Short Story: The First Man

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

“Well? What do you want to do? Put him out? You really are a mean bastard.”

“Soon my dear Wolf.” The Lamb replied. “You will be fed every day until it just you and I.”

“Yeah, it was his plan. He was pretty good at crimes and things like that. I didn’t know he was going to catch me though. I thought he just wanted to meet for the fun of it.”

“I believe that’s our business- not yours.” Rhett snaps - glaring both of them down.

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.

“Excuse me,” I said to one of the people walking by. “who is that man over their.”

“Now..now, my fellow brothers how about whoever grabs it first can take it? Fighting each other won’t do us any good.” The pursuer feigned a smile.

The man then asked,’’ I've traveled a long way and i'm so tired of seeing dead bodies everywhere I go I was also wondering if I could sit a while here. Just about everyone is dead around here.’’

Hinton, an amiable tobacco planter in Virginia, inspected the mill infrequently and trusted him to make an honest trade. There was no way to forecast when loggers would arrive, depending on the weather and the wind and water currents so Matthew remained available year-round. He was tall, burley with bushy, red hair, and freckles that almost connected into a solidly tan face. People never forgot him because his freckles were such an assortment of colors, red, brown, tan, beige, pink, auburn, rust, black, and orange. He entertained visitors with stories of animals and men fighting themselves and each other along with spine-tingling stories about ghosts and Indians that intimidated the settlers. If they were true, it did not matter.

A tumultuous typhoon surges towards you. You are standing still with your best friend and his dog when this occurs. What do you do? Your natural instinct is to run. Therefore, you try to get your friend’s attention and warn him. Unfortunately, he is so mesmerized with the surroundings and is unable to hear you. Suddenly you start to panic as the typhoon gets closer and decide you must run away to survive this ordeal. However, what about your best friend and his dog? Every man for himself? Would you forgive yourself for leaving your best friend behind in order to save yourself? The narrator from “The Seventh Man” experiences this horrific event and lives to tell the story. Surprisingly, the narrator does not forgive himself for almost forty years after the incident. Some readers believe he should forgive himself sooner. On the other hand, others say he does not deserve forgiveness due to leaving his best friend behind. The majority of readers would agree that the man absolutely should forgive himself. Many would argue the reasons for forgiveness are he was young when the event occurred, spent the next forty years blaming himself for his friend’s death, and his friend would not want him to punish himself.

As he'd killed these men of the North, Darius had come to understand a bit about them. They were larger than his countrymen on average, their skin paler, and he had a grim respect for their metalwork. The quality of their steel was much higher than what he was used to, this resulted in superior armor and weapons. They wore heavy plate mail, and ingenious mail formed from rings that'd been formed together. The swords that they wielded were longer, and heavier, as were their shields. Even their fighting techniques were different from what he was used to. Still, as large as the majority of them were, he was bigger still, and certainly stronger. He'd taken a number of the weapons off the corpses he'd made, and had studied the intricacies of

Devin just groaned. “So, you are telling me that now you have a killer who was ordering Rule Guards to kill you, or was, but they did not get you. So now, they are chasing you and trying to find out whether or not you can bring down this figure. And your suspicions are that the hooded figure