d that reader to be more open to Wright's message of what is essentially a plea to love one another, lest we all go down "the same drain." This is as much a practical plea as it is a spiritual one.
Wright is not painting a self-portrait based on his own saintliness. To the contrary, he shows in many instances his own faults, especially his anger, in all their glaring detail. His own corruption at the hands of adults and society is also detailed, showing Wright as a boy begging for drinks. His suffering at the treatment he receives from whites and blacks alike drives him to seek any means available to escape from that suffering:
To beg drinks in the saloon became an obsession. Many evenings my mother would find me wandering in a daze and take me home and beat me; but the next morning, no sooner had she gone to her job than I would run to
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