One of the themes, and the most prominent one, seems to be Vance’s explain of what it means to be a “hillbilly” and what the title entails. Having grown up in towns such as Jackson and Middletown, towns largely populated by emigrants from Eastern Kentucky, JD frequently makes a point to describe what it means to be a hillbilly. He says that hillbillies are white Americans of Scottish-Irish decent. He explains that “poverty is a family tradition” because for quite some time they have been people with no college degree and laborers extremely dedicated to their communities and traditions with little to no room for change. Even though they live in poverty and are isolated from others, they are very proud of their culture. In the memoir Vance goes
