The Absolutely True Diary Of Shame

Shame provides the opportunity for animals and humans to reconnect with others. Humans sometimes say something they didn’t mean, and this can cause them to regret and feel shame in themselves for the way they treated someone else. Reasoning for a choice, that a human or animal makes is also a similarity because they can make decisions based on their benefit, compared to others. Finally, cruelty is not limited to only humans. People and animals show concern for something, or someone, and they will take any action to protect

| The word “shame” is not used in the soft sense that we interpret today. It is meant as a dishonour, a disgrace, an insult, which in those days was justifiable cause for a challenge - a fair trial in the eyes of God – a duel.

Profoundly interpersonal, the experience of shame is also therefore social and cultural. Shame is the result of feeling deficient, whether in relation to a parent, an admired friend, or a more powerful social group (39).

Unacknowledged Shame Theory is seen in a perspective that shame can cause a destructive emotion and can promote crime instead of preventing it if it is not managed positively. By using apology in return for forgiveness symbolises that reparation can commence (Braithwaite, 2004).

Esperanza’s situation is a reminder that shame can have a positive effect on people’s lives by being a source of motivation and inspiration.

Other issues of shame are those constructed by the Jim Crow system. For example, African Americans being a “shamed race” by being forced into

Dr. Sandra D. Wilson (2001) asks, “Have you ever felt as if you were the only caterpillar in a butterfly world? Do you often feel as if you have to do twice as much to be half as good as other” (p. 16)? If you answered, yes, then that is what Wilson (2001) calls binding shame. “Shame is the soul-deep belief that something is horribly wrong with me that is not wrong with anyone else in the entire world. If I am bound by shame, I feel hopelessly, distinguishingly different and worthless (p. 16).

Ever since the beginning, in the regards to the biblical belief system, sin has plagued the world. Ever since the woman named Eve took the apple, sin has said existed. Sin has become a ruling factor in certain communities, at the time of the Romans, some sin was considered punishable by death. In the years of the 1500s, a group emerged calling themselves the Puritans. They based their everyday lives around the avoidance of sin. So when one committed a sin he/she was punished. Death, torture, beatings, and public shaming. Shame, it's to have painful feelings of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior. The e of shame is seen many times throughout the texts The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both tell stories of men plagued by their sin of adultery and what they do to deal with the guilt they have brought upon themselves. The two go through trials and tribulations, but in the end seem to come to terms with their sin and consequences. But also realize how they've grown from the experience.

1. Shame is the soul-deep belief that something is horribly wrong with me that is not wrong with anyone else in the entire world.

“Shame” penned by entrepreneur “Dick” Gregory tells of a story that scarred him. A event that scarred him bad enough to haunt him until he was “twenty-one years old and married and making money.” He depicts the story of “Shame” using feelings such as love, isolation, and anger.

The short story “Shame” by Dick Gregory, describes that poverty can bring a lot of hardships as well as a great deal of shame. However, there are still so many ways to gain pride and rejoicing. This story shows that by emulating somebody even a poor person can take pride from small actions. In this story, Richard was a poor boy without a father who living in the Ghetto.

Stories sometimes start with the main character making a change to their lives because they have a feeling of shame towards either themselves or their surroundings. A certain story may also changed completely or reach their climax because of someone’s shame. A story is at times driven by shame from the start, like in The Great Gatsby, where Jay Gatsby changed his life completely because of the shame he had for his original life. Having shame be a main motivation for a character is also common, Doodle in The Scarlet Ibis is strained constantly by his brother’s shame of his brothers’, (Doodle), deformity, or in The Scarlet Letter as well, where Hester Prynne lives her life surrounded by shame and must grow accustomed to it and live on with it.

Kaufman mentioned shame profile, shame spiral, and shame experience. Although, shame is excruciating, it may cause societal enabling emotions to arise as a result of related and non-related imagery of a person’s standards and actions. Since shame stimulates from a psychosomatic, an individual may decide to commit or connect to a certain course of action. Generally, it outlines reason for the inner functions that causes a paralyzing state. Typically emotions from depression and unhappiness causes shame to affect a person’s need, drive, and interpersonal shame. Distress and fears often affects how an individual’s level of self-esteem, capability, and interactions develop or begin to diminish when these scenes emerge through having a sense of

“Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change”(Brené Brown). In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a woman is publicly shamed for having a child with a man who is not her husband. Another example of public shame can be seen in modern day articles “Florida ‘Scarlet Letter’ Law is Repealed by Gov. Bush,” by Dana Canedy, and “Houston Couple Gets ‘The Scarlet Letter’ Treatment.” Both talk of public shame that people have had to endure in the present day. Public shaming is not an effective punishment because it is a cruel and unusual punishment, it does not deter crime, and it can emotionally traumatize the one being shamed.

In every country in the world there are certain levels of shaming that every society has, where some countries have extreme shame than others. Shaming is form of criticism and judgement when an individual violates social or moral norms. Shaming fundamentally reacts our psychological need for acceptance and approval from either someone or the public. It is true that for centuries, shame has been given a negative name, but there is reason why shame has existed for a long time and why it will continue to exist in the future. Shaming should be part of society since it brings order and control, it causes people to reflect their wrong doing, and it creates a positive change that affects everyone. Shaming should be part of the society since shaming, most of the time, brings positive results.