After reading “The Kentucky Cycle” and watching Deliverance, it is easy to see why Appalachian scholars are offended. The portrayal of the characters that live in Appalachia are very stereotypical. In Deliverance the mountain people look completely different than the men who are visiting. The little boy playing the banjo looks deformed and acts like he has some sort of mental disability. The mountain men that attack Ed look different too. They are missing teeth, and look skinny and malnourished. You can hardly understand what they are saying when they talk. Compared to men going on the canoe trip, they look almost alien.

I would agree with those that are offended. It is a poor portrayal of the people that live there. Look at it in another perspective. If someone made a movie about people from Nashville based on stereotypes all the characters would be waling around barefoot and wearing overalls. In reality it is exactly the opposite. The people where I live look exactly the opposite. Nashville is becoming more of a trendy city. If anything, the people look more hipster than “redneck.” And even some of the “rednecks” that I know don’t look like that. A lot of them come from well off families and dress more preppy and business casual than “redneck.”

I don’t think it matters that the playright and director think that they were helping the region because they did such a poor job portraying the region. If anything they hurt the region by giving such a poor portrayal of the region. While “The Kentucky Cycle” and Deliverance may have made outsiders more aware of the regions, they have given a bad look as to how the people of Appalachia look and act.