Hillbilly Elegy

a different lifestyle model, and the
lower-income kids start to rise up.” Yet
when Middletown recently tried to limit
the number of Section 8 vouchers
offered within certain neighborhoods,
the federal government balked. Better, I
suppose, to keep those kids cut off from
the middle class.
Government policy may be
powerless to resolve other problems in
our community. As a child, I associated
accomplishments in school with
femininity. Manliness meant strength,
courage, a willingness to fight, and,
later, success with girls. Boys who got
good grades were “sissies” or “faggots.”
I don’t know where I got this feeling.