JD Vance's memoir Hillbilly Elegy is a well-written book that awakens my mind and allows me to connect with a part of this country that I never knew existed. In his story, Vance not only focuses on the crisis of his own family, with his mother's addiction, poverty and domestic violence, but moves to the population level to highlight the social issues within his community and among the mountain people and the outsiders. . The author wrote comprehensively using data and applying sociological perspectives to support his arguments. I admit that if it weren't for this sociology class, I would never have read that book. However, I'm glad I did it. To write my sociological essay on this book, I will use class stratification to illustrate my arguments. The reason is simply due to the obvious class problem present in Vance's community. But what is class stratification? A dictionary-based definition would be the hierarchical or vertical division of society based on rank, caste, or class, which is a little too general. However, in sociology, class stratification has a more explicit definition that is based on divisions within our society based on access to important resources. For example, in The Hillbilly Elegy, on one side we have the Appalachian people, the lower strata who live in a disadvantaged neighborhood with few resources and on the other the upper strata who already live in wealthy neighborhoods with more resources. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Karl Marx, the father of communism, was a philosopher and sociologist who introduced an important theoretical perspective into sociology known as social conflict theory. This theory focuses on how inequalities contribute to social differences and preserve these power differences. Conflict theory's analytical view of class stratification is that it perpetuates inequality and injustice. Conflict theorists try to take note of inequalities, such as how a rich society can have so many poor members, drawing on the work of Karl Marx. Since Marx's time, bourgeois capitalists owned high-producing companies, factories and land while the proletariat were the workers who performed manual labor to produce goods. Unfortunately, today, even though working conditions have improved, conflict theorists believe that the tense working relationship between employers and employees still exists. A perfect example of this inequality is shown in the difficult lives of the Scots-Irish families who were coal miners and steel workers and who desperately tried to achieve prosperous living conditions by migrating north for better job opportunities. Also unlike functionalists who believe that different strata are necessary to maintain social order and that class mobility is possible for everyone if you work hard enough. But how hard do you need to work before you achieve upward mobility? If we're honest, the chances of that happening are slim. Conflict theorists argue that class stratification is maintained to protect those at the top from having to share prestige and privilege. I remember it." (Vance J., 2016, p. 9) JD Vance begins his story in this way not to indicate his tragic childhood but to induce readers to have a more sympathetic understanding towards people like him who have lived or still live in such conditions. However, JD Vance wants to demonstrate that he has found a way to achieve mobility towardsthe high despite being statistically labeled a failure based on the failure of his ancestors to achieve it. Yet, the community he loves still suffers for the simple reason that even though he grew up in that community and was poor, as he says, he still had more social capital than most people. There. There are different types of poverty such as absolute poverty, relative poverty, destitute poverty and subjective poverty. For example, he cited in his memoir that “As the manufacturing center of the industrial Midwest has hollowed out, the white working class has lost both its economic security and the stable home and family life that comes with it.” (Vance J., introduction, 2016, p. 18) This demonstrates absolutely absolute poverty, that is, the lack of the basic needs necessary for a healthy life. In this world, being different often gives rise to stereotypes and prejudices. Likewise, having a culture that is different from the society you live in gives rise to ethnocentrism. Vance says that hillbillies mean poverty because the white working class is regarded by the white upper class as white trash, which means the shame of the white races. Unfortunately, it's a sad truth; Appalachia is poor. Why? “Although the nation faced the Great Recession that shook our country's economy, where people struggled through a season of long and extremely high unemployment, those in the lower classes felt the impact most deeply.” They were already poor and, in theory, after that chaotic event, they were left without government assistance, so their situation worsened because they were stereotyped as xenophobic just for having strong cultural values ​​and traditions. The reason is that the system has always been planned this way to maintain the class stratification order. As a result, their descendants inherit poverty because even the education system cannot prevent poverty from growing in those areas. The kids, who are the future, were doomed to fail, just because their families were at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, and their teachers gave them the palpable sense that they would never make it. (Lannamann, 2016) Then most end up quitting and hoping to work at the famous Armco or other large steel companies. “Public schools are so bad that the state of Kentucky recently took over them. However, parents send their children to these schools because they have little extra money, and the high school fails to send their students to college with alarming consistency.” Furthermore, for most citizens, achieving a higher standard of living has become an unrealistic dream. Therefore, most succumb to deviance and despair. “Federal housing policy has actively encouraged home ownership, from Jimmy Carter's Community Reinvestment Act to George W. Bush's home ownership.” and “As jobs disappear in a given area, declining home values ​​trap people in certain neighborhoods.” (Vance J., Chapter 4, 2016, p. 143) As a result, many people are trapped by that law and cannot move out of these poor neighborhoods into better opportunities because doing so is expensive. “For many, part-time work is all they have access to because the Armcos of the world are failing and their skills are not well suited to the modern economy.” Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Capitalists have always taken comfort in the suffering of the proletariat. For example, large companies like Armco will move their large companies to areas considered poor to create,?