Uncle Tom

In chapter six, Uncle Tom asks Wright the time after he has woken him up by making noise in the kitchen. When Wright tells him, he asks if that's correct, to which Wright responds, "If it's a little slow or fast, it's not far wrong." This greatly offends Tom, and after yelling at Wright, he promptly goes to the back yard to make a switch.

Wright is angry with Uncle Tom because he knows that he has done nothing wrong. He writes that he does not want to be beaten for speaking as he does to everyone else, and he fails to understand why his response enraged Tom so. I don't understand why Tom got so mad, either. A part of me wants to liken him to the dog in chapter seven that the workers through bricks at so often that he developed a mean temper, but that's probably completely off.

Anyway, later in the book, Wright writes that he refuses to bow down to an authority that he doesn't agree with, and he eventually comes to question this. Every time he asks to many questions, he is scolded or punished. However, the fight with Uncle Tom comes before he is debating his judgement. He was angry because he knew fully well that he was innocent, and if he wasn't, he was completely unaware of what he did wrong.