THE BOY AND THE WRITER four year old Richard Wright was playing in his Natchez Mississippi home in 1912. Logs burned in the fireplace The wind howled outside Richard and his brother were in the living room Their grandmother lay in the next room She was very ill Richard's mother had warned the boys not to make noise They knew she would punish them if they disturbed their grandmother Richard looked around the room He was bored He wanted something fun to do He was drawn to the burning logs He wondered what other objects would look like in the fire He thought about tossing his picture book into In the early 1900s many African Americans in the South lived in poverty 7
the flames But he knew that his mother would be angry if he destroyed that Money was always tight Burning his belongings would be wasteful Then Richard had another thought There was a broom in a nearby closet Surely no one would miss a few pieces of straw He tore them off so he could burn them Richard enjoyed watching the straw catch fire and disappear He decided to continue his experiment He lit a few straws like a match and held them up to the living room curtains He did not realize how dangerous his actions were He had no idea what would happen next The fire swept from the fabric to the ceiling in just seconds Soon the entire room was on fire Richard ran out of the house He feared the whipping his mother would give him when she saw what he had done He quickly searched for a place to hide But again he made a dangerous choice He crawled into the tiny space under the house His family called for him as they rushed everyone else out of the 8
The Wrights and many other poor black families lived in small wooden houses called shanties burning building He did not answer He tried to make himself invisible Richard's father finally found him He pulled his son to safety The family was able to move Richard's grandmother to a neighbor's home Everyone got out of the house alive But the events of this day stayed with Richard as he grew into a man One day he would make 9
