Almost everyone has a story to tell about his or her struggle to “fit in” to one environment or another and Appalachians are far from the exception. The stories in Back Talk from Appalachia provide very detailed, real-life examples of what many Appalachians have faced for years. As the authors talk about the awkward social struggles of their past, they explain why they often had difficulty fitting in and what they did in effort to overcome the “problem”.

In Stephen Fisher’s Appalachian Stepchild, he explains the struggle he faced being a middle class, white Appalachian entering a new junior high school. He mentions that each social group chose not to associate with him because he was slightly different from the rest of them. Originally, he tried to remove any sign of his hillbilly culture, however, he eventually realized that was not the best approach. When fisher was in college his social struggles began to fade. Rather than hiding his heritage, he began embracing it and ultimately winning awards for dressing up as an exaggerated version of who he had been all his life. The new attention allowed him to grow in popularity and overcome the social struggles he had faced since middle school.

All of the stories in Back Talk from Appalachia describe the struggle of Appalachians to become socially accepted and how the particular author overcame their issue. Like the authors, I have experienced situations in which I tried to hide who I was so I could fit in with a particular group of people. Regardless of origin, I think everyone faces a situation similar to these at some point in his or her childhood.