History 476
Devine
Spring 2016
Michael Patrick MacDonald, All Souls: A Family Story from Southie
Study Questions
[The quiz questions
will be drawn directly from these study questions.]
- Why were most kids in the Columbia
Point projects born at home?
- What kinds of adjectives best
describe Helen? How did she exhibit
her pride in herself, her family, and her people? What were her performing talents?
- Who always had a “shitbox” and what does the term refer to?
- What is the only thing Helen kept
from her relationship with Bob King?
- What is the problem the family
faces whenever the social worker comes around?
- What is Mass Mental? Who ended up there and why?
- In the fears of the residents of
Southie, where will bad news eventually end up?
- How were the MacDonalds
welcomed into the neighborhood of Old Colony? How do they earn everyone’s
respect?
- How did Southies distinguish
themselves physically from other people?
- What did pre-teens do for fun in
Southie?
- What was the worst thing you could
be in Southie?
- What did Michael do to get rid of
cockroaches?
- What did people boycott during
National Boycott Day?
- What was ironic about the adoption
of “Fight the Power” as the song of protest for Southie?
- How did forced busing affect many
of Southie’s white teenagers?
- How did Helen settle scores with
Coley in the hospital and Chickie on the
stoop?
- How did life change for the MacDonalds after Seamus was born?
- Who was Whitey Bulger? What did he supposedly do for
Southie?
- Why were strangers poking their
heads into Kevin’s window?
- How does Michael get involved in the drug
trade?
- How
did Helen react to being shot? How
did she deal with the shooter?
- What tragic event did Davey and Kathy
have in common?
- What happened to all of Kathy’s friends
who came to see her in the hospital?
- How did Frankie get mixed up in the armed
car robbery?
- Which son was Ma’s “favorite”? Why?
- How did Kevin end up at Bridgewater State Hospital?
- How was Whitey able to elude the
police? How did he stay on good
terms with people in Southie?
- What effect did the Community Disorders
Unit have on race relations in Southie?
Why?
- Why was Michael so angry that Whitey had
snitched? Who else was to blame for
all the problems in Southie?
- How would you describe the case
against Stevie? Why was it so hard
to get justice?
- Why was Michael so happy at
Grandpa’s funeral?
Broader
Issues
- What role does silence play in the
book? Is silence good or bad in the
context of life in Southie?
- Think about motherhood as it is
portrayed in the book. What
distinguishes “Ma” (Helen) in the story?
Is she a good mother to her children? What role does she play in
the Southie community?
- Often our society conflates the
issues of race and poverty: “Black and Latino people are poor; white
people are middle class or wealthy.” How does All Souls complicate the issue of
poverty? After reading this book, why do you think some people born into
poverty remain poor while others escape poverty?
- What were the myths the residents of Southie
told themselves about their neighborhood?
What were the myths that outsiders (white liberals, the media,
social activists) told about the neighborhood?
- How did Whitey Bulger exploit the residents of
Southie by appealing to the very values that many residents believed made
their neighborhood special?
- MacDonald remarks that if you stand your
ground, you end up going nowhere. Why is this observation especially relevant
when examining the teen culture of Southie?
- Why did the white residents of Southie hate
the white liberals? Why did the
liberals’ dismissal of Southie residents as “racists” (particularly during
the busing crisis) tell only part of the truth?
- How did the absence of fathers in Southie
shape the culture of the neighborhood?
- Why, after all of his harrowing
experiences growing up in Old Colony, does Michael still believe Southie
is “the best place in the world”?
- The ancient Greeks defined “tragedy” as a good
man brought to a bad end by the very qualities that allowed him to achieve
greatness in the first place. How
might one argue that this definition of “tragedy” fits the lives of
several of Michael MacDonald’s siblings and the story of Southie itself?