Literary Analysis: "The Man Who Was Almost a Man"

Literary Analysis: "The Man Who Was Almost a Man" by Richard Wright

Jared Korotney

November 30, 2015

            A lot of people can make good arguments as to which theme best suits the story, such as "quit while you're ahead" or "think before you act". While these themes do fit in with the story, I feel that the best theme to have the biggest impact on the story is "maturity is determined by your actions". I feel that this perfectly describes the story because it is an accurate description for the main character, Dave Sanders. He truly believes that he is mature enough to handle a gun, but his killing the mule shows otherwise, and to add insult to injury, he decides to run away from his problems, showing that he is not mature enough to handle his situation.

            Moving on to the setting. The short story stars, as I mentioned earlier, Dave Sanders, a 17-year-old African-American farm worker who tries to prove to his parents, boss, and his community that he is old and knowledgeable enough to buy and utilize a gun in order to orient himself into the Southern adult society that he is about to enter, age-wise. The plot starts out with Dave begging for hos parents to lend him two dollars in order to pay for the gun. Although they are very hesitant at first. they decide to let him buy the gun on one condition: it should belong to Dave's father. After he successfully buys the gun, he hides it from his parents and brings it to work with him the next day where his boss, Mr. Hawkins, tells him to go out into the field and bring the farm mule with him to plow the fields. While in the fields, he tries to shoot the gun, which he does, only to realize that he accidentally shot the mule and killed it. When he is coerced into confessing the shooting to his parents, boss, and community, Mr. Hawkins forgives him, but orders that Dave pay him two dollars a month in order to buy another mule. That night, he becomes irritated with the fact that he is now viewed as more of a child that he was before, as well as having to pay Mr. Hawkins for more than two years. He then runs away and jumps on a train in order to prove that he is a true man.

            The story is told in limited third-person point-of-view, which the outsider telling the story in Dave's perspective. The characterization of the story mainly applies to Dave, as his character is more developed to show that his view on what he wants to be seen as overshadows his realistic personality: an inexperienced, immature teenager who requires more knowledge about the real world in order that he can be accepted into the adult civilization in the South. There are also a few key points in the story in which irony is made prevalent. For example, situational irony occurs when at the very end of the story, Dave decides that in order for himself to be viewed as more mature and manly, he must run away from his responsibilities. 

            The biggest symbol in the story that can tie back to the theme of "experience versus inexperience" is the gun. The gun is a huge symbol for maturity, because only the strong-willed can accept full responsibility for using a loaded rifle. Dave is not mentally capable enough to handle the maturity that this gun brings, and it showed when he fired only one bullet and it hit the mule and killed it. Dave needed to be mature enough to also listen to his parents when they said that he must give the gun right to his father, a man who truly understands how dangerous handling a gun can be.

            So now, it's time for an overall analysis of the short story. Richard Wright did an outstanding job detailing a story of experience and maturity that many people could relate to to this day. If you ask me, the best group of people who should be reading this story are high-schoolers, because they are on that transitional path to adulthood, and many of them still lack the experience to understand the adult-oriented society. In fact, knowledgeable teachers and parents/guardians should also be involved in this story as they will have their own experiences related to this story that teenagers will need to know if they want to be ready for manhood. In terms of who would like this story, I would have to say an adult that lives in the South, because the story's location and plot can be very relatable to these adults, which is also beneficial in the sense that if these adults have kids, they can educate them in a "the boy who cried wolf" manner that relates to the story.