Shame and Black Boy
Stephanie Pajares
In the story “Shame” by Dick Gregory along with the story “Black Boy” by Richard Wright, there are many similarities and differences. One similarity that both these stories had was that they both dealt with poverty. One difference between these stories was that in “Shame”, Richard had no daddy and had no clue where to find him. In the story “Black Boy”, the narrator did have a daddy but he was never there for him in times of need. The story “Shame”, by Dick Gregory isn’t only similar to the story “Black Boy” but different too. The differences in this story are that Richard had no daddy. In the story Richard mentions … “I wasn’t going to wait until Monday to buy me a daddy”. Since he grew up with no daddy, he thought if he just brought one it would be easy. Another difference is that Richard was very needy. He would get a pot and go over to Mister Ben’s grocery store and stick the pot down into his soda machine and scoop out some chopped ice, just so the ice could melt and he could wash his clothes. In this story, Richard mentions … “I got sick a lot that winter because the fire would go out at night before the clothes were dry. In the morning I’d put them on, wet or dry, because they were the only clothes I had”. This shows that Richard was very poor and needy. Adding on to this, Richard would run over to Mister Ben’s at the end of the day and ask him for his rotten peaches and ask Mrs. Simmons for a spoonful of sugar. In this story, Richard keeps repeating the word “pregnant”. When Richard says , “I was pregnant with poverty” , it means that all the things he went through like hunger, poverty, dirt and smelling bad that nobody wanted to get near him as well as having to sleep with five people in the same bed were as strange as pregnant people’s cravings. The similarities in the story “Shame” as well as “Black Boy” was that both Richard and the narrator of “Black Boy” were both hungry. Richard would be so hungry, he would even eat paste.
In the story “Shame” by Dick Gregory along with the story “Black Boy” by Richard Wright, there are many similarities and differences. One similarity that both these stories had was that they both dealt with poverty. One difference between these stories was that in “Shame”, Richard had no daddy and had no clue where to find him. In the story “Black Boy”, the narrator did have a daddy but he was never there for him in times of need. The story “Shame”, by Dick Gregory isn’t only similar to the story “Black Boy” but different too. The differences in this story are that Richard had no daddy. In the story Richard mentions … “I wasn’t going to wait until Monday to buy me a daddy”. Since he grew up with no daddy, he thought if he just brought one it would be easy. Another difference is that Richard was very needy. He would get a pot and go over to Mister Ben’s grocery store and stick the pot down into his soda machine and scoop out some chopped ice, just so the ice could melt and he could wash his clothes. In this story, Richard mentions … “I got sick a lot that winter because the fire would go out at night before the clothes were dry. In the morning I’d put them on, wet or dry, because they were the only clothes I had”. This shows that Richard was very poor and needy. Adding on to this, Richard would run over to Mister Ben’s at the end of the day and ask him for his rotten peaches and ask Mrs. Simmons for a spoonful of sugar. In this story, Richard keeps repeating the word “pregnant”. When Richard says , “I was pregnant with poverty” , it means that all the things he went through like hunger, poverty, dirt and smelling bad that nobody wanted to get near him as well as having to sleep with five people in the same bed were as strange as pregnant people’s cravings. The similarities in the story “Shame” as well as “Black Boy” was that both Richard and the narrator of “Black Boy” were both hungry. Richard would be so hungry, he would even eat paste.