Richard, the protagonist of the novel is portrayed as a self-determined character. Right from childhood we see Richard's self-determined nature. He sets their house ablaze out of curiosity. He deliberately takes his father's instruction to kill the cat at face value to spite him. The punishment he receives on this incident makes him more hardened and he it resolves not to take instructions from his father. This incident further heightens Richard's hatred for him.
Richard refuses to allow even the closest members of his family to intimidate him. His resistance to Aunt Addie's bullying and his grandfather's attempt to indoctrinate him into the Seventh-Day-Adventist sect are pointers tc his strength of character.
Richard's characteristic as a self determined person is demonstrated in his reaction to white oppression. He would not sell his dog to the white woman in spite of his situation. He resolves to stop selling the newspaper used by the whites to propagate their cause despite the fact that he needs the wages. He does not hesitate to abandon his job where he faces white oppression.
A further indication of Richard's characteristic as a self determined person is found in his refusal to be intimidated by the Principal of his school to read a valedictory speech which contains some ideas that negate his life principles as a black person.
His encounter with Mrs. Moss shows him as a man who strives to achieve any goals he sets for himself despite all distractions.
His literary contribution in the Hell's Half Acre despite threats from authorities and his immediate family show as a self determined young man.
He never relents in the pursuit of his (objectives) to emancipate the black man from oppression by the whites. more he faces challenges from discrimination the more he becomes determined to fight back. In this way he is able to face even the darkest of his life's experiences as a black boy.