Chapter 13 Summary and Analysis

As Russell gets nearer graduating, he worries he can't afford college and is unqualified for jobs. Since moving, he works at a grocery store managed by joking, cursing Mr. Simmons, who blackmails black customers to buy groceries so he'll cash their checks and peeps up women's skirt from a hole in the cellar ceiling. Simmons won't let Russell learn the cash register, choosing even a black employee above him.

In Russell's third year of high school, his English teacher is Mr. Fleagle. First they study Macbeth, then informal essays. Russell is extremely bored, until he notes an essay topic: The Art of Eating Spaghetti. He is inspired to write about the family eating spaghetti at Uncle Allen's, intending to write a proper essay later, but he runs out of time. He turns in the essay he's convinced will fail and is...