to give it to me, I said.(159). Even though Uncle Tom is his elder, Richard refuses to put up with him. Another example of this independence from authority was with his Aunt Addie. Like with his uncle, he refuses to be beaten, or disciplined in any way. The moment Aunt Addie came into the houseI reached home before she didshe called me into the kitchen. When I entered, I saw she was holding another switch. My muscles tightened. Youre not going to beat me again! I told her.(107). Again he stands by his beliefs and refuses authority for the sake of being independent.Understanding was another thing that Richard hungered for. The first time he hungered for understanding was in the very early stages of his life. a black boy had been severely beaten by a white man, I felt that the white man had had a right to beat the black boy, for I naively assumed that the white man must have been the black boys father.(23). Richard didnt fully understand all the racial issues in the south when he was a boy, and didnt start to comprehend them until later in life.Many things in Richard Wrights Black Boy, such as knowledge, independence and understanding, represented hunger. A great amount of people hunger for different and new things, and much like Richard their hunger was always changing. But to feel that there were feelings that denied me, that the very breath of life itself was beyond my reach, that more than anything else was hurt, wounded me. I had a new hunger.(250)...
