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Prologue - Chapter 3

• NOTE: Citations in this Lesson Plan refer to the Kindle Version of Hillbilly Elegy, published by HarperCollins Publishers, June 28, 2016.

• Hillbilly Elegy is a memoir by J. D. Vance describing Vance’s childhood growing up in the Appalachian region of Eastern Kentucky and in the Rust Belt in Middletown, Ohio.

• In his memoir, Vance not only shares his own experiences growing up in poverty, but he explores the societal shifts that have taken place in the past 30 years leading to the decline of the American middle class.

• In the Prologue, Vance explains that he is 31 years old, attended Yale Law School, and has not accomplished anything particularly extraordinary or worthy of a memoir; however, he does state that the circumstances of his childhood—one rife with poverty and abuse—made his accomplishments that much more outstanding within his community.

• Vance defines himself as a “hillbilly”—a...

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