Chris G. Blog Post 1 Richard in Trouble

Richard, although very young, has gotten into quite a bit of trouble already. The book opens with him burning down his own house because he wanted to see how the curtains would look if he set them on fire. His family moves away from this house to Memphis, Tennessee where they rent a small flat. Richard quickly finds mischief here too when his father tell him to get rid of a cat. He realizes that his father does not actually want him to kill the cat but he does to spite his father and show him that he can't control everything he does. The father soon leaves Richard, his mother, and his brother which does nothing to help the situation. Richard is forced to fight of boys on his way to the grocery store and for a short time becomes a drunk because he hangs around outside the local saloon where the customers get a laugh out him in his stupor. Finally the chapter ends when Richard runs away from the orphanage where his mother left him because she had to work. He is returned but so do his thoughts of rebellion and mischief.
All of these incidents are a combination of Richards own intentions and those of his environment. Both are at fault in this situation, which means it may be harder for Richard to fix than it could be. First of all when he burns his house down his intentions are mostly to blame. He is bored and angry and he wonders what will happen if lights the curtains on fire. Although he may not of thought about the consequences of these actions, he meant to set the curtains on fire and as far as we can tell, nothing else had an input on this decision. The environment begins to become a larger contributor to Richards mischief though. He wants to get back at his father for trying to punish him when he kills the cat. This was a decision he made, but his fathers treatment of him is what prompted him to do this. His environment of punishment created a mindset for him that told him to rebel. Environment becomes almost the sole contributor to Richards encounter with alcoholism. All of the local drunks prompt Richard to start drinking, and he does not agree at first but can't see much wrong with the whiskey so he goes for it. The customers continue to encourage him and there is little that Richard could do to prevent himself from continuing his habit. These events show the spectrum of Richards troubles and where they come from.
Through these events we can conclude that Richard probably isn't really a bad boy but one who has trouble making decisions and who is easily effected by his environment. Blame can be placed on Richard himself for some of his actions such as burning down his house but he is not alone when it comes some of his later problems. His environment contributes much to his decision to kill the cat that he finds and much more to his booze streak. There are always many things to consider when someone gets into trouble and Richard is no exception.