Wright enters the world of work in earnest by finding jobs in the homes of white people in Jackson. At his first job, the woman who hires him regularly addresses him with racial slurs, is offended when he laughs after she asks him if he is dishonest, and (the final straw for Wright) scoffs at the idea that Wright wants to be a writer when he grows up. Wright secures another job with a white family and is astonished at the spoiled food the family attempts to serve him and the crude curses they use to address each other. Wright stays, however, because he needs the money and is able to steal enough food to go without hunger for the first time in a while. The stress of always having to act subordinately to avoid running afoul of white people takes its toll: he is too exhausted to stay on top of school work.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Wright begins to recover. Wright begins going to a Protestant church to please her and to feel more a part of the community. Once again, a revival brings pressure from his family and peers to convert, with the pinnacle of the pressure coming when the minister has all the mothers of the unconverted pray on their knees in front of the whole church for the redemption of their unconverted children.