Carleton College

Common Reading Fall 2002

On Thursday, September 12, 2002, you will participate in the fifteenth annual Common Reading Convocation and discussion at Carleton. Faculty, staff, students and alumni members of the community will come together to engage in meaningful dialogue about this book. To help you prepare for this experience, the following questions are provided for your consideration.

1. Are there any particular characters/passages in All Over But the Shoutin’ that resonate with your experiences in your family?

2. How would you describe the emotional price that Bragg pays for his success? Is it worth it?

3. Share your impression of Bragg’s experience as a Harvard Fellow. How might his experiences be similar to your expectations and/or fears about coming to Carleton?

4. *Did luck make the difference between Rick Bragg’s life and the lives of his two brothers? Or do their different choices have more to do with temperament and character than with the hazards of fortune?

5. *What, if any, are the definitive class barriers in our society? Does having been born poor mean that a person will always feel inferior to those who weren’t? Do financial or processional achievements raise a person’s ‘class’ level?

6. Bragg’s tendency toward stories of suffering is one way that he pays tribute to his past. In what other ways does he carry his past with him? What aspects of your history do you think might have a significant impact on choices you make at Carleton?

7. *Why does Bragg begin his memoir with the image or redbirds fighting? Why do you think he includes the story of a bird attacking its own image in the mirror?

* Source: Random House Reading Group Center (www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read/allover)