Reading Response to Almos' a Man - Richard Wright

Richard Wright

1908-1960

Reading Response to Almos' a Man

This story deals with realism in that Dave felt like he was not respected in that he was almost a man. His mother said he was still a boy even though he was almost seventeen.  

Dave was desperate to feel like he was a man.  The best way he thought he could do that is to have his own gun.  Then folks won't talk to him like he was a little boy.  He wanted to have access to his own money so he could buy this gun.  The only way his mother agreed for him to buy this gun is that Dave must promise to bring the gun home for his father.  She trusted him to buy the gun on his own and bring it home.  

Dave was so excited to get that gun, he slept with it under his pillow that night and lied to his mother about having it.  Having that gun made him feel like a man.

When he accidentally shoots the mule he finds out that he is still in fact just a boy.  He was in a mess of a situation not knowing what to do about the mule.  When the mule died, he didn't have a clue how to explain what he had done, so made up an unbelievable story.  

When he was found out he was devastated, and ran away from home to escape his troubling debt he would never be able to pay off for killing that mule.