A study was conducted to write an ethnographic description of how the influences of the reader's culture and the culture depicted in a text are associated with the responses of first-semester college freshmen to a series of contemporary Appalachian short stories. Cultural backgrounds of six informants and the cultures depicted in six stories were determined, and findings were related to the informants' oral and written responses. Results indicated that culture has the potential of being a resource as well as a constraint in how readers interact with a text. Findings also revealed that various components of individual cultural backgrounds appear to have a greater influence on the ways readers take meanings from text and the kinds of responses that result than do the cultural elements of the text itself. Readers who are more familiar with the culture depicted in a text may experience more initial interest in the selection than those who have had no contact with it; but as they continue interacting with the work, their own cultural backgrounds become the dominant influence on what they observe, what meanings they obtain, and what responses they experience. (Ten tables of data are included. Appendixes include survey forms, an excerpt from a transcribed interview, an ethnographic record sheet, an example of a domain analysis worksheet, domain lists for stories, summary overviews of stories, and cultural scenes of the stories. Sixty-seven references are attached.) (MG)