The Man That Was Almost A Man Analysis
Hill 1
Hill, Alicia
Dr. J. madden
Eng. 1 A
10 May 2012
Not yet a man
Richard N. Wright, a maverick in the literary world, has paved the road for would be African American writers to give a voice to their stories. Wright was born on the 4th day of September 1908 on Rucker’s Plantation, between Roxie and Natchez, Mississippi. Wright’s mother Ella dies a horrible death, leaving Richard to become a man much too soon. Wrights father abandons the family and he must live with his Aunt and maternal grandmother. Wright uses his characters to tell his life story. The Anthem Dictionary of Literary Terms and Theory defines the word Character in the literary world as a person depicted in a work. (“Character”) is a brief descriptive sketch of a personage who typifies some definite quality. (Macmillan 79) In the story “The Man That Was Almost a Man” Wright’s writings are figurative birth pangs of his own life, which is perhaps why his choice to tell this story in the “third-person limited” is fitting, Dave Saunders is that voice. The setting is the rural south in the second quarter of the twentieth century, set in a farming area …show more content…
(Eight Men 156) “The gun” represents “power, masculinity, respect and independence” (Web) everything Dave is hoping for, to become a man. Dave’s parents are “threats and exploiters,” of this desired manhood and this is reason enough to defy and cut the emotional ties of family, as limited as they are (Resource Center 3). Dave has no social or community black male roll models or ties. “Niggers can’t understand nothing” (Wright 69). The [miscellaneous] “field hands” are negative roll models, they taunt and make fun of Dave “ [talkin] to him [lika] little boy” (Wright 69) concerning something that they neither understand nor have themselves; a since of
Hill, Alicia
Dr. J. madden
Eng. 1 A
10 May 2012
Not yet a man
Richard N. Wright, a maverick in the literary world, has paved the road for would be African American writers to give a voice to their stories. Wright was born on the 4th day of September 1908 on Rucker’s Plantation, between Roxie and Natchez, Mississippi. Wright’s mother Ella dies a horrible death, leaving Richard to become a man much too soon. Wrights father abandons the family and he must live with his Aunt and maternal grandmother. Wright uses his characters to tell his life story. The Anthem Dictionary of Literary Terms and Theory defines the word Character in the literary world as a person depicted in a work. (“Character”) is a brief descriptive sketch of a personage who typifies some definite quality. (Macmillan 79) In the story “The Man That Was Almost a Man” Wright’s writings are figurative birth pangs of his own life, which is perhaps why his choice to tell this story in the “third-person limited” is fitting, Dave Saunders is that voice. The setting is the rural south in the second quarter of the twentieth century, set in a farming area …show more content…
(Eight Men 156) “The gun” represents “power, masculinity, respect and independence” (Web) everything Dave is hoping for, to become a man. Dave’s parents are “threats and exploiters,” of this desired manhood and this is reason enough to defy and cut the emotional ties of family, as limited as they are (Resource Center 3). Dave has no social or community black male roll models or ties. “Niggers can’t understand nothing” (Wright 69). The [miscellaneous] “field hands” are negative roll models, they taunt and make fun of Dave “ [talkin] to him [lika] little boy” (Wright 69) concerning something that they neither understand nor have themselves; a since of