Page 62 - Interchange English 5

I spelled my name in a wild rush of
letters, trying desperately to redeem
FOR SAMPLE ONLY
my paralyzing shyness.

“Spell it slowly so I can hear it,” she

directed me.
I did.
“Now can you write?’
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Then write it.”

Again I turned to the blackboard and
lifted my hand to write, then I was
blank and void within. I tried frantically to collect my senses but could
remember nothing. A sense of the girls and boys behind me filled me to
the exclusion of everything. I realized how utterly I was failing and I grew
weak and leaned my hot forehead against the cold blackboard. The room

burst into a loud and prolonged laugh that made my muscles froze.

“You may go to your seat,” the teacher said.

Meet the Author

Richard Wright was born on September 4,
1908 into a poor Mississippi family that his
father left when Richard was five. Wright was
the first African-American novelist to reach a
general audience, even though he had barely a
ninth grade education. His difficult childhood
is described in his autobiographical novel,
Black Boy (1945). Literary critics believe his

work helped change race relations in the
United States in the mid-20th century. He
died on November 28, 1960 in Paris, France.
Richard Wright

54 Interchange Communicative English 5