Shame
Instructions
We are ruminating over two topics here, both you must address:
1) How much does our personal developmental history effect our moral behavior?;
2) How much should we do for our fellow man?
ASSIGNMENT:
1st – read attached “Shame”, by Dick Gregory
2nd – DO NOT answer the questions for “Shame” – they precede your essay to help with your focus
3rd – Write a researched (two sources), MLA-styled, 500 – 1000 word essay, using at least two quotes from “Shame” and two quotes from other sources for support on the two inquiries:1) How much does our personal developmental history effect our moral behavior?;
4) Argue: How much should we do for our fellow man?
This is important: think – and feel – hard.
ANSWER
Shame
Shame by Dick Gregory is a short story that presents a satirical commentary on the role shame plays in shaping people’s lives. The persona’s source of shame was poverty and the social indifferences by the people around him. Sadly, while already facing enormous odds, the boy has to encounter shame and not in the streets as would have been expected but in school and class, the place tasked with the mandate to instil knowledge and confidence in children. He asserts, “I never learned hate at home or shame. I had to go to school for that” (Gregory). Through various personal experiences, we watch the narrator begin to become aware of his inadequacies and how he responds to them and how it all contributes to his shame. This essay examines the concept of personal development history and how it affects our moral behaviour and also speculates on how much we should be prepared to do for our fellow man.
One important observation from the narrator is that until that fateful Thursday seated in the back of the room, the troublemaker’s seat when he decided to contribute to the Community Chest did he finally become aware of his shame. Before that, he seems very confident in the things he does. He even contests favourable for Hellen’s affections. He has some problems like how he is always hungry, but he seems to have found a way around it and consider it a way of life (IvyPanda 2020). However on that day when he offers a contribution to the chest and the teacher declines and points out that “we are collecting this money for you and your kind, Richard Gregory. If your daddy can give fifteen dollars you have no business being on relief” (Gregory), does he become aware of the crippling effect of poverty. From then on, he describes shame as a shadow, always present wherever he went. He believes that “…everyone had heard what the teacher had said, everyone had turned around and felt sorry…” for him (Gregory). He would hide from the streets, stick to the back alleys so that people would not identify him as the boy on relief. He felt ashamed to go for relief food which from his description was sometimes the only food he could access. This experience shapes his behaviour in every possible way, and it is like his eyes had suddenly got open, and his shame revealed, and he admits he spent a lot of time wallowing in self-pity.
However, even though a life of poverty and seriously limited resources, the persona is often engaging in philanthropic attempts (AWIT.org). He gives Hellen some coins from his wages from shining shoes. On that day in class, he was ready to contribute to the community chest even when the teacher would not let him. Much later we see him offer to pay twenty-six cents to cover an old wino’s meal and although he is too late to make the offer, he is willing to do it. It goes in contrast to what we would expect a boy brought up in poverty would behave. He is generous even when he does not have to be. However, his generosity springs from insecurity in his life that he is always the one receiving relief, and he would like to prove that he is not incapacitated. The story does not answer the question of how much we should give a fellow human, but it answers an even deeper question which is the reason behind the giving. Is it to help out, or is it to help ourselves? For the narrator, he confesses, “I was pretty sick about that. I waited too long to help another man” (Gregory)
Works Cited
IvyPanda. (2020, March 22). “Shame” By Dick Gregory. Retrieved 7th November 2020 from https://ivypanda.com/essays/shame-by-dick-gregory/
AWIT.org. Dick Gregory on Shame. Retrieved 7th November 2020 from https://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/resources/dick-gregory-on-shame
Gregory Dick. Shame. Retrieved 7th November 2020 from https://www.sccollege.edu/Faculty/JIsbell/English101/Documents/Shame.doc
