The Man Who Was Almost a Man (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Richard Wright
- First Published: 1940
- Type of Plot: Psychological
- Time of Work: The 1930's
- Setting: The American South
- Principal Characters: David Glover, David's mother, Jim Hawkins
- Genres: Psychological fiction, Short fiction
- Subjects: African Americans, Maturation or coming of age, Teenagers, Poverty or poor people, Emotions, Guns
- Locales: South (U.S.)
The Story
“The Man Who Was Almost a Man” is an initiation story, a tale of a teenage youth struggling to break free of childhood and enter the world of adulthood. Frustrated by being young, poor, and black, David Glover wrestles with the tension of wanting to be an adult yet being viewed as a child by the adult community. In David's case, the action that he takes to acquire manhood merely reinforces his elders’ beliefs that he is still an adolescent.
When the story opens, David is thinking about his quest for manhood, which he connects with owning a gun. Because he...
[The entire page is 1383 words long]
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