The Man Who Was Almost A Man Essay

Responsibility makes you an adult. In the short story “The Man who was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright, is about a teenage boy struggling to break away from childhood and go in the world of adulthood. Discouraged by being young, poor, and black, Dave battles with the pressure of wanting to be an adult and still being perceived as a child by the adult community. In Dave’s situation, the actions and decisions he takes to achieve manhood hardly reinforces his elders’ beliefs that he is still an adolescent. At the beginning of the story, Dave’s chase for manhood starts by wanting to own a gun. He believes that because he is “almost a man,” he should own the symbol of manhood: a gun. When he borrows a gun catalog from a local store owner; David

That way he is able to keep the gun and take it with him to work the next day. The next day, he heads to work early with the hope to shoot the gun. Mr. Hawkins, Dave’s boss, gets him to work as soon as he arrives and sends him to plow the fields with Jenny, a mule. Now that Dave is in the woods, he decides to shoot the gun. He closes his eyes, turns his head, pulls the trigger, and... “Bloom!” Shooting a gun hurt more than Dave expected. Jenny did not like it either, in fact she was “whinnying and galloping over the field” (119). When Dave got close to Jenny, he noticed that she was bleeding. He shot her. Panicked about what he had done, he made up a story about what happened to Jenny. Dave told Mr. Hawkins that, “Jenny started gittin wil n fell on the joint of the plow…” (120). Everyone was suspicious about Dave’s story. Finally, Dave’s mom got him to confess and Mr. Hawkins laughed and tells Dave that he has to pay off the mule. Dave angry about the fact that people laughed at him and that he has to pay off the mule, sneaks out the house. He shoots all the bullets left in the gun and then feeling manly wishes he had one more left to shoot Mr. Hawkin’s house. At the end, a train approaches and he hops on and

He makes his mom think that gun was for his father. He does not give his mom the gun. He accidently shoots Jenny and lies about it. He wishes to shoot Mr. Hawkins’ house. Then, hops on a train and leaves like a coward. Instead of proving why he should be treated as an adult, he showed why he should not. He is still a teenager who does not know how to handle power and take responsibility for his actions. Dave’s actions showed that power and respect it is earned and should be used wisely. Also, you should not rush into adulthood if you are not ready yet. Taking responsibility for your actions is what makes you an adult. Dave does not take responsibility for his actions. Instead, he runs away. He feels overwhelmed about having to pay off the mule, his father threatening about beating him, and being laughed at and takes the easy way out. Dave is not prepared at all to become man. In order to become a man, he has to overcome many obstacles. Dave struggles with the feeling that he has no power. He chases power by purchasing the gun and breaking the promise he made to his mother. He decides that owning a gun would give him instant power, authority and control, and with that in mind he does everything he can to keep his gun for