Melissa+W


 * Summary for Chapter Two**

Walter remembers how a woman took him and about ten other children to Sunday school. Walter thought greatly of the person they sung about. As a boy he always followed Florence around the house. Once, when he thought she was giving his sister more attention, Walter broke a watch his sister had been given. For this, Florence punished him by spanking him. After, he had to stay at his aunt's for the weekend. While Walter was there, other boys taught him to punch Jewish boys. Finally, his mother taught him how to read.

First, Walter describes how he thought of school. He had liked his first grade teacher Mrs. Dworkin, even though he got in trouble for fighting. Walter's third grade teacher was a different matter though. She gave him bad grades because he had gotten her in trouble by beating him. Mama beat him for the grades. During Walter's education, World War Two started. Herert joined the army. Mama and his two sisters joined the sewing companies to earn extra money. Walter was given his own key because of this. It helped him because a neighbor told his mother that comic books would lead to a life in jail. The key helped him take comic books that were meant to be throw out. He was able to get out of the house without being noticed. Many kids would come to him to trade books. It made him grow in popularity.
 * Chapter Three**

Chapter Four
Walter's sister, Viola, married ﻿Frank Law and had a baby. He worked with his uncle to bring up his math grade. He didn't enjoy this. His uncle was very strict. Walter tried to be a good student that year, but he got into a fight with Bunny. His teacher threatened to send him to reform school. That same afternoon he was rushed to the hospital due to stomach problems. Walter had to have his appendix taken out. He missed the rest of the school year. He was restricted to his house. Walter ocasionally snuck out though. This caused his wound to reopen.

Chapter Five
Walter made it into the sixth grade. He became very interested in baseball. He played different versions with the neighborhood kids. Walter got into trouble from the first day of school. When kids laughed at his speech, he threw a book across the room. Once, when his teacher cuaght him reading a comic book under his desk, she made him read a big book called **__East O' the Sun, West O' the Sea__**. Walter found he really liked it. Walter asked his teacher if he could have the next book. His original family moved to Harlem. He met his father and most of his siblings. Three of his sisters didn't come though. Walter had a good relationship with his brother "Mickey" or George. He exelled in writing. Walter's poem was put into the school magazine. He was proud enough to show it to Mama.

Chapter Six
Adam Powell led a protest about jobs. Many more black people were given better jobs. Movies were very popular on 125th street. Also, people were entertained with an opera house, arcade, and many other places. Walter decides that he wants to be an athlete. He would play basketball each morning with the teenagers and in the afternoon he would play stoop ball with boys around his age. He started to go to the library. Walter would go on rainy days. Dorothy Dodson and Walter didn't really like each other. She would tell him this a lot. Once, at the church gym they ran in to a group of girls. They wanted the court to themselves, so they made fun of the girls. A teenager, Lorelle Henry, said they would leave if the boys could do a few streches. If they failed, they would have to do the whole dance routine. The boys failed. Walter and his friends went to see a movie called "Battleground." On the day of the dance routine, Walter was given a lead role of Adam. Walter's father wasn't doing well in the army. This caused him to deliver packages for about three dollars. Walter was given Mr. Lasher because of his fighting. Mr. Lasher recommended him to be a leader for alot of things. He even put Walter in an advanced group. Crazzy Johnny was the one to stop fights in the neighborhood. Walter got caught on the back of a cab and was dragged down the block. He blamed Mama for this. George and Mama fought about it. When Walter went to get a ball down from a roof he jumped off. He really hurt himself.

Chapter Seven
Walter's sisters married. They moved out and Viola a got job. Viola's job was with electronics. Walter was given his own room. He got taller as he grew older. He grew close to six feet. Mr. Reese, a coach, said Walter could join a baseball team soon. Mama was going to throw Walter a party whewn disaster struck. Uncle Lee had died. He was robbed and beaten. Walter's father was in depression for as long as a year. Mama and him got into fights because of this. Slowly, though, his father came out of his depression. Mr. Lasher promoted Walter to an advanced class. Walter really started to feel lonely since he didn't hang out with his friends as much. Many dark skinned kids didn't feel comfortable when they learned about things like slavery. Walter started to mature. He didn't get into fights anymore. He was growing up.

Chapter Eight
Walter became more interested in writing. He would observe his neighborhood to find something to write about. He didn't write about his neighborhood so, he wrote about his neighbors. The boys in his school started a club. They only wanted to prove how tough they were. The "club" decided to take a bus for a spin. While they were driving, the police came. The kids scattered. Walter was caught immediantly. They were lined up at a local police while a man confirmed them as the kids who stole the bus. They waited at the school for the the police to come back. They did not. Eric was invited to a party He invited Walter, but Eddie wouldn't let him come because of his skin color. This really hurt Walter.

Chapter Eleven
Walter started to look for a job. His cousin offered him one, but he declined. He decided to look for sugestions at school. The guidance counseler said to go to the garment center. Walter didn't really want that job, but he took it anyway. Many kids at his school started to think about college. Walter didn't know what college he should go to. A lot of them wouldn't accept his race. Walter thought about what his dream job was. At first, he wanted to be a lawyer, but that was soon crushed when a family friend reminded Walter of his speech problem. He never really thought that writing could be a job. Walter had a problem. He couldn't afford to go to college. His family was running out of money. Mama started to try for the lottery. She didn't win much money. His father sometimes would have to work at the dock to make ends meet. Pap's medical needs also drained their money. Walter was replaced in his old job. It infuriated him. He found another job. Walter worked at a jewlery store. He made fourteen dollars a week and decided to buy a typewriter. Walter would save the money he didn't give to Mama or use. Walter was crushed when Mama said they couldn't get the typewriter because they didn't have the money. He didn't really hang out with Eric anymore. Mama became depressed. She would drink and play the lottery a lot. His father decided to hrlp him the typewriter. Walter didn't like it. He stopped going to school. He would use the typewriter to make excuses.

Chapter Twelve
Walter went to see the school counseler. She asked him why he wasn't going to school anymore and what did he do all day. She told him that he has to try harder to get into college. When Walter skipped school he would go on the subway, Central, or the Hudson River. He would write poems or just walk around. He became interested interested in sports again. That summer Walter went to the park to practice. As he went there one day he saw a man in a fight against three men. Walter didn't know why, but he decided to help him. With the man's help they chased off the attackers. Walter learned that the man's name was Frank. The three people had been theives. Frank offered him a reward, but Walter didn't except. Frank and him walked home together. Mickey and Walter were walking home when they saw a famous writer. Walter thought the writer was mundane and boring. He wanted to be the kind the kind of writer that fainted in a bar after reading a poem and have to be carried home. Walter decided to go to school again. He lasted three weeks before he stared to skip.

Chapter Thirteen
Walter had a big problem with school. He was doing horrible. He had to go to the guidence counseler. Walter only went to school because of English. His teacher would give him books to read and tips for his writing. When Walter wasn't at school he would be in a tree reading. He soon started to want to be like other authors. Walter lost control over his writing. What he wrote wasn't good. Frank began to visit Walter. Mama disliked him. She asked Walter what they did. He said they just talked. Frank lived on the streets. He became the only friend Walter really talked to. Once, Mama came to school with Walter. He hadn't been to school lately. When they got there, the guidence counseler told Mama this. They talked in private. Their decision was that Walter was a nervous child and an agency had to watch him. They reached this verdict because they thought he was affected from th scarlet fever he had had. It was the only way he could stay in school.

Chapter Fourteen
Walter went to see the agency which kept an eye on him. A man told him he was in trouble. The man informed him of the cousencounces if he did not start to go back to school. Walter could be sent to a juvenile school. This meeting made him think suicidal thoughts. He was ashamed of himself. He was becoming anti-social. He was being like a character in a book he had read. The character was as stoic and detached as him. Even though he had promised Mama he would be home early, Walter met up with Frank. They talked about what had happened at the agency. Walter thought about Frank's life story. His father had been an actor/singer. His mother and him had been living a good life until Frank's father had died. Then, he was bullied and his mother wouldn't help him. Once on a bus, Frank killed people. His mother and him were about to be kicked off the bus when it had happened. he was sent to a mental institution for three years. His mother got him out, but it happened again. He went back for another three years. Walter and Frank delivered a package. The employer was very mysterious. Walter suspected he was a doper. Mama was very worried when he came home. Walter went to get an examination. He was sent to see Dr. Holiday.

Chapter Fifteen
Walter began to skip school again. The teachers wouldn't call on him because he had missed too much. Walter didn't do homework anymore. He would get distracted by a book or the need to read. When Walter wrote poems they were very dark and about how he felt about himself. His thought were unpleasant. Walter saw Dr. Holiday. He thought she was very nice. She told him he had trouble seeing colors. He agreed with her. The doctor told him to come back again. On his way out, he saw a very odd girl. She had crossed her legs and was holding her head in her hands. Walter wondered if he looked like that. At Central Park, Walter met the gang who had beat Frank. They had wanted to fight him. When they saw Walter had a knife they backed off. The gang him told him to wait while they got a gun. Walter fled. This really scared him. He went to see the doctor again. She asked him questions about school and life. Then she asked if he liked being black.

Chapter Sixteen
Walter answers Dr. Holiday's question. He says, "Yes, of course."Later when Walter thinks about this more he remembers all the "disadvanteges". He compares it to when someone asks you what you want to be when you grow up. Walter thinks that its different than when you become an adult. As an adult, your choices are different. He says that the questions is unfair because kids don't know what it's like to be an adult. Walter also thinks that he doesn't want to be labled as a black. In that time, most people, in his point of veiw, that were important and powerful were white. he didn't think black people had an important role. Walter decided to lable himself as intellectual instead of his rabe. Then, as his school work became horrible, he realized that he couldn't call himself that.

Chapter Seventeen
Walter became panicked. The school year was coming to a close and he didn't have an application for a college yet. When he did go to school, teachers would ask about his writing. Walter would say he was still writing, but he had lost control of it. He became more interested in reading about wars. He told Dr. Holiday he would like to die in a war. She called Mama and asked if Walter had tried to kill himself. Walter encountered fifteen members of the gang. He ran, but he still fought two of them. Walter decided to go back to school. When he got there all of the doors were locked. A man told him the school year had ended. Walter cried as he walked home.

Chapter Eighteen
Walter went through the actions of going to school. He would get his books and go to Central Park. Now, Walter had stopped reading and writing completely. When he went to the park he would just sit there. If Eric called, he wouldn't call back. Mama and his father would talk about him staying in his room. Frank had another package to deliver, so he invited Walter. Frank was attacked by the person he was giving the package to. Walter saved him and they fled. He told Dr. Holiday this and she told Mama. Mama started to worry. Frank kept getting attacked, so he left for Philidalphia. Walter thought his situation went from bad to worse. He went to the army to see how old he would have to be to join. The age was seventeen if your parents were dead. Walter joined on his seventeenth birthday. When he told his parents Mama cried. On the day Walter left, Herbert gave him a bible and a money belt. Mama just cried. Walter went to the train and started to write ab out the trip.

Chapter Nineteen
Walter thought about his life. He thought how his relligion and books helped him with his writing. Walter left the army with great relief. He didn't like the sights and smell of war. It was nothing like the poems. Walter had many low paying jobs when he came back. One day at a construction job, he realized he should try to write again. Walter made poems and stories, which he sent to magazines. Soon, he was paid for this. Many other writers helped him and one got him into a writing club. Walter entered a contest to make a children's book. He won it. He started to publish more books after this. Mama was very proud. Walter reflected on how lucky in life.