Short fiction analysis of The Man Who Was Almost A Man - Essay Example

?Meeting Life’s Challenges Teenage is almost certainly the most critical phase in a person’s life. It is where young people confront harsh struggles in order for them to be prepared for adulthood. Identity crisis is one of the highly grave issues each youth shall battle against. The fight aligned with establishing own identity force the youngsters to be in high tendency of being impulsive (Flores, 2009). Parents should become more mindful in terms of indoctrinating awareness to their children about the hazards impulsiveness can bring upon. It is imperative that youths should learn about being responsible of their actions as it will predict the kind of life they will live in someday (Quevedo, 2007). In Richard Wright’s “The Man Who Was Almost a Man”, it was clearly relayed how the financial privation and identity crisis influenced the aspirations of a 17 year-old Dave. The story unfolds on summertime in a countryside where agriculture and land tenancy is the peoples’ way to earn a living. Young Dave spends the length of his summer break plowing lands and doing farming errands on a plantation owned by a Mr. Jim Hawkins for him to lightly aid his parents in their household and his educational expenses. Being just a laborer of a serious old man, Dave is most susceptible to be bullied by youths of his age. Though not mentioned in the story, it can be foreseen that Dave feels resentful about his life status. For such reasons, intimidating uncertainties developed in Dave’s personality. Then it grew to his mind that there are other things that will define his identity as a fully-grown man other than working under the sun’s heat in order to make a living. He, being bullied by his fellow youths lured him to desire for authority. He found a way of gaining such by possessing something that will make him look forceful and daunting which in his case was a gun as told in Wright’s text: “And if he were holding his gun in his hand, nobody could run over him; they would have to respect him”. From then on, in order for him to feel secured about his distinctiveness from others, he made it a goal to own a pistol. Impulsiveness totally gulped Dave’s mind. He even defied his own mother who was once reluctant of him having a gun. At the moment, Dave could not think of anything else but just claim whatever it is that he thinks was rightfully his; including respect and a right to be an entity to be feared by his fellows. “Nobody ever gave him anything. All he did was work. ‘They treat me lacka mule, and then they beat me.’ He gritted his teeth. ‘And Ma had t tell o’ me’, this quote from “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” is an evidence showing that Dave has been blinded by the feel of being underprivileged. The air of self-pity impregnated this young boy’s mind causing anger to be given birth in his heart. He can go against the oppression from other people but the coercion he is going through caused by his own parents is too much for Dave to take. Mulling over the harrying he feels in relation to his parents’ household management tinted his mind from every positive upcoming that could have been available for him. Like one of the common practices, Dave has been raised by his parents with the help a lash. His parents evoked fear from him in the way of force; he was physically beaten up whenever he had done something undesirable to his parents’ sight. True, such method is an approach to permanently impart discipline to a progeny. However, physical stresses used as modes of discipline also inculcate guilt and shame to the one being disciplined. “Fear, guilt and shame as methods of moral instruction are seen as failures in decent parenting” (Dobrin, 2003). Youths being trained along with guilt and shame are most likely to abhor the disciplinary action forced unto them thus, they fail to develop love for the principle they were reprimanded to learn. Without the willingness to be disciplined, it is impossible for the youths to exhibit conformity. In this part, it is clear that Dave’s behavior and style in confronting the setbacks that budded out in his life as a teenager was influenced by the way he was brought up by his parents. It definitely turned out that Dave went on doing things according to how he wants it without considering the consequences of the actions just as long as pleasure can be found in doing those things- an evident manifestation of impulsiveness (Maslow, 1971). Acting upon impulse is quite the most unnoticeable ways of welcoming danger. As for teenagers, impulsiveness does not only endanger the physical life but also their character and moral standards as a whole. Parents, being the closest available collateral entity to their children, have the power to prevent the perilous outcomes that impulsiveness poses on the lives of each youngster. Parents should constantly remind their children regarding the fundamental intellectual and moral codes necessary for them to endure the aggressive temperament of the world (Flores 2009). Traditional as it sounds, but a consistent and serious communication is one of the most efficient ways to reach out to a teenager. However, numerous parents think otherwise. They ardently believe that they can effectively teach dependability and independent ways of living to their children if they don’t meddle much on their teenager’s lifestyles. According to William Beck, a religious studies expert, “A child shows what he is by what he does”, it only implies that a child’s character is dependent to the activities he/she practices. So, if a child displays inappropriate behavior and questionable habits is it reasonable for the parents to tolerate such? Parents indeed carry a hefty responsibility in guiding their children to follow the correct standards of living. It is their unending duty to shield their children from the dangers that comes along with life. (Beck, 2007) Richard Wright’s “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” is a short story that tells about the different threats that come along with a teenager’s life and the negative after effects of being impulsive as a product of being parentally misguided. The setting of the said short narrative demonstrates a dominion full of struggles; emphasizing more on the unspoken melancholy of a pubescent over his desires to become self-reliant and his noncompliance to the external strains being put forth by the extreme environment that he has been dwelling on. The story unfurled in a place commonly connoted as less fortunate, depressed and ill-fated which is a vivid illustration of the reasons for the occurrence of the major dilemmas faced by the main character Dave. The setting used by Richard Wright in this narrative significantly influenced the course of the story as it illuminated the rather negative after effect of Dave’s impulsiveness in a very constructive way. Though the story elaborated more on the vehement prospects, collectively, it did not made the whole storyline appear despicable instead the entire piece emerged to be very striking. The state of affairs in “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” gives a panoramic vision on the indignant reality that most people fail to observe. The aggressive approach created by the setting of the short story, particularly the manner Dave’s parents managed his upbringing, introduced consciousness about the psychological hazards that are commonly disregarded as effects of parental misguidance and illogically unprincipled treatment parents give their children such as using remorse and fear to demand obedience from their progenies. “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” was depicted in a setting that penetrates the inner state of each individual. Use of a powerful setting was the key that made “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” a remarkable chronicle. Though created way back 1961, “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright remains as an evocative literary piece that tells about life’s realities that are still perceivable in today’s age. This short story is a perfect example of an effective literary. It was written not only for amusement purposes, such piece has the objective of being rhetorical; a literary selection that touches more on the intangible aspects of the human life. It embodies creativity in a way of consigning the actual message of the story behind an artistically deceptive facade. For instance, the central dilemmas observed in the whole story can be unfailingly traced to how the protagonist was trained by his ascendants; the actual cause of the predicament was veiled in the protagonist’s hedonistic desires. The main point is that the short story successfully transmitted the innermost message which fascinates the readers to march into newer depths of comprehension. “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” exemplifies enlightenment by way of emphasizing how immense the parents’ responsibility in leading the young ones to the time-honored and socially accepted manner of living. In this short narrative, it can be perceptibly learned that parents should be the frontal fortification of their children against the anticipated harms and uncertainties of the mortal existence. As told in “The Man Who Was Almost a Man”, the impulsiveness of Dave prophesized the outcome of the young boy’s life. Though it has not been materially told in the story about whatever happened to Dave after he left his countryside home, the gravity of the consequences of his impulsiveness can readily be measured. Of many factors mentioned in the short story, the parental guidance is the most vital one. It is the limiting factor of the events of the whole story. If Dave’s parents concentrated on edifying him about the death-defying ambiguities of the human life and the world’s nature itself, an entirely different set of events could have occurred in the story. Thus, parents should become more motivated in enlightening their children about the prime moral standards that will shield them from the horrifying mischief that comes along with life. BIBLIOGRAPHY Flores, Ma. Pamela T. 2009. Life Transitions – The Challenge. Manila: Rex Bookstore Quevedo, Sonia 2007. Appellations of the Youth of the Land. Manila: Trinitas Publishing Dobrin, Arthur 2003. Feeling Guilty. Manila: Trinitas Publishing Maslow, Abraham H. 1993. The Further Reach of Human Nature. USA: The Viking Press Read More