All Over but the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg
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 mother. He rarely went after the children, but when he did the mother was always there to offer protection. Mr. Bragg's mother's life consisted of working herself to exhaustion and using whatever money she had on the children.
The second half of the book follows Mr. Bragg's developing career and family. Mr. Bragg covered various events like the Miami riots, the Haitian atrocities, and the Susan Smith case among others for his job.
I have only read four books my entire life for school, but this is one is the best I have read. There were numerous things that I learned from the book. The one that hit me the hardest was it's hard to see people living in shame because they can cover it up really well, almost like it doesn’t bother them at all. I grew up in a middle class family and simply didn't understand what it meant to be so broke that you are ashamed to be around people who have money. The thought never crossed my mind, ever.
I bet it wouldn't take much effort for me to identify a time in my life when I was cruel towards people who were poor; critically judging them. Especially not knowing what their situation was. They could have had family or financial problems, maybe their house just burnt down. It could have been a number of things but any way you look at it, it was wrong.
There were many parts of the book that had me hooked; I couldn’t stop reading no matter what was going on.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It truly gives you a lot to think about. I'm only in high school which doesn't give me much opportunity right now of getting a good job, even though I'm going to be in need of one since I'm having a baby. This book made me see that I better have a good education to get a good job or I'm not going to be able to take care of myself and a baby.
In class I read the first few pages and was immediately pulled into the book by the letter sent to Max’s mom and dad. It was a giant hook that reeled me right in. I can put myself right into Max’s shoes as a student going to school in Rochester. Well I mean kinda… now we can just text our parents.
Further, throughout the book, Sadie and Bessie continuously reminds the reader of the strong influence family life had on their entire lives. Their father and mother were college educated and their father was the first black Episcopal priest and vice principal at St. Augustine Co...
Peek and couldn't put down the book. I was moved by the strong love he
Could the dysfunction of the Walls family have fostered the extraordinary resilience and strength of the three older siblings through a collaborative set of rites of passage? One could argue that the unusual and destructive behavior of the parents forced the children into a unique collection of rites of passage that resulted in surprisingly resilient and successful adults. In moving back to Welch, Virginia, the children lost what minimal sense of security they may have enjoyed while living in their grandmother’s home in Arizona. The culture and climate (both socially and environmentally) along with an increased awareness of their poverty resulted in a significant loss of identity. As they learned new social and survival skills in this desperate environment, there is a powerful sense of camaraderie between the older children. Their awareness, drive and cunning survival skills while living in Welch result in a developing sense of confidence in their ability to survive anything. This transition, while wretched, sets the stage for their ability to leave their environment behind with little concern for a lack of success. As the children leave, one by one, to New York, they continue to support one another, and emerge as capable, resourceful young adults.
I learned a lot from this book. I learned a lot about why some stores are structured the way they are and how race, class, and gender are deeply imbedded in everything in the world and in everything we do. There is nothing we do that does not involve at least one of these aspects.
In Diamant’s powerful novel The Red Tent the ever-silent Dinah from the 34th chapter of Gensis is finally given her own voice, and the story she tells is a much different one than expected. With the guiding hands of her four “mothers”, Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah, all the wives of Jacob, we grow with Dinah from her childhood in Mesoptamia through puberty, where she is then entered into the “red tent”, and well off into her adulthood from Cannan to Egypt. Throughout her journey we learn how the red tent is constantly looked upon for encouragement, solace, and comfort. It is where women go once a month during menstration, where they have their babies, were they dwell in illness and most importantly, where they tell their stories, passing on wisdom and spinning collective memories. “Their stories were like the offerings of hope and strength poured out before the Queen of Heavens, only these gifts were not for any god or goddess—but for me” (3). It essentially becomes a symbol of womanly strength, love and learning and serves as the basis for relationships between mothers, sisters, and daughters.
...e on her part. Throughout the story, the Mother is portrayed as the dominant figure, which resembled the amount of say that the father and children had on matters. Together, the Father, James, and David strived to maintain equality by helping with the chickens and taking care of Scott; however, despite the effort that they had put in, the Mother refused to be persuaded that Scott was of any value and therefore she felt that selling him would be most beneficial. The Mother’s persona is unsympathetic as she lacks respect and a heart towards her family members. Since the Mother never showed equality, her character had unraveled into the creation of a negative atmosphere in which her family is now cemented in. For the Father, David and James, it is only now the memories of Scott that will hold their bond together.
narrative focuses on a father and son, Grange and Brownfield Copeland, and illustrates how their respective demons and destructive tendencies affect the people around them. In the opening chapter of the novel, the reader is introduced to Grange as he exhibits abusive tendencies towards his wife, Margaret, while he is in a drunken state. ?Late Saturday night Grange would come home lurching drunk, threatening to kill his wife and Brownfield, he threatened Margaret and she ran and hid in the woods with Brownfield huddled at her feet? (Walker 14). Grange?s prolific consumption of alcohol seems to be a conscious effort to blunt the feeling inferiority he feels as marginalized citizen in southern society. Grange Copeland?s fits of violent anger seems to be misdirected at his family instead of the person whom he truly hates: Shipley.
I really liked this book because of the stories it had in it, that really helped me understand how bad these times really were, and how the treatment was horrible. I read a lot of how strict they were which was a part of my essay.
The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.
When she and her Ma got home, it was almost dark outside. Frances saw something suspicious, her brother(Mike), shouldn’t be out at this time. Once they got inside, Frances and her mother tucked in all the children and went to bed themselves. Frances was still wondering about Mike, “What was he doing?” She fell asleep falling wiry of her younger brother. When she up, they had breakfast, and headed to their jobs. Frances was still wondering what Mike had done. “Was he stealing? No, their Da(father) had taught them better than that before he fell ill and died. She had never seen her mother cry until then.
Starting off the discussion we will start with chapter one. Chapter one is about Decent and street families. Decent families are families who live by society’s norms and try to avoid violence, drugs, confrontation, whereas street families embrace violence and fear because it is a way to stay alive within their neighborhoods. In the chapter they discuss how many families in the inner city actually have the decent family values, but can also harbor the street values. For example in the chapter they actually discussed an instance where Marge a women they had interviewed had a problem with others in her neighborhood. Her story s...
When Charlotte and her brother were still young there father left the family, leaving their mother to take care of them. Often times cases like this where one of the parent figures leaves will put a strain on the family and also the children. These problems will be carried on the next psychological development stage and so on until the problem is addressed and fixed. For the case of Charlotte, her father leaving made her mother tougher towards them by acting as a male figure. Due to an absence of the father they lived in poor conditions, having to ask for help from relatives.
Cathy shows this growth mindset because when she first goes to her grandmother’s house and is treated poorly she still hopes that they will soon inherit the money and her mom will let them leave the room. Cathy’s mindset soon begins to change when her mother’s daily visits soon turn to weekly and then monthly. Suddenly, the visits stop for nine months while the mother is on a honeymoon after marrying a very wealthy man. During those months, the grandmother whips them and denies them of food for one week. She begins to realize that the mother has left them and completely ignored their safety and wellbeing. An event that even more fuels this change in her mindset is that her grandfather has ...