Why He Is Not A Man

Why He is Not a Man

In the story “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright, there is a boy named Dave. Dave is a young boy trying to figure out what a man really is. Right now, he believes that a man is someone who owns a gun. Dave needs proper education about guns and needs the knowledge about what a man really is to be a man. Dave needs to be taught what a man really is because he is not a young man just because he has a gun.

Dave is a seventeen-year-old boy who wants a gun. He thinks he is almost a man. He thinks that having a gun will make him a man and give him power. Toughness is a common perception of masculinity. A man is not someone who owns a gun, but someone who has knowledge of behaving like a man and owning a gun like a man. He thinks that only a gun will make him a man instead of his actions dictating his matureness to others. He believes it will instill fear into others around him.

When one is a man, others treat him with respect. Dave’s parents talk down to him and treat him like a child, when he is trying to develop into a young respectable man. Dave’s mother says, “Yuh ain nothing but a boy yit!” in the story, proving that they look down on this seventeen-year-old boy. His mother tells him in the story to go wash his hands before he eats. If Dave was a man, then his mother should never have had to say that. In our society today, when a boy is seventeen years old, he is almost a man or considered a young man. In Dave’s society, he is treated like a young boy. If Dave’s parents saw his point of view on having a gun then they might want to look at why he wants it. At this time, they should tell him that a gun does not make a man. His mother does not think he should have a gun. In actuality, if Dave were a man, then he would have not wanted a gun to obtain power over others, but for pleasure.

In Dave’s actions, he is like a young boy. A man who owns a gun knows how to shoot a gun and knows the right and wrong time to use a gun, unlike Dave.