Summary

NOTE - The language of the summary here, and for the rest of this analysis, is written in present tense to reflect the immediacy and energy of the author’s writing style and narrative focus.

"Meager."

The author and his friend LaThon start Grade Eight at a new, mostly white school; their previous, mostly black school had been closed due to lack of funding. In class, they banter back and forth as they had always done, playing games with the meanings and implications of their two favorite words – “abundance” and “meager.” Their behavior gets them in trouble with their white teacher, gets them “whuppings” when they get home, and gets them separated into different classes. All this leads the author to recall how his mother had told him that as a black boy, he had to be twice as...