especiallyemma☆°｡⋆

Analyzing the effect of Crackers and ecocriticism in Janisse Ray’s Ecology of a Cracker Childhood.

Like nature, poverty seeps into every aspect of daily life. It appears between cracks in the pavement, in behaviors, in the form of resilient weeds, in material possessions, in vases on kitchen counters, and in thought processes. It is not easily ignored. Janisse Ray, author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, seeks to utilize the connection between crackers and nature conservation to challenge the societal concept of a poor southerner and detach it from the derogatory stereotypes they have been associated with for centuries. In her essay, “Junkyard Tales: Poverty and the Southern Landscape in Janisse Ray’s Ecology of a Cracker Childhood,” Sarah Robertson argues that Ray’s book “remains torn, then, between the need to promote ecological awareness and the desire to raise her family, particularly her father, above the definition of ‘otherness,’” (Robertson 168) calling Ray’s purpose of her autobiography into question. Indeed, Ray’s story is deeply rooted in the identity of her people and their nature. It is only when read thoroughly that Ray is truly succeeding in her goal to “unveil, and to explore, the hidden dimensions that lie beneath” (Robertson 170), stereotypes of poor whites in the southern states of the United States of America, particularly in Georgia and Florida.

First, Ray describes the significance of her heritage and the harmful stereotypes that come with it. For centuries, Crackers were ostracized, condemned to be poor, white southerners in Georgia or Florida. Crackers were known as a “lawless set of rascals on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia” (Ray 82). In these ways, southerners are explicitly seen as “other” compared to different populations in different regions of the United States of America. Ray, for better or worse, identifies as a southerner. That label came with stereotypes: “It didn’t take many years to realize I was a Southerner, a slow, dumb, redneck hick, a hayseed, inbred and racist, come from poverty, condemned to poverty: descendant of Oglethorpe’s debtor prisoners. Descendant of people who pulled from the Union, fought their patria, and lost” (Ray 30). Even hundreds of years after the first of her descendants traveled to southern Georgia, Ray shows how the stigma of the cracker people continues to emanate throughout society. By identifying the stigmas associated with crackers, Ray narrows down to her childhood experiences.

Interestingly, Ray decides to focus on her experiences of living in poverty. Throughout the book, Ray explains how she grew up in a very minimalistic household and how that may have affected her mindset. She describes her childhood as “poor, but solvent and surrounded by people much poorer” (Ray 161), where “We never lacked food, but we had a few treats and what we had was divided meticulously” (Ray 26). She emphasizes that when they were strapped for cash, some of the activities that required discretionary spending were simply skipped for that particular stretch of time. It is essential to note that living in poverty was not something her family chose. Her father explicitly desired more for his family: “Grandpa desired nothing other than to earn enough money to live week to week but my father wanted more, an inventory in order to advance. So he bought out Grandpa’s share in the junkyard and went into business with an older entrepreneur, Lee Woods, for a couple of years before buying him out as well” (Ray 72). Ray’s inclusion of her father’s goal to earn more than needed for survival and later the decision to buy out his own father’s share in the junkyard displays the agency and mindset of her family. Poverty, in her book, unfortunately reinforces the stereotypes associated with her cracker identity, showing the dire need for Crackers to be destigmatized from the derogatory connotations of the identity. 

In addition to her identity as a Cracker, the primary focus of the text is nature. As a descendant of a cracker family—a fraction of the population often participates in harmful activities or is caught in undesirable circumstances—she hints at her need to promote ecological awareness. As a society, “Our relationship with the land wasn’t one of give and return. The land itself has been the victim of social dilemmas—racial injustice, lack of education, and dire poverty. It was overtilled; eroded; cut; littered; polluted; treated as a commodity, sometimes the only one and not as a living thing” (Ray 165). By highlighting how society has collectively treated the Earth, Ray creates a common ground that all humans, Crackers included, can stand on. This common ground eliminates the cultural differences between all groups of people because it is something that is universally known. However, she notes the positive nature of being a part of a group of people who, for generations, have settled in the same area. She explains her deep familial roots in Georgia: “I was born from people who were born from people who were born from people who were born here” (Ray 3). She associates her cracker identity with nature because many of her descendants felt attached to the Earth as they relied on the Georgian land for survival. This connection is essential to understanding the purpose of Ray’s work.

Importantly, a key feature of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood is the eco-criticism evident in the frequent references to plants and animals. Ray’s love of nature stems from her childhood in southern Georgia and her teacher, Mrs. Godfrey, who cultivated her love of learning and taught her about the natural world. In the chapter—aptly named “Light” after the key component of a plant’s process of growth, photosynthesis—Ray reflects, “Perhaps something could have been different for me. Certainly not in adulthood, for we become our heart’s desires, but childhood—could the natural world I now revere have opened to me?” (Ray 215). Though, as a child, she did not possess enough money, knowledge, or interest to learn about or invest in conservation efforts, she connects her extreme attachment and enjoyment of nature to her childhood, culture, and family history. Ray’s infatuation with pioneers and books like Caddie Woodlawn, Little House in the Big Woods, and the biography of Daniel Boone exemplifies her personal interest in her heritage as a cracker descendant. She writes, “For some reason I was hungry for knowledge of the pioneers, eager to understand what great hope motivated them to leave homelands and set off for promised lands in the dangerous American frontier” (Ray 200). Similarly, I have that same hunger for understanding my past. I’m sure most people, at some point in their lives, wonder about their ancestors, the countries they hail from, and why life eventually led them to their eventual home. Having a nearly universal question of “Where do I come from?” keeps readers engaged and curious about what Ray has to say. Ray’s passion for nature is a key feature that keeps her story fresh and unique.

Altogether, Ray connects the Cracker stereotypes, poverty, and nature to uplift her people. Regardless of if her story convinces readers to support conservation efforts, she surely suggests a deeper understanding of the people she identifies with, rather than the stereotypes placed on poor Southerners, while still creating a compelling story about her father’s battle with mental illness, her identity as an enjoyer of literature, her family’s cracker heritage, her interest in nature and conservation, and southern poverty. Through her descriptions, she “works to re-conceptualize that ‘othered’ space, not only through [her father], but more specifically through her ecological concerns” (Robertson 171) as she “asks her southern readers to join together in protecting their land, she attempts to break down the class barriers that separate her people from the rest of southern society” (Robertson 171). It is only when identifying the author’s efforts to characterize her cracker family that I truly understood why, through eco-criticism, she was trying to make readers empathize with the cracker-ness side of her southern identity. By earning the empathy of readers, Ray is actively able to incite change in society. Additionally, Ray turns her story into a specific example of the general American experience. Robertson asserts, “What her autobiography does, is to turn stories about an ‘other,’ about southern poor whites, into ‘another’ part of an American discourse” (Robertson 171). I would certainly consider that goal achieved. By humanizing Crackers through her personal experiences, Ray turns the Cracker experience into an understanding of someone in America, putting it on the same level as an American experience as a Midwesterner, Easterner, or Westerner. In the end, Ray is simply trying to explain that a Cracker is no different from any other American.

Ray succeeds spectacularly in her goal in every way, creating a lasting impression for readers like me. At the core of the book, Ray’s deep exploration of her Cracker identity and its connection to nature uplifts the harmful southern stereotypes and replaces them with feelings of kinship. That kinship is something that can pull other Crackers together and break the stigmas associated with being a southerner.

Works Cited

Ray, Janisse. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood. Milkweed Editions, 2015.

Robertson, Sarah. “Junkyard Tales: Poverty and the Southern Landscape in Janisse Ray’s Ecology of a Cracker Childhood.” Poverty and Progress in the U.S. South Since 1920, edited by Suzanne Whitmore Jones and Mark Newman, VU University Press, 2006.