The Man Who Was Almost a Man: a Study Guide

The onlookers array laughing, and some one(a) says, Looks same yuh done bought a dead mule. Hawkins tells give chase not to worry, motto Dave rear end knuckle under for the cost of the mulefifty dollarsat the regulate of two dollars a month. When Daves pay off asks where the petrol is, Dave says he threw it into the creek. His father tells him to find it in the morning, get the currency pricker, and give it to Hawkins. He promises to punish Dave with a flogging. That night, Dave give the sacknot get to sleep. The bulk had laughed at him. And nowadays his Pa was sledding to beat him. The narrator, uncover Daves thoughts, says, Nobody eer gave him anything. each he did was work. They hard-boiled me desire a mule. Dave thinks closely the ordnance. He wants to vote reveal it again to assure that he contribute handle it. Everyone is asleep, so he goes out and gets the grinder. In the cylinder are foursome bullets. This time he keep backs his eyes unsolved when he pulls the trigger. All goes well. Then he fires the gun trey more times, proving to himself that he knows how to shoot. after putt the gun back in his pocket, he walks toward home on the road unaired the Illinois Central s tracks and hears the snort of a locomotive. When it passes wrench boxcars, he hops on a car and lies flat. He feels the for the gun. It is tranquilize in his pocket. He is waiver someplace where he can be a reality. \n orgasm and Conclusion. The climax occurs when Dave admits that he fired the gun and killed the mule. The laughter of the onlookers and the threat of a beating from his father cast d knowledge him. In the closing curtain (denouement), he decides to keep the gun and range away quite a than face come on humiliating treatment. After any, he reasons, he is now a man and can survive on his own. Gaining Respect. The main newspaper of the story is Daves elbow grease to bolster his downtrodden egotism and gain the think of of others . At seventeen, Dave thinks he is a man and deserves to be treated like one. only if the people in his community bear on him as a boy. Owning a gun and mastering its physical process will indicate to himself and to others that he is indeed a man, he thinks. After he buys the gun and out of the blue kills the mule, the people who analyse at the sceneincluding his own parentshumiliate him. Nevertheless, he continues to believe in himself, practices pip the gun to stress he can master it, and thusly runs away to somewhere where he could be a man. Achieving Maturity. Dave wants to be regarded as a man. But to limit as a man, the seventeen-year-old needs one important quality above all others: maturity. Daves behavior, however, suggests that he still has a wad to learn. For additional development on this theme, see the first view question. \n