Question

Read the excerpt from Richard Wright’s Black Boy. Hunger stole upon me so slowly that at first I was not aware of what hunger really meant. Hunger had always been more or less at my elbow when I played, but now I began to wake up at night to find hunger standing at my bedside, staring at me gauntly. The hunger I had known before this had been no grim, hostile stranger; it had been a normal hunger that had made me beg constantly for bread, and when I ate a crust or two I was satisfied. But this new hunger baffled me, scared me, and made me angry and insistent. Whenever I begged for food now my mother would pour me a cup of tea which would still the clamor in my stomach for a moment or two; but a little later I would feel hunger nudging my ribs, twisting my empty guts till they ached. I would grow dizzy and my vision would dim. I became less active in my play, and for the first time in my life I had to pause and think of what was happening to me. Which best describes why Wright includes this anecdote?

Answer 1

Wright included the extract  to explain the characters behaviour as a young person. It shows how the extreme nature of his situation affected his physical health and thereby his mental health, emotions and ultimately actions, turning him into an angry and insistent young persons.  His extreme circumstances directly affected who he became.  Therefore the answer is a.

Answer 2

Answer:

To show how his character was formed by the poverty that he lived.

Explanation:

In this excerpt poverty and hunger specially are depicted as different metaphors and how Wright lived with them and learnt how to understand them, how hunger came to him and weakend him and forbid him to play as much as he wanted to, and to enjoy life, waking up at night in hunger, he adds this excerpt to show the reader how his character was formed by the povert that he lived.