Here are a few potential topics for your Carter Essay:

–What does this book tell us about rural race relations in the first half of the twentienth century? What do you find unique (or not) about Carter’s perspective?

–What’s the role of nostalgia in this book? Does it color Carter’s memory of his childhood?

–Considering what we’ve discussed in class about the first half of Georgia’s twentieth century, in what ways are Carter’s memories different or similar?

–What is the role of the land in this book? Why does Carter make it so central to his story?

–Carter has a strong “sense of place” in this memoir. What role does that sense of place play in his construction of the past?

–Carter addresses a number of other themes that you might write about, including poverty, oppression, racism, kindness, nostalgia, permanence, the role of the federal government, the importance of land and environment, among others. Choose one or more of these themes and explain what they tell us about rural Georgia during the Depression era.