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To what extent does the place you are born affect who you become? How does this geography relate to power, identity, and economic inequality?

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How can literature set in the past and the future relate to our world today?

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Appalachian Elegy (Sections 1-6) by Bell Hooks

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Appalachian Elegy (Sections 1-6) by Bell Hooks

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Appalachian Elegy (Sections 1-6) by bell hooks | Poetry Foundation

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Charleston, W.Va.

PEOPLE in West Virginia had hoped that on Monday night we would gather around televisions with family and friends to watch our beloved Mountaineers face Butler in our first chance at the men's N.C.A.A. basketball title since 1959. Men working evening shifts in the coal mines would get to listen thanks to radio coverage piped in from the surface. Expectations ran high; even President Obama, surveying the Final Four, predicted West Virginia would win.

Then, on Tuesday morning, we would wake to triumphant headlines in sports pages across the country. At last, we would say, something good has happened to West Virginia. The whole nation would see us in a new light. And we would cry.

Instead, halfway through Saturday night's semifinal against Duke, our star forward, Da'Sean Butler, tore a ligament in his knee, and the Mountaineers crumbled. And on Monday evening, while Duke and Butler played in what for us was now merely a game, West Virginians gathered around televisions to watch news of a coal mine disaster.

On Tuesday, the headline in The Charleston Gazette read instead: Miners Dead, Missing in Raleigh Explosion. And we cried.

Despite the sunny skies and unseasonably warm weather, the mood here in southern West Virginia is subdued. As of Tuesday afternoon, 25 men have been confirmed dead, two are critically injured, and four are missing and presumed dead. Their fellow West Virginians work round the clock and risk their own lives to retrieve the bodies.

Already outrage is focused on Massey Energy, owner of the Upper Big Branch mine. Massey has a history of negligence, and Upper Big Branch has often been cited in recent years for problems, including failure to properly vent methane gas, which officials say might have been the cause of Monday's explosion.

It seems we can't escape our heritage. I grew up in a coal camp in the southern part of the state. Every day my school bus drove past a sign posted by the local coal company keeping tally, like a basketball scoreboard, of "man hours" lost to accidents. From time to time classmates whose fathers had been killed or maimed would disappear, their families gone elsewhere to seek work.

We knew then, and know now, that we are a national sacrifice area. We mine coal despite the danger to miners, the damage to the environment and the monomaniacal control of an industry that keeps economic diversity from flourishing here. We do it because America says it needs the coal we provide.

West Virginians get little thanks in return. Our miners have historically received little protection, and our politicians remain subservient to Big Coal. Meanwhile, West Virginia is either ignored by the rest of the nation or is the butt of jokes about ignorant hillbillies.

Here in West Virginia we will forget our fleeting dream of basketball glory and get about the business of mourning. It is, after all, something we do very well. In the area around the Upper Big Branch, families of the dead will gather in churches and their neighbors will come to pray with them. They will go home, and the same neighbors will show up bearing platters of fried chicken and potato salad and cakes. The funeral homes will be jammed, the mourners in their best suits and ties and Sunday dresses.

And perhaps this time President Obama and Americans will pay attention, and notice West Virginia at last.

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Opinion | Mourning in the Mountains (Published 2010)

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Charleston, W.Va. PEOPLE in West Virginia had hoped that on Monday night we would gather around televisions with family and friends to watch our beloved Mountaineers face Butler in our first chance at the men's N.C.A.A. basketball title since 1959.

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How do we negotiate the joy and the pain of our lives?

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Geography, social class, and identity

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EBH: Don’t go down in the Hole – Coal Mining Life in District 12 and in Present-Day Appalachia

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EBH: Don’t go down in the Hole – Coal Mining Life in District 12 and in Present-Day Appalachia

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As you may have noticed from my previous Hunger Games guest post, I am deeply interested in the connections between Suzanne Collins's fiction and the very real history and culture of Appalachia, where I live, work, and teach Appalachian culture. My husband's mother was born in a coal mining town, and her mother has graced us with wonderful oral history material regarding life in the coal towns.

"There's a hole in this mountain, it's dark and it's deep,/And God only knows all the secrets it keeps./There's a chill in the air only miners can feel/And there's ghosts in the tunnels that the company sealed." The Mountain-Steve Earle

As the families of 29 Montcoal, WV, families mourn their loved ones lost in the mine explosion last Monday (the remaining four miners' bodies were found over the weekend), Hunger Games readers might be thinking of Katniss Everdeen, whose father, along with her friend Gale's father, was killed in an coal mining accident when Katniss was 11. In honor of those very real individuals and their families, it might be appropriate to look at a few of the ways in which Suzanne Collins' fictional District 12 and its coal mining culture mirror the actual history and culture in the coal-mining regions of Appalachia. Although this is a rather lengthy post, be assured that, pardon the pun, it only scratches the surface.

Katniss states that District 12 is what used to be Appalachia, but, in many ways, it is still very much Appalachia. Of course, the Appalachian mountains are a vast region, running from the Deep South all the way up to Nova Scotia before falling off into the ocean, and Katniss does not specify (yet) which part of that area is District 12. However, since coal is primarily mined in two of the four major regions of Southern Appalachia -the Ridge and Valley section and the Cumberland Plateau-District 12 is likely in one of those areas. The weather, plant life, and food practices make Eastern Kentucky or southwest VA or WV likely candidates, as do many of the connections with these areas.

District 12 is remarkably like the coal mining towns once found scattered across the Appalachian region. These towns were built to house the miners and their families and were owned by the coal companies, so that everything in the town actually belonged to the company: homes, schools, even churches. Miners had the payment for their houses, furniture, medical care, and store credit taken out of their paychecks, which were seldom enough to cover any other expense the family had, much less enough to allow the miners or their families to save enough to leave the mines. Countless miners began working in the mines to earn enough to relocate, but the economic conditions of mining prohibited financial mobility, especially in coal towns where the miners were not even paid in regular currency, but in "scrip," money produced by the company and good only in company-owned stores. If the miner died, his family usually lost their home, just as Katniss's mother and Prim will lose the fine house in the Victor's Village if Katniss dies. The ways in which District 12 miners' lives are controlled would have seemed familiar to early twentieth-century Appalachian miners. The owners of the coal companies that so rigidly controlled the lives of their miners were seldom from Appalachia, and, in fact, were frequently located in large metropolitan cities or even foreign countries. They rarely interacted with those who mined the coal for their companies, just as the Capitol denizens who control the fate of District 12's residents are distanced from ever actually having to see what is happening there. Even the District 12 tributes are cleaned up when they enter the Capitol so that they don't offend the refined sensibilities of those who will watch them fight and die.

While conditions are far better today in coal mining communities, Katniss's District 12 strongly resembles an early twentieth-century coal town, where malnutrition and disease were common, and miners worked long and difficult hours. In addition, the limited travel afforded by the railroad in District 12 reflects the similar limited transportation options in many coal-mining areas. The railroads were brought in primarily for the transportation of the coal, but they also provided mobility for residents in areas where there were seldom any good roads or other means of speedy transportation. However, the railroads were owned by the company, and they left when the coal was tapped out and the company shut down the mine.

In the historical mining towns, as in District 12, there was also the simmer of rebellion under the surface. Miners fought, often violently, for the right to unionize and thus be able to demand better housing, hours, and pay. These struggles, many of them against a government which sided with the coal companies, lasted well into the late twentieth-century in some communities, and historical miners often suffered the same punishments as the District 12 rebels: lack of work, food shortages, physical punishment, and humiliation in the guise of justice. Thus, the grumbling miners on Gale's team are following in a long tradition of revolution in the mines.

The explosion that leaves both Gale and Katniss fatherless is also a close parallel with the historic dangers of coal mining. According to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the deadliest year for mining in the US was 1907, in which 3,242 miners lost their lives, including 358 in the worst mine disaster in American history. In addition to explosions, miners faced the threat of being crushed, suffocated, or burned alive in mining accidents or suffering both the short- and long-term effects of exposure to coal dust or the toxic gases that Katniss thinks of when Wiress become her "mine canary" in Catching Fire.

For those injured in mining accidents, medical care was limited. Company doctors and hospitals could be expensive, just as they are in District 12, and thus many historical miners sought traditional cures, just as Katniss' mother uses herbal remedies to treat the injured and sick. Many coal miners were descended from the mountains' original settlers, and thus could rely upon a tradition of herb lore. The family herb book Mrs. Everdeen consults undoubtedly contains plants used by Appalachian people in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to supplement or replace the expensive medical care from the company doctor. Food was also collected using the same strategies employed by Gale and Katniss. The greens, berries, small game, wild turkeys, fish, and occasional deer (though whitetail deer were nearly hunted out of the area in the early twentieth century) that supplement the Hawthorne and Everdeen tables were also collected by the miners and their families who were adventurous and competent enough to acquire them.

In order to supplement their incomes and to provide a needed ingredient for homemade remedies, coal miners sometimes moonlighted as moonshiners. Like Ripper, the disabled miner who has changed careers to become an "unlicensed distiller ," Appalachian people, including miners, sometimes produced illegal (because they did not pay taxes to the government) white liquor that brought in needed cash and allowed them to continue family distilling traditions. Of course, the conditions in the coal towns, like those in District 12, were typical of those that foster alcoholism even for individuals who lack Haymitch's particular demons.

Despite the horrible conditions in mining communities, or perhaps because of them, both these towns and District 12 suffer from widely accepted stereotypes. The stereotypes of District 12 vary little from those slapped onto Appalachian people in the past and even today. The people of District 12 are regarded as stupid, backward, and hopeless, so much so that their tributes are seldom considered contenders in the annual Hunger Games, just so much cannon fodder for the bloodlust of Capitol viewers. Yet, especially as Katniss and Peeta rise through the ranks of their fellow tributes, they become popular, adored. The viewers in the Capitol want their District 12 tributes to fulfill their preconceived notions: drunk, surly, and socially hopeless misanthropes like Haymitch, or adorably backward and unaffected bumpkins.

Similarly, the mainstream media, from early photographers to today's documentary filmmakers, often seek those images of Appalachia that confirm their stereotypes and notions of "true" Appalachia. Like the stylists who put the poor District 12 tributes in skimpy coal miner outfits every year, the media generally tries to put mountain people into one end or the other of a spectrum of stereotypes. On the positive end, there is the image of the thrifty, wholesome, clean-living mountain person who is often musical or artistic and has an uncanny connection with nature. At the other end of the spectrum is the filthy, drunken, violent brute who makes up in meanness what he lacks in education. While there are certainly a few individuals who fall into these exaggerated descriptions, applying these stereotypes, which are both degrading, to everyone in a region negates the individuality and diversity of people in both the past and present Appalachia/District 12.

It is not clear if Suzanne Collins has ever spent much time in Appalachia, much less tramping around the coal towns, many of which are gone now; once the coal had been extracted, the companies left, shutting down the town, but allowing individuals to stay if they wanted to buy their homes and live there without any form of employment. There is certainly no mention of living in Appalachia in Collins's official biography, and it is unlikely that her father's military career would have transferred the family to coal country. However, she very deftly captures many of the hardships experienced by historical coal miners(and sometimes contemporary ones, as we've all seen very clearly in the past week) as she shows that no matter how much the larger world has changed, in Panem, the lives of coal miners and their treatment by mainstream culture are no more evolved than the Capitol citizens, who like ancient Romans, seek entertainment from the spectacle of their enemies' violent deaths.

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EBH: Don't go down in the Hole - Coal Mining Life in District 12 and in Present-Day Appalachia

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As you may have noticed from my previous Hunger Games guest post, I am deeply interested in the connections between Suzanne Collins's fiction and the very real history and culture of Appalachia, where I live, work, and teach Appalachian culture.

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1: Wikipedia Page, Social and economic stratification in Appalachia

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1: Wikipedia Page, Social and economic stratification in Appalachia

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Appalachia is a region of the Eastern United States. Home to over 25 million people, the region includes mountainous areas of 13 states: Mississippi, Alabama, Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Maryland, as well as the entirety of West Virginia.

Appalachia is often divided into three subregions: Southern Appalachia (portions of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee), Central Appalachia (portions of Kentucky, Southern West Virginia, Southern and Southeastern Ohio, Virginia, and Tennessee), and Northern Appalachia (parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Northern West Virginia, Maryland, and Northeastern Ohio). Further divisions can also be made, distinguishing Northern from North Central and Southern from South Central Appalachia. Though all areas of Appalachia face the challenges of rural poverty, some elements (particularly those relating to industry and natural resource extraction) are unique to each subregion. Central Appalachians, for example, experience the most severe poverty, which is partially due to the area's isolation from urban growth centers.

The area's rugged terrain and isolation from urban centers has also resulted in a distinct regional culture. However, outsiders often hold incorrect and over-generalized beliefs about the area and its inhabitants. These misperceptions, and their relationship to culture and folklore of this near-isolated area, greatly impact the region's development.

Commerce within the region expanded widely in the 19th century with the advent of modern industries like agriculture, coal-mining, and logging. Many Appalachians sold their rights to land and minerals to large corporations, to the extent that ninety-nine percent of the residents control less than half of the land. Thus, though the area has a wealth of natural resources, its inhabitants are often poor. In addition, decreased levels of education and a lack of public infrastructure (such as highways, developed cities, businesses, and medical services) has perpetuated the region's poor economic standing.

Power, politics, and poverty

The social and economic stratification of Appalachia comes largely as the result of classism. Many politicians and businessmen took advantage of the region's natural resource industries, such as mountaintop coal mining. Appalachian laborers were heavily exploited, which prevented the region from developing socially or gaining economic independence.

Since coal operators and plantation bosses had been discouraged education and civic action, allowing workers to become indebted to plantation stores, live in company housing, and generally make themselves vulnerable to exploitation. Additionally, some employers were known to encourage racial divisions in order to divide workers and pit them against each other, spurring competition and serving to lower wages. Workers also experienced heavy discrimination when seeking employment.

Appalachians also suffered under the apathy of local government. Historically, Appalachia has been largely governed by absentee landlords, politicians who control the area without participating in its local economy. For example, officeholders largely ignored the area's lack of infrastructure, despite its major contribution to the region's economic decline. Towns closer to well-developed urban areas that fringe Appalachia ( Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Columbus, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., etc.) are disproportionately better-off than rural regions in the mountainous interior, and lack of accessible transportation has greatly restricted the Appalachian economy. However, the issue has not generally been made a priority by regional political leaders, many of whom eschewed developments that would have been difficult and expensive to establish in the mountainous areas.

Community members who experienced a justifiable fear of punishment for speaking out against the corruption of the status quo developed a habit of compliance rather than democratic institutions for social change. Fearful of punishment, middle class residents allied themselves with the elites rather than challenging the system that colored their everyday lives. Burdened by the choice between exile and exploitation, the actual and potential middle class left the region, widening the gap between the poor and those in power. Observers often perceive a fatalistic attitude on the part of the Appalachian people, as decades of political corruption and disenfranchisement led to weak civic cultures and a sense of powerlessness.

Some academics liken the situation that of third world countries: Residents live on land that cannot be traded outside of trusted circles or used as collateral because, due to the history of unincorporated businesses with unidentified liabilities, there are not adequate records of ownership rights. This "dead" capital is a factor that contributes to the historical poverty of the region, limiting Appalachians' abilities to use their investments in home and other land-related capital. The drastic socioeconomic divide has even led to violent feuds among Appalachians living in remote mountainous regions, as the region fails to be guaranteed political rights.

Recently, with the decline of the coal-mining industry, even fewer jobs have become available in the region. With roughly 100,000 jobs left for miners, Appalachians are unable to access jobs or the resources and opportunities necessary to lift themselves out of poverty.

Creation of the Appalachian Regional Committee (ARC)

As of the 1960s, Appalachia had the highest poverty rate and percentage of working poor in the nation. According to research, roughly one third of the region's population was living in poverty.

Having witnessed the region's hardship during a campaign visit, President John F. Kennedy became intent on improving the living standard for Appalachians. In 1963, he proposed the creation of the Appalachian Regional Committee (ARC), which aimed to actively improve the region's economy. The program established by the Appalachian Regional Development Act (ARDA), which was passed by Congress in 1965, under President Lyndon B. Johnson.

The ARC aimed to directly the disenfranchisement of people living in Appalachia. Looking to identify the roots of the region's problems, the ARDA stated: " Congress finds and declares that the Appalachian region of the United States, while abundant in natural resources and rich in potential, lags behind the rest of the Nation in its economic growth and that its people have not shared properly in the Nation's prosperity."

Though the ARC has made improvements, the Appalachian region continues to face socioeconomic hardships. As of 1999, roughly twenty-five percent of Appalachian counties still qualified as "distressed," the commission's lowest socioeconomic ranking.

In 2000, 80.49 percent of all adults in the United States were high school graduates, as opposed to 76.89 in Appalachia. Almost 30 percent of Appalachian adults are considered functionally illiterate. Education differences between men and women are greater in Appalachia than the rest of the nation, tying into a greater trend of gender inequalities.

Education in Appalachia has historically lagged behind average literacy levels of United States. At first, education in this region was largely nurtured through religious institutions. Children who found time away from family work were often taught to read about the Bible and Christian morality. Then, after the civil war, some districts established primary schools and high schools. People began to access standard education during this period, and higher education in large communities was expanded at that time. Lately, in the late 19th century and early 20th century, education in rural areas has been advanced; some settlement schools and sponsored schools were established by organizations. In the 20th century, the national policy has begun affecting education in Appalachia. Those schools were trying to meet the demands which federal and state settled. Some public schools were facing the problem of gathering funds because of government's No Child Left Behind policy. (DeYoung 1517-1521)

Since Appalachia is a place with abundant resources such as coal, mineral, land and forest, the main jobs here are lumbering, mining and farming. None of these jobs need a high education, and employers don't decide the jobs based on their education level. A diploma has not been a priority in job finding. Many children of school age dropped school to help their family work. Women in Appalachia have less opportunity in access of jobs. Many kinds of jobs in this area require a strong body, so that men are preferred than women by employers when they are seeking jobs.

The National Career Development Association has organized a program hoping to increase the education in the Appalachia region, which has been deprived of what other parts of the nation take for granted. The region is primarily utilized for mining, coal, and its other natural resources and farmland. Families that live in these parts have become accustomed to a certain way of life whether it involve school or working. Many kids are not given the opportunity to be successful, only to remain in the family business surrounding one of the many natural resources from their land. The New Opportunity School for Women, NOSW, has begun offering 14 women a 3-week course in Berea, Kentucky, on employment opportunities, skills, basic knowledge that they may not have received. The NOSW also offers a residential housing opportunity to those with low-income after their participation in the course and thereafter. This brings hope to Appalachian women, although it only allows 14 participants, it is a start and that number can only grow with growth within the Appalachian region.

"Women from the Appalachian region of Kentucky and surrounding south central Appalachian states share common challenges resulting from low educational attainment, limited employment skills, few strong role models and low self-esteem. The presence of these challenges are directly linked to high incidences of early marriage, teen pregnancies, divorce, domestic violence, substance abuse and high school dropout rates". (National Career Development Association.)

This program provides interview, job search, computer and other basic skills that are useful in careers for those less skilled. Women can participate freely; no extra money is required. Participants are provided with classes from Monday to Friday, 8 am to 12 pm and afternoon is internship time. These classes are mainly about: job search, interview skill, math, women's health, computer skills, leadership development, and self-protection. (National Career Development Association) Internships not only include working in a real work site, but also include a training of choosing interview clothes and make-ups. The organizer will also hold some events during the weekends except for additional classes. For instance, the American Association of University Women and the Berea Younger Women's Club are available for participants to choose. They can also go for a field trip to some places. All these efforts are conducted to help women build confidence in job finding. As a vulnerable group of people, these rich experiences can help them become an active part in their living communities. After graduating from NOSW, professional agencies will provides each of them counseling services about education. This program has achieved active outcomes. According to a recent survey, after attending this program, 80 percent of those women participants have incomes for less than 10,000 dollars per year with their half high school degree. Among them, 79 percent of graduates are employed, 55 percent of graduates got an associate degree (two-year), a bachelor's degree or even a master's degree, and 35 percent of graduates got a Certification Program degree. (National Career Development Association)

Women have traditionally been reedited to the domestic sphere, often lack access to resources and employment opportunities, are disproportionately represented in peripheral labor markets, and have lower wages and higher vulnerability to job loss. Throughout the region, women typically earn 64 percent of men's wages. However, when adjusted for the fact that women take less risky jobs, that require less qualifications, they make roughly the same amount. Women are also often the hardest-hit by poverty-for example, 70 percent of female-headed households with children under the age of six are in distressed counties, a figure substantially higher than the national average.

Where there is oppression, there is opposition. There are a lot of fearless and outstanding women in Appalachia who stood out to fight for their rights. Women in Appalachia have long earned their reputation for being strong as well as struggling. Among the many men within the region, women have participated in the fields, mines, and labor movements. Many women have given their all and then some for their families and to stand up for what they believe in. Women have also made waves through literature, art, and keeping their stories and family history alive within their culture.

"Women have played a major role in the labor and activist movements in the coal-bearing regions of Appalachia.", "Other crucial roles for women have involved education, literature, healthcare and art, and the promotion of minorities in our region". (Appalachian Voices).

There are many achievements conducted by outstanding women leadership. Those women devoted their lifelong efforts in improving their social status and in fighting against poverty in their communities and their living regions. A woman named Kathy Selvage was a citizen lobbyist for years and worked in the fight against a proposal for a Wise County coal-fired plant. She says that Appalachian women are people of action. Lorelei Scarbro helped establish a community center in Whitesville, W.V. to encourage outside activity besides the home and workplace. This reunites them with togetherness and a place to convene about ideas and local build-up. Vivian Stockman is the face of the stand against mountaintop removal and has worked endlessly to spread the word through photos of the detrimental effects it has on the land that people call home. These women, among countless others have done everything they can to end the poverty and depression that has plagued their region for so long.

"A coal miner's daughter from Wise County, Va., Selvage has always had a great respect for miners, but when a coal company began blasting off mountaintops in her community, Selvage began working to bring national exposure to mountaintop removal coal mining". (Appalachian Voices). Rural Appalachian has found projects to help women save for their life especially life after retirement. It is kind of program to help females who have problems in raising their children and retirement save money. Some women have saved surprisingly a little for their retirement and they are facing the risk of running out of their money. Appalachian Savings Project was established to alleviate this risk by recreating saving plans for those self-employed women workers who do not have those plans provided by companies. This program is aiming to help the female workers who have children to care about. Anita Wallace is a mother who operates a family day care in Athens County, Ohio. She is 40 years old while her husband is 47 years old and they have three of their own children to raise. As Wallace is self-employed, she has not provided with company retirement plans, for example, company 401(k). She often complaints about that it is expensive to raise children. Since she is not employed by another company, to have retirement funds is a difficult thing for her. Appalachian Saving Project made her an offer that "if she saved 600 dollars in United States saving bonds in a year, it would match half of that".(Npr) Wallace thought it was a great idea, because even if she has not enough money to put in one month, she doesn't need to worry about that. Now she has an account and save 50 dollars per month in it. This program is designed to help women with low or relatively low incomes save for their retired life and to alleviate the retirement crisis for them. Due to the lagged economic status in Appalachian regions and discriminations, there are an increasing number of women who are getting jobs without comprehensive benefits, such as retirement plans. Instead of consumption, it is an investment to have this saving account. Many mothers put their children at first place and will not start to save money for their retirement until their children are independent and do not need their help any more. However, this program is encouraging them to save money for their own need instead of their kids'. There are also some complaints. Most of them complain that they don't have enough time to attend the financial classes and money is always not enough to spare. In a word, the road ahead of Appalachian Saving Project will not be flat. All it wants is that women can realize they can save for themselves and then save more.

Though mainstream Americans assume that Appalachian culture is homogeneous in the region, many distinct locales and sub-regions exist. Over-generalizations of Appalachianites as impulsive, personalistic, and individualistic "hillbillies" abound. Many scholars speculate that these stereotypes have been created by powerful economic and political forces to justify the exploitation of Appalachian peoples through industrialization and the extraction of natural resources. For example, the same forces that put up barriers to prevent the development of civic culture promulgate the image of Appalachian peoples as politically apathetic, without a social consciousness, and deserving of their disenfranchised state. In spite of the region's desperate need for aid, weariness of being represented as "helpless, dumb and poor" often creates an attitude of hostility among Appalachianites.

Origin of the stereotype

These stereotypes have been present for as long as people can remember, as people are unsure of exactly where titles like "hillbillies" came about. It has been said that it came all the way from colonial times when Scotch-Irish immigrants came over to America, and others have said it was given to supporters of King William III during the Williamite war, but was not used much in America until much later. It is known that up until the 1880s, Appalachia was seen just like any other rural area. People then began to view the Appalachian cultures as 'behind' during the industrial revolution, when the way of life was different in Appalachia as they did not adjust as quickly. The classical hillbilly behavior came about in the 1920s during the Great Depression. Appalachian music was a result of prohibition and the hardships that came along with this time period, which was a big part in how people viewed those from Appalachia. After the stereotype was created the media took this and exploited the image of poor people without electricity that were lazy and it became known to be like that.

Appalachians as a separate status group

It has been suggested that Appalachia constitutes a separate status group under the sociologist Max Weber's definition. The criteria are tradition, endogamy, an emphasis on intimate interaction and isolation from outsiders, monopolization of economic opportunities, and ownership of certain commodities rather than others. Appalachia fulfills at least the first four, if not all five. Furthermore, mainstream Americans tend to see Appalachia as a separate subculture of low status. Based on these facts, it is reasonable to say that Appalachia constitutes a separate status group.

Depictions of Appalachians in media

Appalachia existed as a relatively unnoticed region until the eighteenth-century when color writers (many of whom wrote for magazines) began to take interest. The original description of Appalachia as a distinct region primarily comes from the insistence of Appalachia's "otherness" by those color writers. The earliest expressions of the Appalachian caricature created by the color writers directly inspired the hillbilly persona known today. The hillbilly stereotype achieved prominence alongside industrial capitalists' interests in profiting off of the mountain range and its people.

Massey's research finds that the hillbilly is malleable, often used in media as a tool to project the countries' anxieties upon and stitch together an amalgamation of what society rejects. One wave of anxiety that led to a rise in the media's depiction of the "hillbilly," occurred in the mid-twentieth century following the civil unrest of the 1950s and 60s when many white Americans felt their autonomy was under threat. Television shows such as The Beverly Hillbillies (which did not depict an Appalachian family but did perpetuate poor-white stereotypes), which ran from 1932 to 1971, emerged along with The Andy Griffith Show, The Dukes of Hazard, and Hee Haw. All of these series featured ridicule and humor based around negative characteristics of rural, mountain peoples.

Another wave of anxiety occurred in the late-twentieth-century into the twenty-first. Today, reality television has assumed the role previously filled by sitcoms like The Beverly Hillbillies. Series such as Call of the Wildman and Moonshiners fulfill the demand to observe the "other," and, perhaps unconsciously, perpetuate the stereotype of the toothless, barefoot, moonshiner hillbilly.

Television

Appalachian stereotyping was shown in early television when The Beverly Hillbillies was released. The people in this show were portrayed to be the classic Appalachian resident, which painted the culture in a bad way from the beginning. The representation continued on after this and continued to portray those in Appalachia as hillbillies. From then on it was comedic to see an Appalachian family or Appalachian culture; as the representation that was shown was merely to make fun of the culture. This stereotype expands on more than just the physical characteristics of these people, but also their views. It is assumed that they are conservative, uneducated, and even racist. Carter Country is a show that demonstrated race and the uneducated views of some in Appalachia. It gives a view on a newly integrated area and how people in the Appalachian area adjust to it.

Appalachia has been portrayed in many movies throughout the years, some of the most notable films include October Sky, We Are Marshall, Dark Waters, The Devil All The Time, Logan Lucky, Hillbilly Elegy, Silent Hill, and . Movies also highlight Appalachia in a negative way. This began as early as 1904 in a silent film titled The Moonshiner. In this movie, all that was featured was people making moonshine and trying to get away with it, which is a constant theme. Other genres also bring in an Appalachian theme like Deliverance. This movie is a thriller about people that camp in an Appalachian area, and it paints locals in a negative way. Though there are movies that get the culture wrong, some show Appalachia correctly. Winter's Bone is a more recent movie that reveals the culture in a more real way. The movie has a more dark storyline that exhibits drug abuse and poverty but it features the culture more realistically instead of the stereotypical "hillbilly" way.

Video Games

Fallout 76 takes place in a fictional version of West Virginia. This game brought huge interest and attention to the region and its tourism industry.

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Social and economic stratification in Appalachia - Wikipedia

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Appalachia is a region of the Eastern United States. Home to over 25 million people, the region includes mountainous areas of 13 states: Mississippi, Alabama, Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Maryland, as well as the entirety of West Virginia.

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Anger against Beasts by Wendell Berry | Prayer... | Poetry Magazine

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November 1971 | W. Auden, Wendell Berry, John Betjeman, G. Chandra, Andrei Codrescu, Michael Hamburger, Philip Levine, Steven Orlen, Belle Randall, Peter Straub, Florence Victor, Dick Allen, Paul Carroll, M. Rosenthal, Nancy Sullivan

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The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins follows the experience of Katniss Everdeen as she navigates her trials in the book's title competition.

The novel takes place far in the future, in what was once the United States, after a brutal civil war and rebellion left a strong and oppressive government in control of twelve regional districts. Once per year, the Capitol selects two child tributes from each district via a lottery to be entered into The Hunger Games, where they must fight to the death until one remains. This "competition" serves as a reminder of the control the Capitol holds over the districts and as a punishment for their attempted rebellion 75 years prior to the time of the story.

Katniss, the protagonist of the novel, lives in District 12, which was once known as Appalachia. Her district faces severe poverty, surveillance from Capitol Peacekeepers (police), and limited resources. Katniss's father died in a coal mining accident, so she cares for her sister, Prim, and her mother, by hunting game and selling it at the local black market.

When the tributes are selected for that year's games, Prim is selected in the lottery, so Katniss volunteers as her district's tribute to protect Prim. She is transported to the Capitol with her district's other tribute, Peeta, who once gave her bread from his family's bakery when she was starving.

Through their training in the Capitol, Peeta and Katniss witness the stark difference between themselves and tributes from more wealthy districts, and especially between their district and the Capitol, which is overflowing with opulence, waste, and wealth.

Katniss struggles through the Games as she fights to survive and navigates trying to save herself and Peeta so that she can go back to her family.

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“District 12: Where you can starve to death in safety.”

"What must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the press of a button? How would I spend the hours I now commit to combing the woods for sustenance if it were so easy to come by?"

“Deep in the meadow, hidden far away
A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray
Forget your woes and let your troubles lay
And when it's morning again, they'll wash away
Here it's safe, here it's warm
Here the daisies guard you from every harm
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place where I love you.”

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Toni Morrison's Sula takes place in Bottom, Ohio, a fictional, majority-Black town that sits in the hills above a wealthier White town. The story moves through the lives of many of the town's residents but largely focuses on the experiences of Nel and Sula, two childhood friends who grew up in Bottom.

Nel lives in a conventional family in Bottom – her mother pressures her to marry a man and raise a family. Sula, on the other hand, lives with many different people, including her ailing grandmother, her mother, three boys named Dewey, and other people who come in and out of the house throughout the novel. One day, Nel and Sula accidentally throw a young boy into the river near where they are playing, and the boy dies. The girls never tell anyone of the incident.

After graduation, Nel stays in Bottom and continues to live the conventional life her mother wanted for her. Sula chooses to leave bottom, and for the next ten years, she continues on a series of wild attempts to be free and live the way she chooses.

When Sula returns, all of the townspeople of bottom label her as immoral for the unconventional way she lives. The community in bottom actually drastically improves during this time, as the residents are able to put all their problems and anger onto Sula. Sula has an affair with Nel's husband, and their relationship dissolves. Sula then suddenly passes away.

Nel visits Sula's grandmother in her nursing home and reflects on their childhood and the pain of the boy who passed away because of their actions. She then visits Sula's grave.

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"Had she paints, or clay, or knew the discipline of the dance, or strings, had she anything to engage her tremendous curiosity and her gift for metaphor, she might have exchanged the restlessness and preoccupation with whim for an activity that provided her with all she yearned for. And like an artist with no art form, she became dangerous.”

“You been gone too long, Sula.

Not too long, but maybe too far.”

"I'm me. I'm not their daughter. I'm not Nel. I'm me. Me."

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While there are so many topics that could be explored through this book, I wanted to capitalize on the fact that District 12 would actually include or be near Columbus! I thought that connecting to the place where my students live while helping them explore power and identity would be really interesting for them and effective at helping them see how big issues in dystopia are also big issues for all of us. I also wanted to emphasize that while people in areas like Appalachia face a lot of hardship, there is also a lot of beauty found in the places we come from.

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I considered pairing The Hunger Games with another dystopia or a more canonical text, but I thought that Sula would be a more unique pair that could open up some cool insights! The book also takes place in Appalachian Ohio and explores themes of identity and how our senses of self are connected to where we are from, but it is historical fiction. I also felt that it was valuable to bring in the perspective of a Black Appalachian character since the region is generally thought of as predominantly (or solely) white.

The topics in Sula might be too heavy for younger students, but I think an 11th/12th-grade audience could do well with this text.

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"Appalachian Elegy" is a set of poems by bell hooks, who writes about her Kentucky upbringing. I chose poems 1-6 (rather than the whole book) because they succinctly capture the pain and the beauty of her childhood. There is a powerful connection to the land in these poems, which is a commonality between The Hunger Games and Sula. The first poem here reads:

"...the long gone

speak to us

from beyond the grave

guide us

that we may learn

all the ways

to hold tender this land

hard clay direct

rock upon rock

charred earth

in time

strong green growth

will rise here

trees back to life

native flowers

pushing the fragrance of hope

the promise of resurrection"

Like this poem, the whole set seems to tie together hooks' present moment with both the past and the future. Looking at the dystopian The Hunger Games and historical Sula, it seems fit that there would be a text that sits in between the time settings of my two books. Further, because hooks is a "living poet," these poems bring a sense of relatability and presence to the essential questions of this set.

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Denise Giardina's op-ed discusses the anger, frustration, and sadness that West Virginians faced after a coal mine accident in 2010 and continue to face as the coal industry continues to exploit West Virginians at a high personal and environmental cost. Giardina concludes with a call to action for President Obama and all Americans to pay attention to the issues West Virginians are facing.

This article specifically speaks to my essential question about the joy and pain in our lives. I found this a strong example of how people can process and reckon with hardship – through writing and advocacy.

The topic of coal mining accidents also relates to The Hunger Games in that Katniss's father passed away in a similar accident, and this death is what lead to her having to care for her family. In that way, this article draws upon the implications of industrial power on people from specific regions and the way that power can cause individual pain.

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This blog post by Elizabeth Baird Hardy outlines the various connections between The Hunger Games and present-day Appalachia. While this is not a strictly informational text (Hardy is from Appalachia and speaks of her own experiences in the post), she presents extensive information about the region's history, as well as how that history appears in Collins' writing of District 12.

I also felt that this blog post would be a good opportunity to show students that there is an authentic audience for literary analysis and criticism and that our world can connect to literature in more "real" (accessible) spaces than big-name places like NYT. In the comments section of this post, readers talk about their own families, their experiences living in the region, and their additional connections to The Hunger Games. Here, we see an example of real-world community-building in an online space, where this group of readers works together to discuss how places we come from affects who we are and how this connects to literature.

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2: Appalachian Voices, Women of Appalachia

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2: Appalachian Voices, Women of Appalachia

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Fearless women settled Appalachia - and are still fighting for it.

Alongside men, they plowed fields, put up food, kept the family and faced conflict.

Women like Mary Draper Ingles, taken hostage in 1755 by Shawnee Indians, hiked 500 hundred miles of wilderness barefoot to find her way back home, founding the settlement that became the city of Radford, Va. Women like Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, who in the 1900s organized women for the labor movement. Women like Judy Bonds, who fought the coal industry's destruction of mountain communities in the 21st century.

Women have played a major role in the labor and activist movements in the coal-bearing regions of Appalachia. In 1965, Ollie "Widow" Combs laid down in front of the bulldozer that was preparing to strip-mine her Kentucky farm. She spent Thanksgiving in jail, but her protests led to strip mining legislation in 1967 in the Kentucky General Assembly. Ten years later, Widow Combs was invited to the White House for the signing of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977.

And in 1989, a group of women who called themselves the "daughters of Mother Jones" played a crucial role on the picket lines during the Pittston strike.

Other crucial roles for women have involved education, literature, healthcare and art, and the promotion of minorities in our region.

In the following links, we present to you the region's most powerful natural resource - the outstanding and fearless women of Appalachia.

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Women of Appalachia > Appalachian Voices

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Fearless women settled Appalachia - and are still fighting for it. Alongside men, they plowed fields, put up food, kept the family and faced conflict. Women like Mary Draper Ingles, taken hostage in 1755 by Shawnee Indians, hiked 500 hundred...Read more ›

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This is a combination Wikipedia and website "text." For this reading, I would ask my students to start with the Wikipedia article. In reading the works in this linked text set, I want students to also gather a more informational and foundational understanding of how and why the economic inequality in the Appalachian region was created and continues to be perpetuated. This Wikipedia page does an excellent job of critically breaking down different historical and social elements of this issue. Further, I think this could be a good learning moment about how Wikipedia can be used strategically. This article has good information to learn as an individual, but since it is not technically a source for research purposes, it can also be a good place to find sources.

In reading this page (or breaking it into sections for groups), students could look for more workable sources using the citation feature on Wikipedia. The Appalachian Voices link is an example of one great resource students could find within the Wikipedia article; it has a huge catalogue of pieces about Appalachain women and the impact they have had on the region, further tying to our "big topics" and essential question about identity and geography.

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Berry's poem largely speaks to my last essential question, how we respond to pain, or in this case, anger. This linked text set has thus far focused on the elements that appear early on in  The Hunger Games and Sula (the setting and class conflict), but I also wanted to include texts that help tie the essential questions to the heavier conflicts (the brutal death, especially of children). Discussing the pain and struggle that comes out of oppression and poverty is one part of exploring these texts, but I also felt that not discussing the Games would be ignoring major pain of the violence that appears in the book and has significant meaning as well.

These poems provide one answer of what the implications are of meeting pain with violence. In the Games, Katniss sometimes has no choice but to respond to her circumstances with violence, and the situation she is forced into puts into question what it means to be human when we use (or have to use) violence on others. This poem says that "The blow survives in the man. / His triumph is a wound." Here, Barry seems to argue that we will have to reckon with our acts against others, and that is an innately and uniquely human burden.

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That's right! Clint Smith's spoken poem explores his family history and illustrates the joy and appreciation he feels towards his family while also acknowledging the pain that he shares with so many boys who have been lost to violence. He reflects on his age and on his life.

This poem is such an awesome example of how where we are from sticks with us, so it had to fit here. Smith beautifully weaves together identity, past, and future together with a powerful call to action at the end. This poem stands out in the text set in that it expands this topic of identity and place beyond Appalachia, which I felt was valuable to show that these issues weave together everywhere!