Good Time/ Bad Time

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Good Time/ Bad Time Dick Gregory the author of” Shame”, tells a story about an African American boy growing up poor and on welfare facing the intolerance of his teacher and the daily humiliation he had to deal with. The story “I Became Her Target” by Roger Wilkins is about a middle class African American and his struggle of being the only African American student in his class, and how he tells about his teacher helped him overcome the prejudice of his classmates. Gregory and Wilkin s display major difference in their lives. Each has written about his experiences growing up black in the 1940s in the American school system. By reading about their life experience, we can see how different their lives were in Family structure, the kind of teachers they had and the families they grew up in, and how all these factors affected their lives in different ways. One-way that family structure was different for Gregory and Wilkin’s was father figures. Gregory did not have a father in his life; therefore, this meant he had to get a job at an early age to help his family. Gregory also had a working mother that was never home, had five other siblings living with him in the house so this meant he had to share everything from clothes to the bed he sleep in. In addition, he lived in an old house where the heat never works this meant that Gregory was always getting sick. However, compering Roger Wilkin’s Family, was very different Wilkins had a father figure in his life. Therefore, this meant that he did not have to work, Wilkin’s stepfather worked as a doctor so he had a stay at home mother, who took care of household duties and was able to give him the proper care he needed .Wilkins also lived in a new house with no horrible heat and water problem. That means that Wilkins was not getting sick as a great deal. Another difference between Gregory and Wilkins was their teachers.

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