Commentary on The Man Who Was Almost A Man Essay

The Man Who Was Almost a Man, by Richard Wright, tells the story of Dave, a little black boy who wants to buy a gun to show everybody that he is a man. But this gun will bring him problems when, accidentaly, he kills an old mule he was supossed to take care of.

The story takes place in 1930, in the South of the United States, where black people were inolved in what is called The Great Migration, scaping from racism, trying to get an employ and a better education for their children. In this essay, the theme of migration and all the social context, both in the literary and in the real world, will be treated in relation with Daves family living conditions and his desires of becoming a man.

In 1930, in the height of the XX century, black people lived in a very poor conditions, exploted by white landowners and forced to survive by sharecropping.

Although slavery had been abolished, there were some restrictions for black people, such as separation in schools, public places, restaurants and transportation, which made really hard living in the United States. Because of that, people had to migrate from the South to the North, where there were also that differences, but less noticeable.

This was the situation Dave was living in. His parents were sharecroppers and lived and worked in a farm, property of Jim Hawkins, who paid them a miserable amount for such effort. He is also the owner of the old mule Dave killed, and ask him for fifty dollars to replace her, a high price for Dave to afford. The intention of Dave when buying the gun is try to show that he is no more a boy, but a man, a mature person able to protect his family, and the only thing he proves is his immaturity, normal at his age. He is trying to achieve some independence from his parents beacuse he is feeling undervalued for being a child and he wanted to be, in some sense, powerfull in that hard society. That is the reason he thought to buy the gun.

Whuts the use talkin wid em niggers in the field? Anyhow, his mother was putting

supper on the table. Them niggers cant understan nothing. One of these days he was

going to get a gun and practice shooting, then they couldnt talk to him as though he

were a little boy. (103)

Another topic from the story and from that time is the presence of violence in Daves life and society, carried out from racism and inequality between both races. The simple fact of buying a gun implies the posibilty of physical damages, and in the text, the author reflects it trought the death of the mule, when Dave is shooting the gun with the eyes closed. Wright also shows it with Daves father reaction when he is told about that fact. He beats Dave, trying to make him say the truth.

His father caught his shoulders and shook him till his teeth rattled.

Tell whut happened, yuh rascal! Tell whut... (110)

Whut yuh do wid tha gun? Daves father demanded.

Dave say nothing.

Yuh want me t take a tree n beat you till yuh talk!

Nawsuh! (111)

The final decission Dave takes is to run away from the city, out of the disdain and avoiding his debt with Jim Hawkins for paying him for the mule by working during two years. This could mean that Dave prefers leave his home and his family than keep on standing all the social troubles. So, at the end, with his gun in his pocket, he jump into a train and leave the city, looking for a place where he could be a man.

He felt his pocket; the gun was still there. Ahead the long rails were glinting in the moonlight, stretching away, away to somewhere, somewhere where he could be a man... (112)

Richard Wright knew how to reflect black people lifes in the late XX century because he lived in that time and in that society. He had to move from the South to the North, trying to avoid racism and oppression. Wright, in this text, made an atmosphere of reality by setting descriptions and by using dialect in Daves thoughts and speech, which help us to get into the story like if we were there.

The majority, if not all of his works have the same theme: black people lifes in a whites world, dealing with their demands and poverty. Wright wanted people to know about such problems, and he tought that literature was the best vehicle to do it, in spite of the fact that he was very critiziced for the hardness of his books.