Shame Response Answers

1.       What’s unexpected or surprising about where Richard Gregory first experienced shame?

Richard Gregory first experienced shame in the classroom after “Negro Payday”.  This is surprising because he was in a classroom when he experienced shame which overtook his life for quite some time after the event. 

2.      How long did Gregory’s shame last? What (or who) finally allowed him to overcome his shame?

Richard Gregory’s shame lasted up until he was 29 years old.  He first experienced shame at the age of seven which stayed with him until he was 29 years old and married.  Helene was a little girl present in Richard’s class when he first experienced shame.  Her face stayed with him until he overcame his shame when he was married and making a living for his family.  The act of becoming his own person and providing for his family enabled him to overcome his shame.

3.       What all does Gregory do in order to impress Helene Tucker?

Richard tries to impress Helene Tucker in various ways throughout the story.  He brushed his hair and kept himself presentable when he knew he would see her.  He purchased a handkerchief so she wouldn’t see him wipe his nose on his hand.  He also suffered being ill in order to wash his clothes during the winter to keep them clean for her.  He followed her home, shoveled off her walkway when it snowed, and tried to become friends with her mother and other relatives.  He also would drop off money on her porch late at night when he was on his way home from his shoe shining job.  The last event in which he tried to impress Helene was pledging more money from his “daddy” than Helene’s dad had pledged.  This caused the shame he endured for the next 22 years of his life.

4.      There are three main characters in the story, don’t you agree? The protagonist and antagonist in this narrative are pretty clear, but what’s interesting is that one of these main characters isn’t actually given a proper name…why do you think Gregory made this choice?

The protagonist is Richard Gregory and the antagonist is his teacher.  The teacher is the character which is not given a name in the story.  I think Gregory made this choice because he didn’t want to segregate the teacher with a name.  I think he wanted to leave the name of the teacher up to the reader since we’ve all experienced bad teachers we can better relate from experience than imagining up a new character.

5.       Gregory uses a lot of dialogue to tell his story—what effect does it have on a reader?

Dialogue enables the reader to feel more engaged in the story.  When an author uses actual conversations in the story it helps the reader paint a more precise picture of how the dialogue happened the way the author intended.  I enjoyed the story and thought the dialogue helped engage me more in the actual story.

6.      In the final paragraph, Gregory states: “Now there was shame everywhere.” Why do you think he says this? What examples illustrate his point?

After the incident inside the classroom Richard was very ashamed and felt everyone felt sorry for him even outside the classroom because of his skin color.  He says this to emphasize the fact that everyone even outside the classroom would pity him.  So by the event which opened his eyes to the real world he now felt shame not only in the classroom but everywhere he went.  Some specific examples to prove his point include attending the Christmas Dinner, walking down the street wearing the mackinaw, and running around asking people to borrow different items such as food.