All Over but the Shoutin’ All Over but the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg is an autobiography that starts from Mr. Bragg's impoverished childhood in a family that included an abusive, alcoholic father, an incredibly powerful angel of a mother and his two brothers, and follows him through his Pulitzer Prize-winning journalistic career at the New York Times. This book is a memoir written by a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, Rick Bragg, who works for the New York Times. It describes the author’s childhood in rural Alabama, the middle child of three brothers raised by an almost-always single mother in conditions of extreme poverty. The questions, discussion topics, and author biography that follow are intended to enhance your group's reading of Rick Bragg's All Over but the Shoutin', a haunting memoir about growing up dirt-poor in the deep South, and about struggling to leave the past behind while still deeply tied to it through bonds of love and responsibility. Use of this excerpt from All Over but the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg may be made only for purposes of promoting the book, with no changes, editing or additions whatsoever and must be accompanied by the following copyright notice: copyright© 1997 by Rick Bragg.
All Over But The Shoutin Pdf
All Over but the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg is an autobiography that starts from Mr. Bragg's impoverished childhood in a family that included an abusive, alcoholic father, an incredibly powerful angel of a mother and his two brothers, and follows him through his Pulitzer Prize-winning journalistic career at the New York Times. The author states at the beginning of the book that readers will laugh and cry reading it. He was right on the money with both of these points.
The Bragg family grew up with virtually nothing. The father left the family a number of times, offering no financial assistance and stealing whatever he could before he left. When he was there, he was usually drunk and physically abusive to the…show more content…
As I said before, I grew up in a middle class family. This made it difficult for me to completely understand everything that he was talking about in the book. I never knew what it was like to have little or no food to eat. If we didn’t have anything to eat our family would go to a restaurant and eat or go shopping and get food.
Also, the work aspect is difficult to understand for me. I know what his mother did was what all people in her situation did then. The working conditions that she dealt with day in and day out were horrific. And the thing was she never complained about it or quit. I know if I was in her situation I would have never lasted. I would have quit and tried to find another job. Another option that middle class workers have is taking vacation time if it gets to hot out or if it is raining. That is just the way we deal with situations like that. I believe our generation living in those conditions would never have made it back then.
Communication is a very important aspect of any family. Good communication leads to a better family life. Bragg and his mother in particular seemed to communicate very well. The way he details each of his childhood stories is very good and since most of the stories are told by the motherly figure in your life you can see the communication is good. The communication between Bragg and his father is the complete opposite. It was very hard