As early as the first few lines of the play, you can see how Appalachian people are depicted. For the dialogue, Schenkkan writes how one would presume the characters sound in real life. When Michael and Tod are talking, poor grammar is used in the dialogue to depict how they might sound in real life. This adds to the stereotype that Appalachian people talk poorly and are uneducated.

One of the character that I think show a negative depiction of Appalachians is Tommy. One stereotype of Appalachians is that they are all coal miners that live in West Virginia. That is exactly what Tommy is. Tommy is a worker in the booming coal industry. He is very poor and works a dangerous job. Like the other characters, Tommy’s dialogue is written as though he is uneducated.

I do not agree with the way the characters are depicted in the play. I don’t understand why they all have to be depicted as poor. Not every person in Appalachia is poor. Why couldn’t the Rowen family have come from money? I don’t think it’s fair that Tommy is labeled this way. I think that Shenkkan could have maybe depicted the characters as more intelligent. But if the characters were different, I don’t think the point of the play to depict the characters how Shenkkan saw them would be the same.