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On getting the gun, Dave realizes that he needs something tangible, other than the gun to win respect. The theme of the story is racism. The intense desire of the protagonist of the story Dave, just seventeen years old, to own a gun indicates the hard feelings of the blacks against injustice meted out to them and their inclination to challenge the problem through violent means. The author writes about the thinking going on in the mind of Dave, “Could kill a man with a gun like this. Kill anybody, black or white.

And if he were holding his gun in his hand, nobody could run over him; they would have to respect him.”(Wright, n. p.)Dave is the product of cultural influences and racial differences in the South. He adopts the procedure to buy the gun like any prudent educated buyer would do, orders it from the “High-end” store after studying the details from Sears catalog. He works in the farm of Mr. Hawkins and his family receives payment for his work. The financial position of the family is average, the family members work for white farmers in their area.

Dave’s mother supports his proposal to buy a gun; rather she is excited and says that they all can use it in the outhouse. Dave accidentally shoots Mr. Hawkins’s mule but he does not make it a legal issue, does not report the matter to the sheriff, and suggests that the boy should keep on working for him and pay 2 dollars a month towards repayment. This is the indicator of change that is happening in the mind-sets of the whites towards their disposition to blacks. The autobiographical element is bound to reflect in the characterization, howsoever intelligently an author may try to sweep it under the carpet.

Richard Wright’s father abandons his family and in the story Dave abandons his family though for different reasons. The former holds it as an act of immaturity, as his father is not willing to share his responsibility to raise the family, and Dave does not want to do two years of work demanded of him as a consequence of his actions. Dave’s rebellious nature is evident and his craze for the ownership of the gun needs to be understood from the viewpoint of his inner traits. Richard Wright creates a peculiar character in Dave Saunders, a directionless and destination less black youngster, who is not willing to compromise with his present plight, but is not clear about the manner in which he has to get rid of the entrapment.

The gun is just the symbol, a product that he desires to own, but he is not sure what he is going to prove. He seeks a path (the road), a locale that the author highlights at the beginning and at the end of the story. The locales indicate movement and earnestly desired changeover by Dave. These roads are the broad indicators of the path of life that an individual has to make a decision to tread. The road connects the two clear cut divisions of the society in terms of money, authority, prestige and on the basis of race/ethnicity.

The section of society that is in an advantageous position considered from all ends, and one that is in a disadvantageous plight, for no fault, and being exploited by the former. Dave has no honorable option to escape from this state of inferiority complex. He envies the prosperity of Hawkins, which is the result of the hard work of the black farm labor. Thus, Wright creates the