A man who was almost a man

1027 Words5 Pages
“A Man Who Was Almost a Man” Richard Wright In “A Man who was Almost a Man,” there were many different aspects that were told within the story. Within the story Wright used different points of view through each individual character’s perspective. Different elements that were portrayed within the story were: the symbolism of Dave’s gun, how the environment/society contributed/ “created” Dave, the irony of Dave’s character within the story, and analyze Dave’s views and connect them to real life to discover if they are in fact realistic. What The symbolism of the gun to the main character? In the story the main character Dave bought a gun the gun was supposedly to be given to Dave’s father to save and only use for protection. Instead Dave lies, cheats, deceives, and manipulates his way into keeping the gun for himself. In my opinion the gun in the story symbolizes Respect Dave believes that he is a man, just because he has a gun. Dave believes that everyone will view and respect him as a man. Dave thinks that if the men see him with the gun, that it will show the men if he is man enough to have a gun, then he is definitely man enough to shoot it; As a result, they will view him as a man rather than a boy. In the story the environment/ society contributed in creating Dave. The society helped to create Dave in the story when he is surrounded by all of the men at the plantation where he works. The men always tell him that he’s a little boy, and they make fun of him. In the society that Dave is surrounded by once you turn the age of sixteen or seventeen you are supposed to be treated like an adult, and your parents just begin to start trusting and faith that you will do the right things in your life. But, in this story that is not the case Dave’s coworkers and parents still view and treat him as a child. Through research Dave was getting underpaid for
Open Document