The Man Who Was Almost a Man
In the beginning of the story “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” Dave Saunders is very much like an innocent, immature child and is until the end – though maybe not as innocent and much more dangerous.
He starts out in the story on his way home from work angry and frustrated at the “niggers” (Paragraph 1) that he works the field with treating him like a kid and talking down to him. He figures that since he is seventeen that he is “almost a man” (1) and that means he should have himself a gun. He believes that owning a gun will make him a man.
Throughout the book, however, one can see Dave become more violent and trigger-happy little by little. It starts out with thinking about how “he was going to get a gun and practice …show more content…
Looking up he sees that the mule is in panic and upon closer inspection sees that she is bleeding. He did not mean to shoot Jenny and quickly realized that she was dying. Though he tries to keep her from dying it is no use, and here one can see that he is regretful and scared and that this would be a good time for him to really start acting as a man and showing maturity and telling people what happened and taking responsibility. Instead he hides the gun and tries to come up with a story about how the mule died even if the story is completely unbelievable. He lies to his boss, his fellow workers, and even his parents though of course no one believed him and eventually dug the truth out of him. His employer demands fifty dollars for the mule and his father threatens him with a “black bottom” (202) beating. On his way through the crowd people laughed about what happened and instead of being mad at himself about killing the mule or for doing something so stupid instead he is mad because they are laughing at him. At this point he seems to have no remorse about killing the mule and even thinks to himself about how glad he is to have gotten off so easily for killing the mule. He is angry for getting in trouble instead of remorseful for what he did.
He thought about the gun and “had an itch to fire it again” (206) and snuck out of his house to go get it. Even though he had killed an animal and had misused the gun he still wanted to fire it. Firing the gun he smiles and thinks to himself that “if anybody could fire a gun, he could” (207). He even thinks about shooting at the house of “ol man Hawkins jusa little” (208) to show him that he was a man that deserved respect. Instead he catches a nearby passing train to go “somewhere where he could be a man”
In the beginning of the story “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” Dave Saunders is very much like an innocent, immature child and is until the end – though maybe not as innocent and much more dangerous.
He starts out in the story on his way home from work angry and frustrated at the “niggers” (Paragraph 1) that he works the field with treating him like a kid and talking down to him. He figures that since he is seventeen that he is “almost a man” (1) and that means he should have himself a gun. He believes that owning a gun will make him a man.
Throughout the book, however, one can see Dave become more violent and trigger-happy little by little. It starts out with thinking about how “he was going to get a gun and practice …show more content…
Looking up he sees that the mule is in panic and upon closer inspection sees that she is bleeding. He did not mean to shoot Jenny and quickly realized that she was dying. Though he tries to keep her from dying it is no use, and here one can see that he is regretful and scared and that this would be a good time for him to really start acting as a man and showing maturity and telling people what happened and taking responsibility. Instead he hides the gun and tries to come up with a story about how the mule died even if the story is completely unbelievable. He lies to his boss, his fellow workers, and even his parents though of course no one believed him and eventually dug the truth out of him. His employer demands fifty dollars for the mule and his father threatens him with a “black bottom” (202) beating. On his way through the crowd people laughed about what happened and instead of being mad at himself about killing the mule or for doing something so stupid instead he is mad because they are laughing at him. At this point he seems to have no remorse about killing the mule and even thinks to himself about how glad he is to have gotten off so easily for killing the mule. He is angry for getting in trouble instead of remorseful for what he did.
He thought about the gun and “had an itch to fire it again” (206) and snuck out of his house to go get it. Even though he had killed an animal and had misused the gun he still wanted to fire it. Firing the gun he smiles and thinks to himself that “if anybody could fire a gun, he could” (207). He even thinks about shooting at the house of “ol man Hawkins jusa little” (208) to show him that he was a man that deserved respect. Instead he catches a nearby passing train to go “somewhere where he could be a man”