BLACK BOY : CHAPTER 8

The summer of the 1925 year, Richard is looking for a job in the local sawmill. He’s determinate to get this job but he finally leaves after one of the workers shows him his right hand, which has three fingers missing. Understanding that this job is too dangerous for him, he prefers to stay at home. That shows us that Richard knows what’s good and what’s not. When Richard learns that Ned’s brother was killed by whites because they thought he was “fooling with a white prostitute” (p.172), he feels terrible as he says “Inside of me my world crashed and my body felt heavy” (p.172). This makes him more aware of white people even If he has never seen white brutality. This chokes him as he says that it altered his look of the world. That shows us that even if Richard doesn’t express his feelings, he still has some. Richard knows that he has never been like his classmates but he now feels very isolated (“my sense of isolation became doubly acute.” P.173) but when Richard learns that his uncle has forbidden his children to stay with Richard because he was dangerous, Richard feels lonelier and he realizes that he is not understood by his whole family. After that Richard wants to quit his family and be independent, although he knows he can’t. Alan, Richard’s brother visits the family. Glad to see him at first, Richard finally realizes that his brother adopts the same attitude as his family toward him (“Slowly my brother grew openly critical of me” p. 175). That hurts Richard. He now feels lonely everyday (“My loneliness became organic”p.175).At school, Richard is named valedictorian of his class, but he discovers that the principal will not let him say his own speech at the ceremony, because white people will be present at the ceremony. The principal has written a speech, which Richard has to read .But Richard disagrees and is determinate to read his speech, as he is ready to not get graduated if he can’t read his own speech. Richard's family,