86 pages • 2 hours read
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2016
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Paired Texts & Other Resources
Use these links to supplement and complement students’ reading of the work and to increase their overall enjoyment of literature. Challenge them to discern parallel themes, engage through visual and aural stimuli, and delve deeper into the thematic possibilities presented by the title.
Recommended Texts for Pairing
- Dave Pelzer’s 1995 memoir on his experience with child abuse
- relates the common topic of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs); shares themes of Societal Law Versus Family Code/Family Loyalty and Personal Versus Societal Responsibility for the Disenfranchised
- A Child Called It on SuperSummary
- Jeannette Walls’s 2006 memoir of her challenging and dysfunctional childhood
- relates the common topics of hard work, perseverance, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs); shares themes of Societal Law Versus Family Code/Family Loyalty and Personal Versus Societal Responsibility for the Disenfranchised
- The Glass Castle on SuperSummary
Other Student Resources
- 2020 movie adaptation of Vance’s memoir, available to stream on Netflix
- conveys the memoir’s themes of The Non-Nuclear Family, Appalachian Migration, Societal Law Versus Family Code/Family Loyalty, and Personal Versus Societal Responsibility for the Disenfranchised
- Vance’s 2016 Ted Talk entitled “America's Forgotten Working Class”
- relates the memoir’s themes of Appalachian Migration and Personal Versus Societal Responsibility for the Disenfranchised
