Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth

by Richard Wright

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How do I paraphrase lines 189-195 from Black Boy by Richard Wright? It is: "somewhere in the dead of the southern night my life had switched onto the wrong track, and, without my knowing it, the locomotive of my heart was rushing down a dangerously steep slope, heading for a collision, heedless of the warning red lights that blinked all about me, the sirens and the bells and the screams that filled the air"

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Here is a paraphrase.  Remember that a paraphrase is rewording for clarity, so here you would want to reconsider all of Wright's beautiful, poetic language and restate his remembrance more as fact.

Wright's life suddenly changed.  He felt he something inexplicable was forcing him into unknown and dangerous territory.  Despite many warning signs, he only dimly percieves the troubles ahead. 

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