The tree metaphor

The job Joe et al. are doing is to poison a forest of trees nobody wants, to clear the way for more desirable forestation.

Here we have a class of people who's existence the mainstream likes to forget, people for whom society has no use. Their lives are rigged for failure. The hillbillies are intended to make way for a Hindu temple and modern, monied people who are more acceptable.

So in the end the boy gets a new job, planting those fresh trees instead of killing off the worthless ones. The implication seems to be that he can be part of a fresh start, have a life that is valued, to 'be somebody'.

But is that really the case? Isn't he still just uneducated white trash who at best can hope to live up to the failures of men like Joe?

There's no doubt the kid is a good man. He won't be like his father. But it seems to me that the point of the rest of the film is that in this sort of environment even the best men are broken down and ruined.