies as a people in time and place do not exist in the eyes of the media. Rather, hillbillies are seen as a specific evolutionary stage of humanity, the bridge between chaotic subsistence and organized society. This is best seen …show more content…
In the movie, the story of The Odyssey is retold through the antics of three escaped prison convicts during the Great Depression. The three main characters each represent a different stereotype of “hillbilly,” despite none of them being from a mountainous area themselves. Pete represents the ignorant & violent hillbilly, Delmar the comical & uneducated, and Everett the family-oriented & scheming mastermind. Throughout the movie, Everett is used as an example of the socially acceptable hillbilly: intelligent and functional within the constraints of society but steeped in backwards mannerisms that set him apart from the rest of “refined” society. For example, Everett is the breadwinner for his family, but instead of making his money as an honest businessman, he ended up in jail for practicing law without a license. This leads to Everett’s wife Penny leaving him as the campaign manager of a local politician. Everett spends the movie enacting a variety of schemes to win back his wife, but only does so when he successfully proves that he is beyond the brutish, uneducated actions of his past. The movie O Brother, Where Art Thou also promotes the false narrative of hillbillies and rednecks being …show more content…
Movies, whether pure fiction like O Brother, Where Art Thou or fictionalized truth like Hillbilly Elegy, both promote antiquated stereotypes regarding hillbillies to sell the most palatable, feel-good story. The average, middle-class consumer has evolved past their uneducated, impoverished hillbilly predecessors, but to see those predecessors in their “natural habitat” is a chance to gain a closer personal understanding of the past. That false sense of closeness also enables the average movie-goer to feel as if they themselves are the generation freshly graduated from the backwoods, only a step removed from the “American frontiersman.” While the hillbilly may largely be seen as a negative stereotype, there is a cultural fascination with their way of life. This fascination breeds a desire to feel closer, to feel connected with a simpler way of life, even if no self-respecting middle class movie-goer would ever truly want to truly live the life of a hillbilly.
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.
The life in the wilderness and the continuing isolation of Appalachian people has made us different from most other Americans. The Appalachian value system that influences attitudes and behavior is diff...
Mrs. Hopewell, in the former of the two stories, called anyone she considered simple or moral ‘good country people’ or salt of the earth, meaning basic, fundamental goodness. She considered anyone under these definitions, which was anyone who grew up in the country like herself, to be hard to find and “that if, in this day and age, you get good country people, you had better hang onto them” (O’Connor, 11). Anyone who did not fit into these definitions, however, Mrs. Hopewell called trash and considered them below her. Young Goodman Brown in the latter of the two works of literary merit, was a lot like Mrs. Hopewell in the sense that he considered the ‘outsiders’, or Indians in his case, to be devilish and below his Puritan lifestyle. Living in the small community they lived in, as well, established a system of faith in Mrs. Hopewell and Young Goodman Brown. Mrs. Hopewell, living where she did, inherently adopted a Christian faith, and Young Goodman Brown established a Puritan faith from his Puritan settlement. Not only were Mrs. Hopewell and Young Goodman Brown in their respective stories alike, Mrs. Freeman, from “Good Country People”, and Young Goodman Brown knew at the end of their stories something wasn’t as it appeared. Mrs. Freeman knew “some can’t be that simple”
In media, the images of “hillbilly” are miserably portrayed by diverse TV shows. For example, “The Beverly Hillbillies” shows moving of poor rural people to Beverly Hills and leads audiences to laugh at the family’s misfit into new environment in the Beverly Hills. Women feel unfamiliarity to kitchen utensils such as oven and refrigerator. They use improperly use the utensils; they use oven like a heater. Also, they maintain habits of rural life even though they moved to urban area. A man attempts
Marshall writes, “These are the ‘rednecks’ who frosted their hair and wore camouflage…” (Marshall). T.V. shows like these praise the wealthy, non-educated rednecks who makes the rest of the south look bad by glorifying their ignorance. The show Rocket City Rednecks is another example of society using one’s culture to entertain the public by subliminally making fun of their background. Rocket City Rednecks was filmed in one of the cities that I grew up in and with personal experience I can assure you that the city it was filmed in was not full of
Have you ever had one of those days that were so bad that you desperately needed a night at the ice cream or candy store? The 1970’s was that really bad day, while the night of self- indulgence was the 1980’s. Americans love to escape from our daily stress, and of all the products that allow us to do so, none is more popular than the movies. Movies are key cultural artifacts that offer a view of American culture and social history. They not only offer a snapshot of hair styles and fashions of the times but they also provide a host of insights into Americans’ ever-changing ideals. Like any cultural artifact, the movies can be approached in a number of ways. Cultural historians have treated movies as a document that records the look and mood of the time that promotes a particular political or moral value or highlights individual or social anxieties and tensions. These cultural documents present a particular image of gender, ethnicity, romance, and violence. Out of the political and economic unrest of the 1970’s that saw the mood and esteem of the country, as reflected in the artistry and messages in the movies, sink to a new low, came a new sense of pride in who we are, not seen since the post-World War II economic boom of the 1950’s. Of this need to change, Oscar Award winner Paul Newman stated,
Bobbie Ann Mason and Sherman Alexie are two modern authors who write about their different childhood experiences and their hopes and desires for futures outside of the customs they were accustomed to. In her 1999 excerpt “Being Country” from her book Clear Springs: A Memoir, author and essayist Mason describes her childhood on a farm in rural Kentucky. Despite her childhood being pleasant, she rebelled against the simplistic confines that type of lifestyle demanded (106). Alexie writes in his essay from 1997 “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” of life on the Spokane Indian Reservation where he was born. He tells us how he used his love of reading as a way to escape from the Indian world and found success outside of the reservation. Even though they came from different cultures, Alexie and Mason were exposed at a young age to similar outside influences that helped shape their self-identities. As a result, they both envisioned futures that were not only ambitious but different from the lives they had been born into.
In 1939 John Ford masterminded a classical western film by the name of Stagecoach. This film has the integrity of a fine work of art. Being that it could be considered a work of art, the impression left on a viewing audience could differ relying on the audience's demographics. However, it is conceivable to all audiences that Ford delivers a cast of characters that are built on stereotypes and perceptions conjured from 'B' westerns that preceded this film's time. Each character is introduced to the audience in a stereotypical genre, as the film progresses, these stereotypes are broken down and the characters become more humanized. This is apparent with a handful of characters being portrayed better than others. One can investigate each individual character to correlate such a pattern. The characters are, in no particular order: Curly, Hatfield, Gatewood, Peacock, the stagecoach driver, Dallas, Lady Mallory, and of course Ringo.
Waller, Altina. "Two Words in the Tennessee Mountains: Exploring the Origins of Appalachian Stereotypes." Journal of Social History 32 (1999): 963.
In his novel, Thomas King plays on stereotypes and expectations that occur in our society on the portrayal of Native Americans. He show us the bias image that we have of them by describing what is an indian from a colonizers point of view, how the genre of western movies has an effect on our perception in society. In the novel, Nasty Bumppo, who represents modern society, explains that :
The Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou? both contain Homer’s initial implication of the common hospitality throughout ancient Greece. In the movie, one example of this being portrayed is nearing when Ulysses, Pete, and Delmar escape from prison. The men travel to Wash Hogwallop, Pete’s cousin, house to seek refuge. Wash welcomes them into his home immediately, thus showing Homer’s theme of hospitality. He gives them stew and proceeds to talk to Pete about other family members inside his home. One could say that Joel and Ethan Coen, the directors of the movie, purposely incorporate this scene for several reasons, but the main one is to reveal and incorporate the message from The Odyssey. By having Wash so readily take in his cousin, and his cousin’s friends, the two directors wave a red flag, drawing the viewers attention to this theme. This also shows how hospitable King Alcinous was towards Odysseus. Another example of hospitality throughout the movie is found through...
When I found out I qualified to be a candidate for the NJHS, I knew I had to take this chance. This group is made up of people who depict leadership, character, citizenship, academic success, and service and I would love to join. These characteristics wouldn't just be valuable for a candidate to have, but for everyone to have to exceed in life. If I were to be in the National Junior Honor Society, it would give me an opportunity to ameliorate my future and motivate me to do better.
Works Cited Billings, Norman, and Ledford. Confronting Appalachian Stereotypes: Back Talk from an American Region. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1990. Beaver, Patricia.
In the early 1900s, the American South had very distinctive social classes: African Americans, poor white farmers, townspeople, and wealthy aristocrats. This class system is reflected in William Faulkner’s novel, As I Lay Dying, where the Bundrens a poor, white family, are on a quest to bury their now deceased wife and mother, Addie in the town of Jefferson. Taking a Marxist criticism approach to As I Lay Dying, readers notice how Faulkner’s use of characterization reveals how country folk are looked down upon by the wealthy, upper class townspeople.
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.