Dec 26, 2009

The Man Who Was Almost a Man | Topics for Further Study

Dave believes that a gun will make him a man. What are other objects that signify manhood in contemporary culture? Choose one such object and compare it to the gun in ‘‘The Man Who Was Almost a Man.’’ What do these two objects say about what it means to be a man in each time and place?

Do some research about the economic situation of black farm laborers in the early twentieth-century South. How was the situation of such laborers similar to and different from the institution of slavery that had been abolished half a century earlier? How does this comparison enhance your...