Is Richard a "bad boy"?

I personally do not believe that Richard is a "bad boy". He is a good kid at heart, who often pushes his boundaries to the extreme. Like when he killed the kitten because his dad told him to. It wasn't because Richard was evil that he killed the cat, it was because of the anger he felt toward his dad, and the need for Richard to get back and spite his father. He makes poor decisions sometimes, but what little kid doesn't? Most of the time it seems that he is either trying to gain new knowledge, or break free of the situation that he is in. He goes to the saloon to drink so that he can learn dirty words and escape his life at home, at least for a while. It seems as if his home life is very oppressive. His father didn't even care enough about the family to stick around, and that had to hurt Richard. Perhaps Richard didn't know how to take out his pain and that is part of the reason that he acts out. Richard is often beaten for his mistakes, but in a very seemingly cruel and brutal way. No child should be beaten so hard that they become ill and almost die. Who wouldn't want to escape that life? Richard hungers for knowledge so that he can escape the cruel and oppressive world that he lives in. He often hungry and must fend for himself whenever he goes outside. He beat those boys on the way to the grocery store not out of want, but out of necessity. Most of Richard's "bad boy" antics can be blamed on the environment that he grew up in. But as he gets older I think that his environment will no longer be an excuse and he will have to take more personal responsibility for his actions. As we age we learn, and so it could be argued that the older you are the more your behavior should be blamed on you and you alone. But Richard is so young that I find it hard to believe that he even really knows the weight of his own actions on the world.