Through the lifestyle of the Boatwrights portrayed in Bastard Out of Carolina, Allison supports many of the stereotypical redneck and white trash behaviors we have talked about over the semester. We see the importance of family meals and southern cooking in Annie. We see child abuse and incestual behavior, which are both often attributed to lower class poor families. The entire Boatwright family is uneducated and spends their time drinking and fighting.
While all these stereotypes are supported in Bastard Out of Carolina, we see that there is more to these behaviors. Every behavior has some sort of explanation. Allison shows in the novel that all these behaviors result from a sense of shame that people have due to living a lower class lifestyle. It’s not that these people make the conscious choice to live a lifestyle that outsiders look down upon but rather that it is the only lifestyle that they know and are capable of living.
This article talks about how many people have recently embraced the redneck life, opting for the simpler lifestyle. These people are not ashamed of their poverty in many cases, instead enjoying the simple things in life.
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