The reading was about a man named J.D Vance who talks about the events of his life and how they affected him. He goes into depth about many events and shares his thoughts of what he was thinking during these past events. He first starts off by introducing himself and who he is today. He lives happily married and has a job, graduating from yale. He says the purpose of the reading is so that people understand “what it feels like to nearly give up on yourself and why you might do it.” He then goes through his past and the poverty that he lived in. Poverty impacted his life in many ways, such as the relationship between his parents and the home where he lives. It sounds like the reader accepts poverty into his childhood and is hopeless to fight against it. I believe this can relate to Dave in “Green”, although Dave might not be as poor as J.D Vance, he is poor and helpless about it. Dave tries to make some money and seems to always fail making him turn to college as the only means of being successful in life. In J.D Vance’s reading, he states “To move up was to move on. That required going to college.” Although I don’t think that applies to the society that I live in, I do believe that in a society of low-class people education is the only way to move up. Many jobs are low paid which is why a professional career can lead to financial success. J.D Vance then talks about an event where he got sick for working too many hours and not giving his body enough sleep. I thought this was not right for him to do, although we should be working hard, we should not be taking sleep that we need for our bodies to rest. This reading has shown me the many hardships of trying to rise in a society of low-class people and how important education can be.
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