For today’s prompt, identify two important passages from the text. Why are they central to the text? What might we say about these passages in relation to themes from our class so far?

The first passage I found interesting was on page 6 when Dillon mentions he does not like school because “you learn spelling rules and grammar rules and that they way you talked all your life is ignorant even though it seems to suit most people fine…” (Giardina, 6). This passage stood out to me because of the time we discussed in class how so many out of Appalachia were made to feel uneducated and ignorant because they spoke differently from other regions around them. It ties in with the theme that there is a stereotype of being uneducated and ignorant just because you are from the mountain region or that you are from a blue collar family. It has been a theme this semester that those who decide what is right and wrong and how the people of the region are described are not even from the region. They are outsiders looking in and deciding for an entire group of people.

Another passage that really stood out to me was on page 14 when Rachel talks about how her mother does not like nursing as a profession because it was seen as “a common, nasty occupation” Giardina, 14). It stood out to me because it made me recall the time that we discussed the roles of women in Appalachia. Nursing was seen as a job that was not suited for women of a certain breeding. We talked about how women of Appalachia had to be hard workers and often worked for a lot less money than men, if they worked outside the home. Most of the time women were expected to stay at home while their husbands went out and worked. They were needed to raise the next generations of workers, especially in the coal camps.

KCD