One of the central themes of recent readings concerns the identity of young people growing up in Appalachia. How did being from Appalachia affect the kinds of experiences these authors had? In what ways did the authors “cope” or “deal with” being from the region? Have you had times in your life where you’ve had to respond in a similar way because of your own identity?
The most recurring phenomenon of is that the authors seemed to have experienced is some form of cognitive dissonance over their identities and to the extent to which they thought they should still consider themselves Appalachian anymore. This dissonance and desire to associate with such the labels that society has created speaks to our human nature which someone mentioned in class inherently wants to categorize things if only for the illusion of control.
I mean I don’t want to be that guy, but this is totally relatable to the ratline but really this is just universally applicable to situations when someone enters a new civic discourse. There is some culture shock whenever you enter a new civic discourse and that involves familiarizing yourself with the lexis and so forth. Regardless of where you go your background will more than likely affect you. As in the case of out-migrants from Appalachia, some found an uneasiness once they left. The dissonance that is in summation really an identity crisis of sorts speaks to the effects of the rhetorical implications of being identified with an outsider group. As outsiders entering the society that looks down upon where someone came from, it is understandable that the out-migrants may approach their new lives with trepidation.