Is Richard a "bad boy"?

As we begin to read about Richard's childhood, we see that he does have rebel-like qualities. Even on the first few pages he burns down his house, starting with the curtains, because he wants to see what they would look like on fire. Although he is young, you would think that he would know not to light very flammable curtains on fire. Secondly, one day when Richard's father is attempting to sleep, a meowing kitten keeps him awake. He runs outside and tells Richard and his younger brother (who noticed the kitten also) to get rid of, even kill it if he had to. Richard takes this literally even though he knows better, and kills the helpless kitten. Thirdly, when Richard's mother makes dinner for a preacher and a few neighbors, he is irritated that the preacher is eating all of the chicken while he is stuck with soup. After a while of chicken disappearing before his eyes, he stands up at the table and exclaims that the preacher is going to eat all of the chicken. He just couldn't contain himself! All of these examples later lead to Richard getting beaten by his parents for bad decision making. Later on when he and his family move to the city, his mother gives him a stick to defend himself with on the way to get groceries. He ends up beating an entire gang of boys up, and scares them off. When the boys' parents come out, he yells back at them! In this example however, his mother told him to do it so he did not get punished. As one can conclude from these examples, you would think that Richard is a bad boy. He does many things from his emotions and doesn't think them through. Often times he doesn't even realize that his actions have an effect on others too.
Although one can assume that Richard is a bad boy, much of this is based purely on his environment. The only reason he killed the little kitten was because he wanted to follow through fully with what his father had asked him, just to show that he did listen and wasn't ignorant. He beats up the gang members in the street because his mother forced him to. He was told that if he didn't come home with groceries, he would have to spend the night in the streets. If I were as Richard, I would feel very intimidated and scared! Imagine being threatened by your own mother to defend yourself against an entire gang of older boys. It is clear that Richard's actions are coming out of the rough environment that he lives in. In some cases, he most likely could have had a little more self-control. This doesn't change the fact that he was in a very difficult time of his life, when hunger and fear were always reigning.

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