A Sense of Shame by Jan Needle
BEFORE YOU READ:
1) Title: What does the title suggest?
What does “shame” mean? What can someone feel shame for?
Does the word “sense” strengthen or weaken the meaning of “shame”?
Have you ever felt shame for something that happened to you or to somebody else?
Look up the word “taboo”. How do you think it links to the title of the story?
2) These quotations are taken from the beginning of the story (pages 40-41). Write a paragraph between each one of them.
• "Although all the lads in the printing works reckoned she was one of the fittest bits they’d ever seen, the strange fact about Lorraine was she’d never been in love."
• "She was sixteen, he was nineteen. She was white Oldham and a Catholic too (although the days when the Catholics in Oldham got the nasty end of the prejudice stick are long gone) and he was a Pakistani."
• "Lorraine sat down with a bump. She’d often fancied boys before, or so she thought, but she’d never felt this, ever."
WHILE YOU READ:
1) Read the first two pages (40-41), and go back to the paragraphs you wrote for activity 3 above. Compare your expectations with the writer’s ideas.
2) After reading the paragraph on pages 43-44, imagine a possible second encounter between Lorraine and the Pakistani boy.
3) Read pages 44-45. Underline an expression that shows somebody is...
page 44:
a) nervous in expectance
b) clumsy
c) embarrassed
d) nervous as an outcome
e) relieved
page 45:
f) overwhelmed
g) astonished
h) thrilled
i) briefly anxious
4) Choose either a) or b)
a) After reading pages 46-47, write the dialogue that would have taken place (paragraph: “when they got round to talking, they talked about nothing at all.”)
b) After reading page 49 (paragraph: “She had imaginary conversations, when she told her friend the truth, and they always ended up the same.”) write the actual conversation that she could have had with her friend.
5) Write an informal letter from one character to another (pages 59-61).
Lorraine – Mohammed – mother – father – Jackie
6) After reading page 61-62 (paragraph: “Two nights later...”) discuss different options: Why wasn’t he at the spot they’d agreed to meet?
7) How is Lorraine feeling at the end of page 62? How is this feeling similar to, or different form what she has felt so far?
8) Read the two paragraphs on page 63, and try to imagine whose ideas are expressed at different points in the report of the dialogue they had: Lorraine’s or Anne’s?
9) How does Lorraine begin to feel about the baby? Trace this feeling to the 4end of the story. Does it remain the same? Does it change? How? (Explain briefly).
10) “She had six months.” What for? What IS she going to do? Try to reconstruct her thoughts to come up with a possible resolution of the conflict from her standpoint.
AFTER YOU READ:
1) When does the bitterest sense of shame begin in the story?
2) Choose 3 quotations that show prejudice or discrimination as regards the sense of shame in the story.
3) Discuss: Is “to have a feeling of shame” the same as understanding what “shame” is?
4) What other meanings for “sense” can you find in the story?
5) Imagine Lorraine has already had her baby. Write down a possible interview she may have with a psychologist before making a final decision.
