Paralysis

When his mother gets paralyzed, Wright starts to lose interest in things that interested him before- like hanging out with his 'gang'. He feels like he has suddenly grown up. He's worried for his future. And later, in the end of the chapter, he explains that his mother's paralysis made his suspect that life wasn't intrinsically good; that there was suffering and it was meaningless. It made him want to try and understand what can't be understood.

I think that he feels like this because so far, his mother has been the one consistent adult in his life. He getts angry at her and confused with her, but she's still his mother and the only adult who hasn't left. His father ran off with another woman. He doesn't like Granny. His Aunt Maggie went off with a Professor to Detroit after his Uncle Hoskins got killed. He can depend upon his mother. Then when she becomes unable to help him, he has to be independent for himself. Because he's only twelve, it shakes his mind up more than it would if he were older and makes him wonder and suspect everything.