Shame Salvation

Yonathan Woldu
Professor Rodriguez
English 1301 - S80
26 September 2014
Shame and Salvation In Dick Gregory's essay titled "Shame", he goes on to explain how he learned the feeling of shame and embarrassment at school. Gregory develops feelings for a girl in his class named Helene Tucker, who had nice manners, was very clean, was smart, and most importantly was very beautiful. He even goes on to say that he mostly went to school just to see Helene. Gregory mentioned many things he would do for her like shovel snow out of her pathway, make friends with her family, and even leaving money on her stoop after work despite his problems with making money, just to impress her. He also said that he would wash his clothes using melted ice from the grocery store because he had no running water at his house due to the pipes being frozen, all this so he can look good for Helene. Helene motivated Gregory like a father would do to his son. She motivated him to improve his apparel, be involved in extracurricular activities like joining the band and track team, and being chivalrous to women. Gregory couldn't perform well in school because he was famished. He would often find himself going through peoples coat pockets to steal food and he acquired a taste for paste. He says paste doesn't taste too bad when you're hungry. His teachers thought that he was a troublemaker and was stupid. They thought he can't read, spell, or do arithmetic. He was placed in a special seat in the back of the classroom called the "idiot seat". He would often squirm and distract other students from learning just so he could get some attention. The climax in this story happened when one of Gregory's teachers calls him out for being fatherless in front of his classmates. The teacher went around asking people how much money did their fathers give to donate to the community chest and of course, she called everyone’s name except Gregory's. Gregory stands up and asks why she didn't call his name saying he has fifteen dollars to donate. He said this to impress Helene, thinking she would like him for having money. She responds by telling him that he doesn’t even have a father in front of the whole class causing Gregory to be scarred with shame for the rest of his life. He also felt shame by going to the Worthy Boys Annual Christmas Dinner. It was for an event for poor children that needed a hot meal and some clothes on their backs. The thing that made him shameful about it was the identical clothes they handed out that was easy to spot who was in the program and who wasn't.

In Langston Hughes story "Salvation", it deals with him not conforming to what others around him are believing. This story has less to do with faith but more to do with the loss of belief and the problem with peer pressure. He was told by his aunt that when you were saved by Jesus, you saw a light and something happened to you inside. He calmly waited in the church for this experience to happen but didn't really see any change. As all the other kids in the church walk up to the altar claiming to be saved, Hughes and another boy named Westley are the only two left. Westley shortly left and walked up to the altar with the other kids because he was tired of sitting down and wanted to move on. After hours of waiting, Hughes decided to get up and walk to the altar claiming to be saved. He didn't truly get saved but he felt bad for keeping everyone late. Hughes starts off the story by saying, "I was saved from sin when i was going on thirteen. But not really saved." As far as his church and aunt go, they thought he was saved. He didn't see the light that his aunt described to him when people got saved. He could've combined these two sentences but instead decided to separate them to add more depth to his situation. It leaves a question in the readers mind and for me it was, what caused him to not be saved? That question made me read on and finally discover why Hughes said that quote.