"Shame" Rhetorical Analysis
"Shame" by Dick Gregory Rhetorical Analysis Essay Famous comedian and activist, Dick Gregory, in his narrative essay, “Shame” recounts his experiences of facing shame and poverty as a young child. Gregory’s purpose is to emphasize the hardships and struggles of poverty. Gregory achieves his purpose by employing the rhetorical devices of imagery, details, and repetition. Gregory directs the use of imagery to describe Helene Tucker, a girl Gregory was in love with. In paragraph 1, Gregory describes Helene as “a light-complexioned little girl… She was always clean and she was smart in school…I loved her for her goodness, her cleanness, her popularity”. Gregory uses imagery to highlight Helene’s admirable attributes, but Gregory, himself, contradicts Helene’s qualities. Gregory uses imagery to compare himself with Helene, Gregory was not smart, clean, or popular like Helene. The difference in their characters symboli...