Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture

Vance finishes all of his undergraduate work at Ohio State in two academic years, pushing himself hard enough to wind up in the hospital with mono and a staph infection from working three jobs while completing courses. During this time, he gets a job at the Ohio Statehouse, working for former Ohio State Senator Bob Schuler.

Vance moves home after graduation, living with Aunt Wee for 10 months, before law school. He deems these moments “among the happiest of [his] life” (188). Vance juxtaposes the optimism he feels with the pessimistic outlook he finds among Middletown residents. Vance offers data from The Pew Economic Mobility Project that echoes this sentiment for working-class, white Americans:

Well over half of blacks, Latinos, and college-educated whites expect that their children will fare better economically than they have. Among working-class whites, only 44% share that expectation. Even more surprising, 42% of working-class whites—by far the highest number in the survey—report that their lives are less economically successful than those of their parents (194-95).

As Chapter 12 begins, Vance accepts admission to Yale Law School. He is thrilled by the financial aid package he is offered, avoiding six-figure debt because of it, and works for the summer before departing Middletown and arriving in New Haven at the start of the semester.