Uncle Tom's Cabbage

Richard was angry at Uncle Tom (was this a deliberately ironic name, or was that his real name?) for two reasons. For one, his uncle became extremely angry at Richard because of the way Tom was notified of his uncle's death. Richard did not mean to alarm him in such an abrupt manner, and his uncle thought that he was being an jerk on purpose. I thought that banning Wright from the funeral was a little harsh, though. I think that the rest of the family allowed Tom to do so because they don't really like him, and maybe even had superstitious thoughts about his "unholy" presence at his grandfather's funeral. Because Richard didn't really like his grandfather (he didn't really dislike him, either; he recognized the reasons why his grandfather was the way he was), he wasn't exactly insulted that he wasn't invited to the funeral, but realized that his family's intent was to hurt him. He was also angry at Uncle Tom because Richard was going to be beaten for a mistaken case of "being sassy".

On a deeper level, Richard does not like Uncle Tom because he tries to "teach him a lesson" for something that he didn't do, and his Uncle had never really helped out his family or raised him, so Richard feels that he has no right to do such things. Richard is able to realize that family is not always signified by biological links, but by social and emotional bonding, two things which Uncle Tom and Richard definitely do not share. When his uncle tries to discipline him, it is an intrusion into his family, and Richard is essentially defending his own family from an outsider.