66 pages • 2 hours read
All Over but the Shoutin'
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Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
PROLOGUE-CHAPTER 4
Reading Check
1. Whose “backbone” did the writer climb up to escape poverty and hopelessness?
2. Where was Bragg’s mother when she went into labor with him?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does Bragg’s father tell him when he gives him the .22 rifle, and what does this reveal about their family?
2. What war did Bragg’s father fight in, and how does Bragg believe the experience affected him?
CHAPTERS 5-8
Reading Check
1. What vehicle did Bragg’s grandfather, Bobby Bragg, drive?
2. What type of work is no longer available to Bragg’s mother after the arrival of new machinery?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What happens to the moonshine that Bragg’s father obtained, and what worry does this provoke in Bragg?
2. What is the explanation for why one member of the Bragg family doesn’t have a name?
Paired Resources
- This collection of sources from the Library of Congress provides information about what is sometimes referred to as America’s “forgotten war.” It includes links to annotated versions of veterans’ first-hand accounts of their experiences.
- This connects to the themes Fighting and Violence and War and Damaged Lives.
- Are Bragg’s father’s experiences typical of that of other soldiers? How did the war affect other soldiers after they returned from fighting?
“Eureka”
- In this poem by Appalachian poet Ron Rash, the speaker describes the difficult manual labor that his grandfather did to support his family and the limited education that kept him poor.
- This poem addresses the theme of Poverty.
- What does the word “eureka” mean? What does the grandfather in this poem have in common with Bragg’s father? What challenges do both men face?
CHAPTERS 9-15
Reading Check
1. What was 11-year-old Bragg driving when a police officer attempted to pull him over?
2. Who hires Bragg to do dirty, difficult construction work on his crew?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is “Dinner on the Ground,” and how does young Rick Bragg feel about attending?
2. How does Bragg lose his 1969 muscle car, and how does this make him feel?
CHAPTERS 16-22
Reading Check
1. What sport did Bragg spend a great deal of time traveling around the South to cover?
2. What does Bragg say he is careful never to do when he is by himself?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What would Bragg sometimes have to report about when he covered car races, and how did this influence his career?
2. What does Bragg’s wife tell him that leads to him leaving the marriage, and how does he remember the relationship?
3. Why didn’t Bragg visit his younger brother Mark in jail, and how does he feel about this decision?
CHAPTERS 23-25
Reading Check
1. What type of wild animal does Bragg go out with a crew to hunt and kill while on a story assignment for the St. Petersburg Times?
2. What strikes Bragg in the head as he is covering a riot in Miami?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Bragg feel departing from his mother, and how does he keep her involved in his life when he lives in Tampa?
2. Who are the “miracle babies,” and how does their story affect Bragg?
CHAPTERS 26-29
Reading Check
1. What place does Bragg say he had always wanted to go, “the same way [he]’d wanted to touch [his] mother’s hot iron”? (Chapter 26)
2. What university does Bragg find himself applying to attend as a Nieman Fellow?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does the interview with the fellowship board make Bragg feel that he had just spoken to the “fancy people,” as mentioned in Chapter 28?
2. What did Bragg’s colleague say at the table that insulted him, and how did Bragg react?
CHAPTERS 30-33
Reading Check
1. What newspaper does Bragg find his most success writing for?
2. What disaster does Bragg return to Alabama to report on?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does Gangaram Mahes do that makes Bragg describe him as “the thief who never runs”? (Chapter 32)
2. Where does Bragg return as a reporter, and what conditions does he find when he returns?
CHAPTERS 34-38
Reading Check
1. What national terrorist attack does Bragg cover that deeply affects him?
2. What accomplishment is the climax of Bragg’s reporting career?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Bragg leave the funeral of his grandmother early?
2. What regret does Bragg have in covering the death of the two young murder victims in South Carolina?
CHAPTERS 39-42
Reading Check
1. To whom does Bragg address one of his final chapters, saying “I am you, in better ways”? (Chapter 40)
2. What do Bragg’s two brothers do on their first visit to their mother’s new home?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Bragg pay for his mother’s house, and why is that detail important to him?
2. With what memory does Bragg close his book?
Paired Resources
- These black-and-white Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs from Carol Guzy show the violent conflict in Haiti in 1994. (Note: Contains graphic depictions of violence.)
- These photographs illustrate the themes of Poverty, Fighting and Violence, and War and Damaged Lives.
- How do these photographs reinforce the danger that Bragg faced reporting in Haiti? Why might he have decided not to tell his mother the violent details of his work?
2023 Prosperity Data for Alabama
- This information from Alabama Possible, an organization that hopes to break down barriers to prosperity for all Alabama citizens, shows where Alabama ranks nationally in poverty and unemployment.
- This connects to the theme Poverty.
- How has Alabama changed in the years since Bragg’s childhood? Has the poverty there improved or gotten worse? What challenges do the citizens of Alabama face today?
Recommended Next Reads
The Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg
- Following All over but the Shoutin’ and Ava’s Man, this is the third in a series of memoirs by Rick Bragg and the only one that focuses primarily on his father’s life.
- Shared themes include Poverty and Fighting and Violence.
- Shared topics include family relationships and boyhood.
- The Prince of Frogtown on SuperSummary
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
- This unforgettable memoir documents the life of Jesmyn Ward as she grows up in poverty in rural Mississippi, and it explores the reasoning behind the deaths of five Black men in her life who died over five years—whether to suicide, drugs, accidents, or other tragedies.
- Shared themes include Poverty and Fighting and Violence.
- Shared topics include escaping poverty through education and the pull of family.
- Men We Reaped on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
PROLOGUE-CHAPTER 4
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. Bragg’s father tells him not to shoot his brothers, suggesting the violent environment of his upbringing. (Chapter 1)
2. Bragg’s father fought in Korea and experienced harrowing encounters with death; Bragg is convinced that this is what caused him to neglect his family and abuse alcohol. (Chapter 2)
CHAPTERS 5-8
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. Bragg’s mother pours the alcohol down sink, causing Bragg to worry that his father will kill her. (Chapter 6)
2. The fourth Bragg son, who was to be named Randy John, died before he was given a name. (Chapter 7)
CHAPTERS 9-15
Reading Check
1. A moped/motorcycle (Chapter 10)
2. Uncle Ed (Chapter 11)
Short Answer
1. Dinner on the Ground is a large picnic held at noon, which Bragg enjoys for its causal atmosphere and bounty of southern food. (Chapter 9)
2. Bragg loses his car after a terrifying accident that he causes by driving recklessly. Though sorry to see the car go, he is amazed to walk away uninjured.
CHAPTERS 16-22
Reading Check
1. Football (Chapter 17)
2. Drink alcohol (Chapter 19)
Short Answer
1. Bragg sometimes had to report on the death of racers, which he would mention as if it were just another part of the competition. This helped him realize that he had more important topics to write about. (Chapter 17)
2. Bragg’s wife tells him she is pregnant, causing him to reevaluate his life plans. Though it turns out that she is not indeed pregnant, he nevertheless decides that married life is not for him, and he leaves. He looks back on his relationship and his ex-wife fondly. (Chapter 20)
3. Bragg doesn’t visit Mark because “having a brother in prison did not fit in” with the kind of life he was trying to create. He deeply regrets this decision. (Chapter 21)
CHAPTERS 23-35
Reading Check
1. An alligator (Chapter 23)
2. A rock (Chapter 24)
Short Answer
1. Bragg is heartbroken to say goodbye to his mother and leaves her with money. He continues to call her while he is in Tampa, though he leaves out details about the most dangerous events. (Chapter 23; Various chapters)
2. The “miracle babies” are conjoined twins that Bragg writes about for the paper. Their story and subsequent death affect him deeply and teach him that it is “impossible” for a writer to leave their emotions out of their work. (Chapter 23)
CHAPTERS 26-29
Reading Check
1. Haiti (Chapter 26)
2. Harvard (Chapter 28)
Short Answer
1. The interview board is made up of Ivy League professors and distinguished journalists who ask him questions about his life as a Southerner and make him feel self-conscious. (Chapter 28)
2. The man insulted Bragg by saying, “You embarrass yourself,” and Bragg responded by threatening to “whip his ass.” (Chapter 29)
CHAPTERS 30-33
Reading Check
1. The New York Times (Chapter 30)
2. A tornado (Chapter 31)
Short Answer
1. Gangaram Mahes eats in restaurants where he knows he cannot afford to pay the bill, and then he gets arrested and goes to jail when the bill comes. (Chapter 32)
2. Bragg returns to Haiti to report for The New York Times; he finds the same shocking and demoralizing violence there. (Chapter 33)
CHAPTERS 34-38
Reading Check
1. The Oklahoma City Bombing (Chapter 37)
2. He wins the Pulitzer Prize. (Chapter 38)
Short Answer
1. He leaves to visit his mother, who could not bring herself to make it to the funeral. (Chapter 35)
2. Bragg regrets that he believed the story of the mother—who had murdered her children—that an African American man abducted the two children and drove away in her car. Bragg wrote an article about the supposed abduction and the mother’s supposed grief. (Chapter 35)
CHAPTERS 39-42
Reading Check
1. His father (Chapter 40)
2. Fight (Chapter 41)
Short Answer
1. Bragg pays for the house in cash, which takes him a longer time to save up for, but he finds it important so that no one can ever take the house from his mother. (Chapter 39)
2. Bragg concludes his book with a memory of sleepwalking as a child and his grandmother taking care of him. (Chapter 42)
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