Black Boy Chapter Summary & Analysis - Chapter 2 Summary

Chapter 2 Summary

Richard's mother makes the decision to move to Arkansas where her sister lives and removes him and his brother from the orphanage. As he prepares to leave the orphanage Richard recognizes that he has developed the habit of thinking about what is happening to him in life and the role that the people around him, both family and others, play in it.

En route, they stop in Jackson, Mississippi to visit his grandmother who has relocated there from Natchez. Although still filled with feelings of deprivation, hunger and fear, Richard's stay in his grandmother's house returned him to the sights and sounds of a rural environment. It soon becomes clear that his sense of freedom in exploring the natural world that lay in the fields, and ponds outside his grandmother's house, would do little to compensate for the restrictions placed upon him inside of it.

Richard discovers the power of...
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