Growing up, Richard was always a very misunderstood boy. For some reason he always got caught up in very “unique” situations, most of which ended up in him getting into some kind of trouble. He was never really conscious of what harm he had caused, but he still would receive his punishment. Now hang on as I take you through the wild and “unique” situations of Richard’s tough and challenging life. At the beginning of the book, as Richard is being introduced to the story, he is described as a very bored, very curious little 4 year old boy. Considering he was not allowed to make any noise around the house, because of his ill grandmother in the other bedroom, he started to wonder how would broom bristles look if they were burned by the fire in the fireplace. He was intrigued and then started wondering what would happen to the curtains if they burned. He then lights the curtains on fire and soon sets the whole house on fire and even though inside Richard feels innocent because he did not know that the whole house would catch on fire, his father still beat him and almost beat him to death. Richard and his family move to Memphis after the fire incident. Richard’s father gets a night shift so he typically spends most of the day sleeping. While Richard’s father is sleeping, he and his little brother are not allowed to make any kind of noise. Time passes by and Richard begins to build up anger towards his father and their relationship gets very distant. One day a noisy kitten wondered by the house. Richard’s father commanded him to “kill” the kitten, when he actually meant just to get rid of it, but Richard came up with this plan to get back at his father and takes him literally, so he kills the kitten. Richard took his father literally because he was thinking that he would win this battle over his father, in which he could not get beat for something he was told to do, and if he was beat then he would no longer have to listen to his father because what was the point if he is going to get beat either way, and his father’s authority would be questioned. His father was thinking that he was stupid for killing the animal and knew he could not beat him. Richard’s mother knew his scheme all along, and so she did punish Richard by making him bury the kitten, and making him say a prayer for it. Later on, Richard begins school at Howard Institute and on his first day he was very reluctant to go. When he gets there he is timid and unable to speak. At recess, while hanging around a group of boys he learned new profanity words. He gets home and shows off his newfound vocabulary by writing the expletives on his neighbors’ windows with soap. Richard did not know they were bad words he was just eager to learn, and unfortunately that is what his brain absorbed at the moment. His mother finds out and immediately sent him outside to wash every window with water. After a series of undesirable events in Richard’s life, he and his family were forced to move back in with Granny. Richard’s mother suffered from a stroke and the whole left side of her body was paralyzed, so she was no longer able to take care of them. All of his mother’s siblings flew in to discuss who will be taking care of Richard and his brother. It was decided that Aunt Maggie would take Richard’s brother back with her to Detroit, and Richard would be left to choose someone else to go with. He chose Uncle Clark because he lives closer to his mother. When he arrived at Uncle Clark and Aunt Jody’s home everything