March 3

When Wright says he had “begun coping with the white world too late,” he meant that he was at a disadvantage because he had not been taught what the other kids had been taught about “white” people. Griggs had warned him earlier in the book that the “white” people didn’t like him because of the way that he treated them. This shows up in these two chapters because Wright goes through many jobs and they are all ones where he has to be very careful with what he says or does. At one point, he works at the hotel where Griggs’ brother worked and was killed; this was one job where he had to be especially careful because he had to act differently than he ever had before. He learns a lot of lessons and he has to work harder than the other kids to keep jobs especially since he was saving money.