Before Chapter 6 begins, Noah delineates the hypocrisy of the apartheid: “Apartheid, for all its power, had fatal flaws baked in, starting with the fact that it never made any sense” (75). He gives the example of how Chinese people in South Africa were classified as Black South Africans, yet Japanese people were classified as white because the South African government wanted to maintain good trading relations with Japan.

In the beginning of Chapter 6, Noah recalls his mother saying, “I gave birth to the most selfish piece of shit on earth and all it ever did was cry and eat and shit and say, ‘Me, me, me, me me’” (76). Noah confirms that he was a selfish child with a voracious appetite and extreme amounts of energy, who also loved to play with fire: “My relationship with my mom was like the relationship between a cop and a criminal in the movies—the relentless detective and the devious mastermind she’s determined to catch. They’re bitter rivals, but, damn, they respect the hell out of each other” (80). Once Noah is older, rather than having verbal arguments, he and his mom begin writing down their disagreements with each other on paper, each hoping to outsmart or outdo the other.