Black Boy

The first thing that I thought after completing the first chapter was “wow” I can’t believe what this man when through. Richard’s story in the first chapter had already grabbed me by the arm and taken me in to see what else was going to happen in his life. I think that Richard at this point in the book is a boy that only knows what he is told and is very stubborn. He is also very smart and innocent. Examples of this are when his father tells him to go hang the cat because its making too much noise, and Richard actually goes and hangs the cat knowing that his father will be mad, but smart enough to know that he can just say “father told me to hang the cat.” I also didn’t think it was right about what Richard had to go through before he was even a teen. First of all his father leaves the family for another woman and he gives Richard and his brother no food or money. And without the food and money Richard and his mother and brother are always starving and there is never enough food available. Also Richards’s mother puts him in an orphanage so that she can go earn money for the family. Since Richard’s mother is working so much she has almost no time t

Other things that Richard has to go through include his mother getting very sick, forcing him to live with his grandmother who is very strict, and doesn"tmt like him much. Another character that stood out to me in this first chapter was Richard"tms mother Ella. For example when she loses money when her husband leaves she gets a new job and works more, but also provides better for the family. Examples of this are the families not having enough food and having to send their children away so that they could eat like Richard had to do. o visit her kids, and Richard starts to think that his mother forgot about him. She tells her son to go beat kids up after they robbed him which I don"tmt think any mother would do now a day. At the same time though aside from being a bit crazy Ella is also very determined, smart and will get right back on her feet after she has fallen. Also when she loses in court to her ex-husband she doesn"tmt just break down and give up, she moves in with her mother and finds new work while Richard is in school. " This quote is said by Richard when he is starting to feel hunger and his father has just left the family, it is important because this event of his father makes the family have not enough money and forces Ella to make some major decisions such as moving the boys to an orphanage. An example of this is when she almost beats Richard to death after he burnt granny"tms house down. But I think she is hard on Richard and pressures him to join church and get involved with the community because she wants to prepare him for the real world. The first part of the answer is that I think she beats Richard because he has done something wrong and needs to be punished and that was the way she was brought up. Hunger has always been more or less at my elbow when I played, but now I began to wake up at night to find hunger standing at me bedside, staring at me gauntly. Also she puts her kids in an orphanage when they don"tmt have enough food.