Shame and Wilkins

Henry Bruno
Christine Pierucci
Writing Skills III
April 7, 2011 (524)

“Shame vs. “I Became her Target” Dick Gregory in Shame talks about his life as a child. He also talks about how it was hard growing up in is neighborhood. Dick had to deal with a poor family and had two painful experiences. As for Roger Wilkins it was a little bit different. Roger was a young African American new comer to the school. He has become the focus of attention to his school. The reason for that was because he was an African American student. Roger became close with his teacher Dorothy. The experiences that made Dick Gregory and Roger Wilkins differ were attention, contribute and embarrassment. First, attention in what I was given to read Roger was given more attention than Dick. When Roger started school he wasn’t getting a hard time from his teacher. As for Dick it seemed like he teacher didn’t want anything to do with him. She would tell him to sit down, I dint want to hear anything. For the most port she was ignorant teacher to him. It seemed like she was trying to go against the positive things that Dick would do. Roger on the other would get more attention. Like he said, “A few days later, Miss Bean became the first teacher ever to require me to think.” Secondly, Wilkins made more contribute than Gregory. Meaning he took the time to always ask questions. Wilkins teacher would ask for his opinion on something and he would gladly reply. He felt comfortable with his teacher and became more confident in asking questions. Gregory was more afraid but he thought that his teacher liked him. She would make him do things and that made him feel important. Finally, Gregory would always get embarrassed from his teacher. She had felt sorry for him and would put him on the spot. He thought he was doing the right things for his teacher. As a result she was making him do a lot of work. Like washing the blackboard he thought it was a good thing even though it really wasn’t. Wilkins never felt the way Gregory did he felt more open with his teacher. His teacher would actually let him speak without interrupting him. Like Wilkins said, “she was the first teacher to give me the sense that thinking was part of education and that I could form opinions that had some value.” On the other hand if Gregory would try and make his opinion he would get embarrassed and made a full of. At the end, both of these authors’ experiences differ. They grew up as almost living the same lifestyle but they change as you read on. What made Wilkins and Gregory different were embarrassment, attention and contribute. Wilkins felt like he was smart because the way Miss Bean made him feel. As for Gregory he thought he was but at the end he wasn’t which meant he wasn’t getting any attention. One of the authors would get embarrassed then the other. And both of them made contribute but it wasn’t falling in good terms for Gregory. My opinion on this is that both differ and one was treated different then the other.