The Importance of the Living in the South for Alvin C. York

I agree completely with everything you said. Alvin York was just as smart as the rest of the men he served with, but in a different light. The people of the Valley of the Three Forks have a lot more common sense than book smarts. That does not make them retarded or any less intelligent than other people. Just because you are from South of the Mason-Dixon line does not make you stupid, retarded or slow. And the actors and actresses did not portray their characters as being that way. Alvin York was sharp enough to learn things pretty quick and when he spoke to the commanding officers he knew what he was trying to say and he said it, but in his own way. The people in the Valley are seperated from most of the rest of the country and are innocent and somewhat detached as a result. They do things their own way.

And as far as pronunciation goes, everyone says things a little differently and who is to say they are wrong for it. I am a big English buff and I lvoe to read. I am from Florida and have spent most of my life around my family who were from a little Interstate town called Bonifay. One of my aunt's has a thick, Southern draw and she likes to call everyone "honey child." When she says it, though, it sounds more like "hunee chald" with emphasis on the "un" and "al" and a near silent "h." I was raised in Panama City where we have a lot of accents mingling what with the Air Force base, Navy base, all the tourists and the people coming from Dothan, Chipley, Vernon, Wewa, Bonifay, etc. When I say "honey child" it sounds like "hahny cheye-uld" with a huge emphasis on the "h," a heavy "ah," an emphasized "eye" and a very pronounced, added "ul." And Bonifay and Panama City are only about 50 miles apart. Does that make either of us stupid, retarded or slow because we say it weird?

The people from Alvin's home are not stupid, retarded or slow. They all have enough common sense to know how to make a living without being affected by the outside world and to make their own world. They barter with what they physically have and with minimal money. They make their own way and they succeed one way or another. They have enough common sense to rival the book smarts of College Professors and they have enough determination to put most people to shame.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

Being from East Tennessee, I can honestly say that I've never been insulted by the portrayal of York's friends and neighbours because they are EXTREMELY accurate! The accents, the dialects, the way they interact with one another is a spot on representation of people I've known all my life. They aren't dumb or uneducated, at least not any more or less than anywhere else. They're just educated differently. When the ways you can make a living are limited to farming and hunting (or making shine), you need a different set of 'smarts' than someone who lives in a city and needs skills suited to city life. In rural Tennessee back then, you wouldn't have needed geography to know where Europe was. Instead, you'd need to know a lot about geography as it applies to agriculture. You didn't need to know fancy shmancy math equations. Instead you needed to be able to work out how much crop you could get per acre and how much you'd need to sell it for to feed your family and your livestock. You didn't need science to know about hydrogen atoms. Instead, you needed it to understand the workings of your gun and making ammunition...and, of course, to make shine! In other words, they might not have known about Paris, France or The Subway in New York, but I'll bet you'd have been hard pressed to find someone in Paris or New York who'd have known how to make their own ammo and shine!! :)

The bee hunts in pairs....and other fruits...

reply share

add reply

formatting help

While I think that showbiz is not often very kind to Southerners, I was not offended by anything in this film. I even felt that the film was in many ways, an homage to Appalacian culture; I think we are to understand York's heroism is rooted in the place where he was born and raised. As with real-life Tennesseans, I found most of the characters to be quite likeable, even admirable. It is sad to think that anyone would hold their poverty or lack of education against them.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

I guess he's meant to be a Forrest Gump type character.

I remember reading in a Stephen Ambrose book (about D Day, so different war) that soldiers were allocated for different skills depending on where they were from. So the southerners who generally grew up hunting outdoors were usually the best shots or marksmen, while the northerners who grew up in industrial areas and the city would be more familiar operating radio equipment or heavy weapons.

~ I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

They may not have been savvy to the New York subways or the proper pronunciation of words, but they possessed skills that others did not. For instance, York could shoot like no other because of his upbringing. The need to kill food for his family allowed him to hone his rifle skills.

Your observation reminds me of a much earlier war when almost every colonist could shoot the eye out of a squirrel at 50 yards in an agrarian, pre industrial America. This skill set was widely held in both north and south much to the detriment of the British.

Shooting skills slowly diminished in the Northeast and New England as they became more industrialized and less dependent on hunting for food. The South remained largely agrarian or subsistence farmers and kept up their shooting skills well into the early 20th century.

reply share

add reply

formatting help