"I Became Her Target" and "Shame"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the novels, "I Became Her Target" by Roger Wilkens and "Shame" by Dick Gregory, which both graphically illustrate the lives of young black men in a prejudicial and racist white society. In "I Became Her Target," the young boy is the only black child in an all-white, upper-class school, and he suffers because of it. In "Shame," Dick Gregory is also a young boy whose peers continually ostracize him, but it is not only because of his color; it is because of his poverty. It analyzes how both boys suffer needless shame and humiliation because of circumstances far beyond their control and how both boys suffer because of ignorance and hatred.

From the Paper:

"Both men went on to write about their experiences, perhaps so others would understand what they went through, and to help other youngsters who were going through the same things. Both men obviously rose above their disappointments and early lives, and both men both carried their experiences with them into adulthood, because they were vivid, life-changing experiences. Gregory's were tinged with regret, because he could not recognize when to jump in and help another human, and because his school life was tinged with the small-mindedness of a less than acceptable teacher. Wilkens' was tinged with memories of hatred, but also with memories of a remarkable woman who knew how to make a lonely child feel welcome and accepted."

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