Shame, Sparrow

Although there were a lot of similarities seen between central Asian people and American people, in the Song of the Sparrow, there was one thing that I noticed as odd or just different from an American stand point.  That one thing is shame. 

As an American when I think of shame, I think of someone embarrassing themselves like missing a final shot in basketball, or not knowing an obvious answer on the test.  Shame to me isn't letting a son make some money.  We see this in the movie, a father whipping his son because of the shame it brought him because that meant he couldn’t care for the family.  He was shamed because he thought he was supposed to be the sole provider of the family.  I feel like this mentality is completely different than an American one.  A father, in America, would look to his son in pride as he would work for himself and help earn money. I feel like there would not be as much shame for the American.

Another place in the movie where the main character felt shamed was when his friend told him he could help get him an x-ray of his leg, and get a doctor to look at it.  What he said in response was something along the lines of, why do you shame me so!  In a central Asian man, there is this idea of independence and self- sufficiency and that you should always be able to supply for yourself and your family. 

I feel like countries always have their own variants of what shame actually is.  In Korea, shame would be not getting into the most pristine of schools, or not being perfect in a musical performance.  In Russia, shame would be trying to run away from being drafted into the Russian army, or having a defect.   I feel like Song of the Sparrows gives us some of the reasons why men are shamed when their kids help them work or when someone tries to help them out.