Writing

Wright feels gratified after sharing his writing because he finally feels as if he's done something that's uniquely his and his alone. It gives him a sense of self-accomplishment. When the girl doesn't understand why he would write something or what it means, it makes Wright feel as if he's accomplished something profound- as if he's finally beginning to understand part of what part of his life means. So Wright feels smart enough to have surpassed someone's understanding like he's getting close to understanding something greater

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.

"Cultural Heritage"

Wright says it was his ‘cultural heritage’ to dislike Jews. Relate that to his own experiences.

In his life, Wright has been part of the oppressed population so far. People look down on him and treat him like he treats the Jews. So he knows what it feels like to be made fun of and disliked for being a minority, though he hasn't experienced it as much yet in the book as he will. So I find it strange that he can't empathize with them and realize what he's doing. So even though he hates whites for what they do to blacks, he treats Jews the same way.

Hunger

Original answer: Wright is really hungry because his father left his family because of some woman. They (his father and the woman) live away from Wright, his brother and his mother and don't help them, even with child support. At first, there's no food because there's no one working for money. Later on, his mother works and there's some food, but not much. So he doesn't have any food to eat and so is hungry.

Then we talked in class and found out there was a deeper meaning besides the fact that he was just plain hungry.We talked about how he was hungry for attention and knowledge and something he didn't know yet. I totally did not get that from the book, but I understand it now.