One day, Uncle Tom asks Richard for the time. Needing money, Granny and Aunt Addie decide to rent the upstairs to Uncle Tom's family. When summer comes near, Ella suffers another stroke of paralysis. Finding religion became a matter of public pride for Richard and his mother, and he consents to baptism. When the church holds a revival, Richard feels pressure to be accepted by the community by "finding God." On the last day of the revival, the congregation sings hymn and the deacon begs mothers to go to their sons and beg for their conversion. Richard accompanies his mother to church not to gain religion, but to socialize with his classmates. His mother begins to recover and is well enough to attend a Methodist Church, tot he disapproval of Granny. But at midday recess, he is able to buy his own lunch and show off his new clothes. Tired after work, Richard is unable to keep up his studies. When he tells the woman he wants to be a writer, she asks: "Who on earth put such ideas into your nigger head?" Richard does not return to the job but instead takes a job with another white family, running errands and serving food. The next morning after his work, the woman leaves Richard breakfast on the table: stale bread and moldy molasses. When she interview him for the job, the woman asks Richard if he steals, which he replies unwittingly with what the woman considers a "sassy" answer. At school, Richard hears of an available job as a chore boy for a white woman.
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