I found an article published in garden and gun magazine that offered an interesting perspective on the movie as it included interviews of people with of perspective even some that knew the author James Dickey. some accounts were positive and some were very negative. I seemed that those that didn’t actually live in Appalachia liked the movie and thought the book was an expert literary work. Those who lived in Appalachia however were really pissed off . One such person stated “You can go up to the mountains with my people and we may kill you, but we’re not going to f*** you.” (gun and garden). The Appalachians are mad because Dickey is an outsider and he basically calls them stupid brutish and even predatory, which they know isn’t true. He brought really negative stereotypes about Appalachians into the theaters and homes of millions of Americans who would have no reason to think negatively of Appalachians otherwise. It seems that the most memorable and most horrifying scene for Appalachians in deliverance was the rape scene as it portrayed them as rapists which is absolutely false. while this scene is probably the most memorable scene but those who do not live in the mountains seem to remember the cliff scene and the banjo scene the best.

The first article was about the Kentucky cycle and basically just stated that although the play was very popular in the west it was largely unpopular in Appalachia. Among other stereotypes it underplayed the amount of people that wanted to strike in 1922 which was basically all the coal miners and the injustices they had to fight.

In response to the play “The Kentucky Cycle” a columnist from the Courier Journal of Louisville John Pearce Said that the play was a literary equivalent of a drive by shooting. Many people outside of Appalachia find this confusing because Schenkkan did his research and genuinely cared about the plight of the Appalachian people. While his intentions are good stereotypes in Appalachia are like unwanted nicknames at home while your friends might not have any ill intent everyone still hates being associated with that nickname. Essentially what that play did was showcase all the negative stereotypes about Appalachia to people outside of the region. it portrayed them as unintelligent, primitive and poor. that made a lot of people angry  because they were being unfairly judged by an outsider, even though his message was to help the people of the region the people are so independent and don’t want to look weak or receive help from outsiders which only strengthens the stereotypes of standoffish, mean, and violent people. many from the region say that it was a very Hollywood tacky version of reality which only amplified the stereotypes. In short they believe the way in which they were portrayed was was too dark violent and mean and reflected poorly on them to the rest of the nation.

The people that benefited from keeping the Appalachian culture down were usually businesses. These industries suck as coal and timber benefited from having an uneducated labor force which kept them from rising up and forming unions against them.  This allowed the area to be exploited for its resources without much resistance from the simple hillbilly. This allowed the eastern businessmen to keep wages low and make huge profits. It also benefited the psychs of easterners in general an allowed them to feel superior. But all of this was simply propaganda, as with every time a certain portion of the population is oppressed. You make one group look inferior and the population stats to believe it and eventually those people will start to believe it and it will make them more submissive and easier to exploit for labor and resources. I think that with the study of Appalachia in university today will help turn the tide and erase some of the propaganda the has falsely portrayed the area as backward. People are beginning to realize that Appalachia is very modern and that those stereotypes are largely un true. we must continue to talk about the important intellectuals that cone from Appalachia.