Topic > Hillbilly Elegy: Drugs and Violence

Parents who use drugs while raising children are likely to have a lower socioeconomic status which will affect their academic success. The negative effects that younger children experience may vary depending on the type of medications parents use. Vance began to see the negative effects of his education in the low grades he received in middle school. Exposure to both violence and drugs can lead to other disparities that may go unnoticed, causing physical changes in a child's body and soon leading to lifelong health problems. In Hillbilly Elegy, writer J.D. Vance discusses the depths of drug addiction, violence, and rural poverty. These events represent a worldwide problem that not only affected Vance as a child, but many other children of different races living in America. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original EssayVance grew up living with his mother who had an opioid addiction and multiple relationships with different men while exposing Vance to domestic abuse. Like many other communities, these behaviors are considered normal, but widespread throughout the United States. Many children who witness domestic violence react to drugs and violence by developing emotional, behavioral and learning problems. There are community, school and family programs implemented and used as prevention strategies to help children deal with problems of violence. Outreach programs such as Community that Cares (CTC) are an example of an available resource. The Community That Cares program was put in place by the government to help children aged between 10 and 17 who are dealing with drug abuse and/or living with violence. These community programs show positive results with many benefits for young children like Vance. Research conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) shows that “a long-term outcome study of the Communities That Care (CTC) program showed notable success in preventing substance use and antisocial behavior in adolescents.” Children with similar childhoods. like Vance who lives in a family with drugs and violence, they are unable to gain access to most resources when the guardian parent is unwilling to find the appropriate help needed. Some children will begin to think that negative behavior is normal until an adult intervenes, showing the child more positive behaviors like those of Vance's grandparents. It wasn't until Vance went to live with his grandmother and grandfather that his life began to change in positive ways that he didn't expect to happen. Vance moved from an area of ​​poverty to a middle-class area during the time he lived with his grandparents. Both of his grandparents were religious people who spent years showing him the value of love and stability, teaching him life lessons he couldn't learn from his parents. Both grandparents push him to be different and get better grades at school. Although his grandparents were not his mother and father, they played the role of parents who ensured that their grandchildren had a stable family that did not promote drugs and violence. Besides his grandmother and grandfather, Vance had other positive people in his family that he looked up to, one person being, his cousin Rachel. She influenced him to join the Marine Corps by stating, “they will whip you into shape” (Vance, 156). His enlistment in the Marine Corps provided him with a way to afford college and eventually attend law school. The Marine Corps has changed its.