The Theme Of Shame In 'The Glass Of Milk'

In The Glass of Milk, Rojas suggests that shame stops the boy from taking help until he realizes he has something to lose.

The young man’s shame keeps him from accepting help. In the beginning of the story, the boy is hungry because he has not eaten in awhile. He refuses food from a sailor who is offering food to people. The narrator says, “The youth, ashamed that his appearance should arouse feelings of charity, seemed to quicken his pace, as if he were afraid he might think better of his negative answer” (1154). The boy is embarrassed by his looks and does not want others looking at him with sympathy. He knows he can not afford something to eat but decides to move along because his shame stops him from taking help. Later in the story, the

boy works for the day and when he is done decides to ask the foreman for his pay early but the foreman tells him no. Instead, the foreman says he can lend the boy forty cents. The narrator says, “The young man thanked him for the offer with a sorrowful smile, and went away” (1156). The boy cannot take the money he is offered because he does not want to take handouts. He does not want handouts because he does not want others to think of him as charity. The boy wants the money he worked for that day.
When the boy remembers what is important to him then he realizes he must act upon his hunger. Up until this moment in the story, the boy lets his shame stop him from getting something to eat. In this moment, the boy is very close to passing out from starvation. But the boy sees something, “At that moment, as if a window had been opened before him, he saw his home and the countryside around it, his mother’s face, and the faces of his brothers and sisters: everything he loved and cherished appeared and disappeared before his eyes, shut with sheer fatigue” (1156). This vision he has been eye-opening because before he was going on without food like he had nothing to care about. When he sees his family for a quick second, it shows that he can lose what is important to him instantly if he continues to be shameful. He cares for and loves his family the most and being without them hurts him.
The young man acknowledges his shame but understands he must fulfill his needs first.

At the end of the story, the boy decides to finally eat. Though he still has no money to pay for food he decides to go to a restaurant and leave without paying. The narrator says, “He did not dare to look at her: it seemed to him that if he did so she would become aware of his frame of mind and his shameful intentions” (1158). The boy’s plan to eat the food and leave without paying starts to make him feel guilty. Even though he still feels too embarrassed to look at the waitress, he puts his need to eat before his feelings. After that moment the boy starts to cry in front of the waitress. She brings another plate of cookies to the boy and he eats them. The narrator says, “He ate slowly, without thinking about anything, as if nothing had happened, as if he were in his own house and his mother were that lady behind the counter” (1158). In this moment, the boy eats and does not think about himself crying. He eats the cookies and is comfortable because he feels like he is at home. He also feels comfort because he imagines the waitress is his mother. The boy relating the woman to his mother shows the reason why he must eat, because his mother is important to

him.