Preview

Life Changes Of Pivotal Moments In 'Shame'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
538 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Life Changes Of Pivotal Moments In 'Shame'
Sara Ross
Ms. Jarrard
Eng. 101
14 June. 2014
The Life Changes of Pivotal Moments Pivotal moments can sometimes be created to help people learn from a mistake, or to keep a great memory going. Some pivotal moments can be a great burden, if you allow it. Other pivotal moments can make a person stronger, healthier, or become a motivation to be a better person. It is those sentimental, heart wrenching, crucial, or maybe life threating moments that change a person for the good or for the worse. This essay challenges those pivotal moments of another person’s story.
In the story Shame, Gregory Dick was faced with a moment that made him into a stronger man by facing things that he felt ashamed of. Dick had a very difficult childhood. He grew up very poor. With matted hair and only one outfit that he washed daily with melted ice, he would make his way to school only because he wanted to see a little girl named Helene Tucker. Dick had a crush on little Helene, who was an upper class from dick. She always dressed nice with her pretty pig tails. Dick felt ashamed that Helene had a father, and he didn’t, and decided on Community Chest day he would pretend he had a daddy. (Dick) …show more content…
Dick and his family was on relief, so the school was taking up money to help Dick’s family. As the teacher called out every student’s name and recorded their amount, she skipped Dick. He was eager to top Helene’s $2.50. He stood up and argued with the teacher that his daddy was going to give $15.00! The teacher shamed him by saying, “We know you don’t have a daddy.” (Dick). Dick was extremely embarrassed not only because he knew he had lied about having a daddy and giving $15, but because Helene heard it all. He could tell Helene felt sorry for him when she turned around to look at him crying. He was so embarrassed he did not go back to
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Summary Of Life Is Too Short For Someone Else's Shame By Amanda Leduc
    • 245 Words
    • 1 Page

    Summary Of Life Is Too Short For Someone Else's Shame By Amanda Leduc

    In the essay “Life is Too Short for Someone Else’s Shame” by Amanda Leduc, Leduc discusses her lived experience as a disabled writer. The essay begins with a conversation she had with her manager at an organization that specialized in disability support. Leduc analyzes how her response correcting her manager from saying “disabled writer” to “writer with a disability” while ignoring the merit her manager was placing on Leduc’s potential contributions as a disabled writer, was incorrect. She notes her responsibility as a representative in arts spaces to represent disability, and the internal conflict of disclosure that many writers face. She asks the question “what kind of world makes this discomfort possible”.…

    • 245 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Tim Winton - Belonging Speech - Hsc
    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Tim Winton - Belonging Speech - Hsc

    Good morning sir and fellow students. Significant events are pivotal in enriching ones understanding of their identity, which leads to an understanding of where they belong in the world. This is shown through our prescribed text “The Simple Gift” composed by Steven Herrick; as well as Tim Winton’s “The Turning”.…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of Laurence Shames The More Factor
    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Summary Of Laurence Shames The More Factor

    The word greed, when generally used, bears negative connotations to describe something that is socially unacceptable. Individuals who are known as being greedy are often acknowledged as people who are not thankful for what they have. Greed is a voracious need for more, and to some, more is never enough. In Laurence Shames’ article, “The More factor”, the concept of growth and wanting more is dubbed as insidious because Americans are shown as being exceedingly greedy to satisfy their own ends instead of promoting widespread growth. Such satisfaction must take advantage of new ‘frontiers’ to profit from as old markets tend to decline in profits. American views of an unending frontier, opportunity, and more have always been a part of who Americans are.…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Public Shame In The Scarlet Letter By Hester Prinn
    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Public Shame In The Scarlet Letter By Hester Prinn

    Firstly, public shame impacts emotional well-being. When being publicly shamed a person is usually emotionally unstable. This means that the person(s) regrets what they have done and affects them mentally. In the Scarlet Letter Hester Prinn personally dealt with public shame, and was definitely mentally affected by public shame. She mentally is unfit because she imagines things and tries to erase the image of herself to the public.…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    An Analysis of Night by Elie Wiesel
    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages

    An Analysis of Night by Elie Wiesel

    Write a story about an experience that affected you deeply and ought to be known by others. The story can be written in prose, can be a poem, can be a short story, can be a song, or…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Book Report On Hatchet
    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Book Report On Hatchet

    Today I will be telling you about the three stories from turning points that have life-changing experiences the three stories that are called Hatchet, Dragonwings, and Eleven. Hatchet is a story about a boy named Brian he got stranded on an Island he kept on trying to stay positive but he said, “they will come, they might come today, they probably will come today” Brian started to get hungry so he dug through his pockets to find anything. All he found was a quarter, three dimes, and two pennies a fingernail clipper a billfold with a twenty dollar bill “just in case you get stranded at a the airport in a small town and have to buy food” his mother had said. he has a digital watch on his wrist but it was broken he was about to thought but…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke
    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages

    My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

    Throughout the ages, authors have been known to use many of their life experiences in their literary works. They use certain moments that have been imprinted in their heads, because in some way these specific experiences have changed their lives. For instance, Theodore Roethke wrote the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz” in which he writes about a moment from his early childhood that probably affected him so deeply that he was never able to forget about it. This shows that certain moments in our childhood are particularly crucial to the way we turn out to be as adults.…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Nussbaum Theory Of Education Essay
    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Nussbaum Theory Of Education Essay

    She then goes on to explain how shame arises early on in childhood. Infants begin in a place of omnipotence. In the comfort of the womb, the infant is part of an environment in which the world is fully arranged around the fulfillment of his needs. After birth, the infant is thrust into world of objects in which he must depend on external sources and people for survival. Though the infant is removed from the original ideal state, he is not aware of the distinctions between himself and outside…

    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    her and him
    • 964 Words
    • 3 Pages

    her and him

    Often time’s people say the transition from boyhood to manhood is a difficult task. No one understands this process more than Richard in Richard Wrights novel “Black Boy “.In chapter 6 Richard gets interviewed for multiple jobs so he can earn enough money to get food. The first job Richard has was cleaning and washing dishes but before he actually got the job he had to answer a very important question. The question was would Richard ever steal from those he worked for? Richard thought to himself thinking that if he answered truthfully then the family would think he’s lying and if he lied then he was therefore untrustworthy. He immediately said no to stealing but as soon as he started his job he knew he had to quit due to unsafe health reasons.…

    • 964 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    An Analysis of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried
    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages

    An Analysis of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried

    Shame is the reason that Tim O’Brien decided to go to Vietnam. Many of the characters feel shame as a primary motivator, too. Not only does it lead them to war, but it keeps them there. It is the one thing that keeps them from shooting themselves in the foot so that they would be discharged from the army or some similar such act. But some characters, like Curt Lemon, think that shame impels them to heroism, not stupidity.…

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    The Scarlet Ibis
    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Scarlet Ibis

    One day in English, we were asked to talk about a life changing incident in our lives. I have had this assignment before but I was to sad to talk about such a subject. We go around the circle. People talk about their golden goal in a soccer game or their first job. All they talked about were happy things. It was my turn.…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Response to Shame
    • 331 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Response to Shame

    Throughout the story, he tried to appeal to the reader that he was poor. He liked Helene so much so he thought he had to top the money to what Helene gave to community chest. He thought his teacher think he’s stupid and couldn’t do anything. He thought the shirts he was wearing was white folks’ shirt. Even though all the fact, incident and his thought was not anything ashamed of, he trapped himself in poverty and define it as shame in order to draw sympathy from the readers.…

    • 331 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Things They Carried Essay
    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Things They Carried Essay

    Shame is a reoccuring theme throughout The Things They Carried. Shame makes people do things they don’t want to do just so they can get rid of the fear of shame. It drove soldiers to do acts they would’ve never done. Many of the characters have shame as a primary motivator. It leads them to war and it keeps them there. It is the one thing that keeps them from shooting themselves in the foot so that they would be discharged from the army or some similar such act. But some characters, like Curt Lemon, think that shame impels them to heroism, not stupidity. The feelings of shame and guilt consume the soldiers, and make them do irrational and crazy things. Shame motivated men to go to Vietnam.…

    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    A Comparison Between Kiss Me and a Temporary Matter
    • 1444 Words
    • 6 Pages

    A Comparison Between Kiss Me and a Temporary Matter

    Every day we are given a fresh start; another chance to move forward in our lives and accomplish the things we thrive to achieve day to day. A new day can also liberate us from our past mistakes and provide us with a chance to change our ways. We are all faced with misery and misfortune at points in our lives, some more than others. We must recognize that it is not the burden in itself that shapes who we are, but how well or how poorly we deal with the difficulties. Sometimes misfortunes can be seen in a negative light; because it seems unjust, therefore we response in a negative matter, and become negligent to change. Overcoming tragic events is what truly counts, for we are meant to live happily and in acceptance that there are things that we cannot change. In many cases, individuals seem to feel as though they’ve lost an amount so great that they are unable to free themselves of the pain. This perspective often leads to further suffering. A Temporary Matter by Jhumpa Lahou and Kiss Me by Andrew Pyper demonstrate a loss of identity, negligence towards communication, and eventually leading to the destruction of a relationship.…

    • 1444 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    roy spivey
    • 1305 Words
    • 4 Pages

    roy spivey

    Important moments in your life can easily slip away if you don’t catch them. That is what happens to the main character in the short story, ”Roy Spivey”, by Miranda July.…

    • 1305 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics