Wright's Coping

Wright says that he began coping with the white world far too late. This means that he began to learn how to really act around white people far later than most of his compatriots, meaning he did not truly know how to act and thus got in trouble a lot for things that he feels, and most people now would feel, are no big deal. However, in the society of the Jim Crow South, complete subservience was expected and Wright was just never able to truly get the hang of it as his friend Griggs was. This manifests itself in the next few chapters in the form of all the jobs that Wright held and then lost due to his inability to perform as white people expected him to perform when in front of them. This is even further reinforced by the fact that he begins to take what could nearly be called lessons from Griggs on how to act. This is why Wright says he began coping in the white world too late.