A Story About A Man

Every people has their own destiny. in the “A man told me the story of his life,” Grace Paley shows the life journey of Vicente. The character of Vicente has explained trough his behavior. He has to face many things to get his dream. Therefore, Vicente is a smart and good boy who cannot achieve his dream to be a doctor.

The story “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” was written by Richard Wright. Wright was born near Natchez, Mississippi. When Wright was five, his father abandoned the family so wright was raised by a series of relatives in Mississippi. Wrights education never went further than junior high school. Wright then moved to Chicago, where he joined the WPA Writes Project. Wright wrote many story’s in his time and was well known for them. “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” is about a kid who thinks is a man, so he goes out and buys a gun, then practice’s shooting it while working and ends up killing a mule then runs away. The theme of “The Man who was Almost a Man” symbolizes the coming of age, racism and self-deception of the kid.

Perhaps one of the most disgusting accusations one can receive today is “You’re racist!” However as disturbing as racism is, it is just one of the many mediums in which people use to control others. Whether the motive is race, religion, nationality, financial standing, or even gender, in every society, certain groups of people have always been oppressed. The culprit of seemingly unnecessary and ignorant oppression is human nature itself. Humans will always experience the need to feel superior, and for that reason, similar connections can be made among those people living under oppression thousands of miles and centuries apart from each other. “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright, “Sweat” by Zora Neale

Manhood defines according to Merriam-Webster dictionary as the state or condition of being an adult man and no longer a boy. In addition, manhood can be understood as the capacity of a man to handle a difficult situation. However, some people believe that manhood comes through action rather than material possessions. By comparing the different paths to manhood taken by Frederick Douglass in “Resurrection” and Dave Saunders in “The Man Who Was Almost a Man,” readers come to understand that manhood comes through actions rather than what one possesses.

The Man Who Was Almost a Man, tells the story of a young seventeen year old teenager, named Dave Saunders, who finds himself struggling with the need to be taken seriously as an adult, while still being seen by his community, as merely a boy. Published in 1961 and written by Richard Wright, this short story focuses on the common struggle of young African American men in the South trying to find their identity outside of the box that the United States society put them in at the time. Dave felt that in order to prove that he was a man; in order to receive the respect he thought he deserved from Black and White Americans alike, he needed to purchase a gun. This, of course, proved to be of more harm than good, as Dave found himself incapable of using the gun correctly, and what resulted was the death of his employer’s mule. Dave then, after creating a nonsensical lie that does not convince anyone, decides to skip town in order to avoid the responsibility of taking up for his actions. When taking into consideration the story line and its relativity to the South during the 1920s, when the story is set, it’s clear to see that Dave Saunders’ story is more than what it seems to be on the surface. Dave Saunders’ story is a reflection of common coming-of-age struggles, and even more than that, the common African American struggle of trying to find power when everything surrounding you, and society as a whole, is telling you that you’re powerless; a struggle that is still very

There are many authors that I had an opportunity of choosing for this essay. I have chosen these two authors because they both have the same ideas about the modern period, but express it in different ways. Loy expresses her experiences in "Feminist Manifesto" during this time as being unequal to men. Wright expresses his difficulties in "The Man Who Was Almost A Man" of being considered as a "man". As you can see from above, both have issues dealing with the fact that no one wants to observe them as more than what they have known them to be. Dave, wants to be considered a man. Loy wants to be recognized as more than just a woman. Equality is the common ground between the two authors and I will illustrate the similarities between the two in addition to their view on modernism.

Richard Wright’s “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” presents us with a character (Dave Saunders) who, like most teens, is dealing with emotional issues associated with a hormonal adolescent. This seems like a problem that most teens deal with. However, readers wanting to properly analyze this work should take the era, or setting, in to consideration. In the story Dave works on someone else’s land and seem to also stay on that same property. Also, the vernacular in the story, and further detailed descriptions of the setting make it apparent that it takes place during “Reconstruction” (Neumann). This greatly impacts the story, it’s characters, and the events that take place. Richard Wright makes it a point to make the races of the main

A couple weeks later Gus was admitted into the hospital and the cancer was affecting his whole body and shutting everything down. He had to be in a wheelchair because; the cancer had spread to his legs. Over the next couple of weeks he was living his life to the fullest, Hazel and Gus were so happy they lived every moment together and then Gus passed away later that month. Hazel was so broken and sad she did not know what to do with her life anymore. She went to his funeral and she was asked to speech so she said whatever; to make his parents happy. After, she got done with the funeral sje went home and the movie ended with her being happy

The two stories that I read about were “The Man Who Was Almost A Man” by Richard Wright and “The Lesson” by Toni Cade. These two stories were very similar in many ways but they were also different too. I learn a lot while I was reading these stories, they really gave me another insight on our society and how other people can’t really find their place in society.

In this film everything the young men said stood out, being treated differently, always living in fear, and their parents do not know if they’re safe or not. The thing that mostly stood out and was resonant to me; was when one of the young men said, that they were stopped by the police while going from one class to another. Also, while his classmates walked by. How can the police be so racist? Stopping a student in school and question him, also, I want to know if any of his classmates tried to help. But honestly nothing from this video surprised me other than that because I know the cause and what’s happening in America. I know how hard it is to be different in America, especially being black. The commonalities in these young men’s stories

I used to work in a grocery store, there was a man who would come in fairly regularly and I would bag for him but we never spoke. I would greet him with a smile and a friendly hello but he never reciprocated. Over time I grew to resent him for it, I began to think of him as someone who was “too good” to speak to a bag boy. This went on and I became so engrossed in my own anger that whenever I saw him it would ruin my day. I hated this man who hadn’t given me any real reason to.

"Obviously, or else I would have just thrown him into the trash can out back" the other man replies.

A random man off the streets of Brooklyn leaned into me. His eyes are dark red with almost black color close to the whites of his eyes. He is so close his nose is almost touching my nose. I can feel and smell his breath when he says, ¨We all have it here. We are all infected.¨

When writing fiction there are certain rules that authors need to follow in order to create good fiction. Good fiction would be one that follows these 3 criterias: character’s behavior is consistent, character’s words and actions spring from motivation, and characters are plausible or lifelike. For a character to be lifelike or plausible it means that the character in the story is presented as someone who you could meet in the real world. In good fiction, the reader will be able to immerse themselves into the book so well that the reader will forget that they are even reading a story. An example of good fiction would be “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright. Wright’s main character Dave possesses the 3 criterias where Dave’s behavior is consistent, his words and actions spring from motivation, and he is a character who you would believe is real.

In the article "Dear Grads, Don 't 'Do What You Love ' McCoy states that every year college graduates are urged to do what they love, but that it may be misleading. Often graduates are romanticized into believing they should do what they love, not taking into account how the job market or economy may affect their job prospects. McCoy believes "that its unwise to build a career on the notion that we should all be paid for our passions" That is only the half of it. Instead graduates should find a deeper purpose in their vocation, especially if they may love doing more than one thing. Also when "love what you do" is taken to heart literally, graduates strive to attain it at all costs but as in McCoy’s case, he states, " When you are working two or three jobs and you cannot pay your bills, it doesn 't matter how much you love any of them. You just get worn out." In this article McCoy feels like the solution for the disillusion in college graduates once they have their jobs, is for the commencement speakers to go a different way about how they present their speeches. Such as them "talking about the consequences of meaningful work instead of the motivation for it," or perhaps doing what they do for a purpose.