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Summary
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Man Who Was Almost a Man, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Manhood and Violence
Racism and Power
Economic Oppression
Summary
Analysis
As he’s heading home from the fields for dinner, Dave Saunders thinks about some of the other, older workers in the field who always talk down to him as if he were a little boy. Dave thinks to himself that he’s not afraid of those other workers, even though they’re bigger than him. He concludes that if he just had a gun, he’d be able to prove he’s a man and shut them up. In fact, he decides that at 17, he’s enough of a man that he deserves a gun. He plans to ask his mother for money so he can buy one.
From its opening lines, the story quickly establishes that Dave’s views of masculinity are shaped by the people around him and, more specifically, by how they treat him. Further, it makes clear that this version of masculinity is rooted in violence and power. Dave’s quest to buy a gun is inspired by these violent ideas about manhood.
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Themes
On the way home, Dave stops by Joe’s store. He feels confident at first, but once he sees Joe—a white man—his courage begins to slip. Joe asks what Dave wants, and Dave responds by vaguely asking if he can borrow a Sears Roebuck catalog to look at overnight. Joe questions if Dave is going to actually buy something, since his mother doesn’t yet let him have his own money. Dave indignantly responds that he’s nearly a man, which makes Joe laugh. Eventually Joe’s questions lead to Dave admitting that he wants to buy a gun. Joe tries to talk Dave out of it at first, but he eventually agrees to let Dave borrow the catalog.
When Dave arrives at Joe’s store to buy the gun, he finds that he doesn’t have the courage he expected to have. Some of this may be because Joe is a white man—even without saying anything, he seems to intimidate Dave, emphasizing how much more authority white men had in the South in the early twentieth century. Joe’s laughter at Dave’s claim that he’s a man emphasizes this point—clearly Joe doesn’t see Dave as a man yet. This is partly because of Dave’s young age, but it’s also possible to infer that Joe’s ideas about race also plays a role in his dismissive behavior toward Dave. The fact that Dave’s mother holds his money further suggests Dave’s status as a child, while also establishing the role that money plays in granting or thwarting independence in the story.
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Dave feels triumphant for getting Joe to give him the catalog. As Dave is leaving, Joe has an idea, and mentions that he actually has a gun Dave could buy. Joe explains that it's an old gun, and when Dave asks, promises that it will come fully loaded. He says that Dave can have the gun for two dollars. Dave brags that he can get that much money together as soon as he gets his pay. Joe promises to hold the gun at the store for him in the meantime. Dave takes the catalog with him when he goes.
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When Dave makes it home, his mother, Mrs. Saunders, chides him for being late and for coming to dinner before washing up. Then his mother notices the catalog where he had put it on the table. She questions him about what it is and where he got it. When Dave admits he got it from Joe’s store, his mother suggests using it in the outhouse. Dave pleads for her not to do that, and, reluctantly, she returns the catalog to him. Dave is nervous and distracted as he washes up for dinner, such that his mother threatens to take the catalog from him and burn it. Dave is able to get her to relent, and then pores over the catalog, so engrossed with it that he doesn’t realize his mother has put food on the table.
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Themes
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Soon, Dave’s father, Bob Saunders, and his younger brother enter the room and sit at the table. Dave’s father also asks about the catalog, to which Dave replies that it’s just a catalog. Dave gets excited when he comes upon the catalog’s listings of guns, but then he realizes his father is watching and catches himself. He shifts to eating his dinner. While he eats, Dave decides not to mention the gun at all to his father—he knows that talking about money in front of his father won’t go well. Instead, he plans to corner his mother alone.
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Dave’s father tells Dave to stop fooling with the catalog, and then asks Dave how he’s getting along with Jim Hawkins, the plantation owner. Dave responds that it’s going well, and that he plows more land than anyone else. Dave’s father responds that Dave should keep his mind on his work.
When Dave’s father and younger brother leave the kitchen, Dave begins working up the courage to ask his mother about the gun he wants to buy. He continues to look at pictures of the gun in the catalog and imagines what it would look and feel like in his hand. His fantasy about owning it becomes ever more elaborate, as he makes promises to himself about how he will polish the gun and keep it in pristine condition, and how he will keep it loaded.
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Dave opens the catalog for his mother to the page with the gun on it, but his mother doesn’t understand what he wants. Dave doesn’t even dare to point at the gun, but eventually his mother understands and asks if Dave has gone crazy. She tells him to “Git outta here!” and stop asking about it. Dave argues that she promised to get him one, but she responds that she doesn’t care what she promised. Dave says that he’ll never ask her for anything else again. Dave’s mother remains firm and declares that he will never touch a penny of the wages that Mr. Hawkins pays to her for Dave’s work.
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Dave tries a different approach to convince his mother to buy him the gun. He says that the family needs a gun because his father doesn’t have one yet. His mother replies that even if the family did get a gun, Dave wouldn’t be the one to have it. Dave replies that he worked hard all summer. He says he only wants two dollars out of his own money. He promises to give the gun to his father. His mother asks in a low voice why he even needs a gun. She thinks it’ll only bring him trouble. Dave replies that he’ll hide the gun, and then adds that he’s almost a man now. His mother asks who will sell Dave the gun, and he tells her about Joe at the store. His mother confirms that the price is only two dollars while she slowly puts the dinner plates away. Finally, she turns to him.
Dave’s mother promises to let Dave get the gun on one condition: he has to bring it straight back for his father. Dave agrees and asks to go get it right away. Dave’s mother finally pulls out the money from under her dress. She doesn’t agree that Dave needs a gun, but she concedes that Dave’s father does. She tells Dave that he needs to come right back to her with the gun (and that if he doesn’t his father will lick him good). Dave agrees, takes the money, and runs back toward the store. His mother calls after him, but he doesn’t listen.
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The next morning, the first thing Dave does is reach under his pillow for the gun. He holds it loosely and feels its power. He knows that he could kill anybody, “black or white,” and he believes this means everyone will have to respect him. He tests the gun’s weight and marvels at it.
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The night before, he did not come straight home as his mother asked him to. Instead, he went out to the fields until he knew his family was asleep, testing the weapon out by aiming it at imaginary foes. He did not fire it, however, and is not sure that he knows how to fire it. When his mother had come to him in the middle of the night asking for the gun, he lied and told her he had hidden it somewhere outside.
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Now in the early morning, Dave wraps the loaded gun to his thigh with a strip of old flannel and skips breakfast to head down toward the barns before it even gets light outside. Mr. Hawkins stops him, looking at him suspiciously because Dave is early. Dave lies, however, and says he’s just going to hitch up the mule Jenny to plow the fields. Mr. Hawkins says that since he’s up so early, he may as well plow a stretch down by the woods, and Dave agrees to do it. Dave hitches up Jenny and starts to plow, still feeling the weight of the gun on his thigh.
Dave plows two whole rows with the mule Jenny before even taking the gun out. He talks to the mule, excitedly telling her what the gun is and what it can do. Finally, he decides to test the gun. The gun feels loose in his fingers. He closes his eyes and shoots it. The sound half-deafens him and the force jerks his arm. He hears Jenny whinny and gallop away. His hand hurts so much from the kickback that it goes numb. The gun is now at Dave’s feet, and he’s not entirely sure what happened. He grits his teeth and kicks the gun, angry at it for hurting his arm. Jenny is far away over the fields.
Dave chases after the mule Jenny, calling for her to hold on. When he catches up with her, he finds her trembling. Her left side is wet and red with blood. Dave looks closer and can’t believe he shot the mule. He tries to restrain the mule to get a better look. A crimson stream is flowing down her leg. Dave panics. He knows he has to stop the blood or else Jenny will bleed to death. He chases her for half a mile until she stops, breathing heavily. He leads her back to where he left the gun, then tries to plug up the hole in her side with damp black earth rubbed over his hands. Jenny keeps resisting as more blood flows out, forming a pool. Dave feels that there must be something he can do, but soon the mule sinks to her knees, and then dies.
Dave’s stomach feels empty. He takes the gun and buries it at the foot of a tree. He tries to cover the blood with dirt but stops when he realizes it’s no use—there’s no hiding the big dead mule, Jenny. Dave doesn’t want to tell his boss Mr. Hawkins that he shot the mule, so he comes up with a lie: that Jenny stumbled and fell on the point of a plow. Dave realizes this lie isn’t very plausible and slowly walks across the field.
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At sunset of that day, two of Mr. Hawkins’ men are burying the mule Jenny at the edge of the woods. Mr. Hawkins remarks that he doesn’t know how in the world it happened. Soon Dave’s family arrive to the gathered crowd, asking where Dave is. Mr. Hawkins points him out, and his mother grabs him and asks what he did. Dave says he did nothing, but his father also demands that he explain what he’s done. Dave tells his lie about Jenny being impaled after falling on the point of the plow. Mr. Hawkins asks if anyone has ever heard of such a thing, and the crowd murmurs. Dave’s mother insists that Dave tell the real truth. At this moment, one man notes that the mule’s wound looks like a bullet hole, causing Dave’s mother to ask what he did with the gun. The crowd focuses on Dave. Mr. Hawkins asks if Dave really had a gun. Dave’s father catches Dave by the shoulders and shakes him vigorously, demanding that he tell the truth. Dave looks at the dead mule and begins to cry while Dave’s mother, Dave’s father, and Mr. Hawkins continue to ask him what happened.
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Dave finally admits what happened. Stuttering, he swears he didn’t mean to shoot the mule Jenny. His father asks where he got the gun, and Dave admits it was from Joe’s store. Mr. Hawkins asks how Dave happened to shoot the mule. Dave insists again he wasn’t aiming at the mule. Someone in the crowd laughs.
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Mr. Hawkins comes up close to Dave and informs him that he just bought himself a dead mule. The whole crowd begins to laugh and taunt Dave, who keeps his head down and twists his feet in the dirt. Mr. Hawkins then tells Dave’s father not to worry about it; Dave can just keep working as usual and pay Mr. Hawkins two dollars out of his salary every month. He thinks for a moment, then sets the price of the mule at 50 dollars. Dave’s father demands to know what Dave did with the gun, threatening to beat Dave. Dave lies and says he threw it away in the creek, to which his father replies that Dave must go out first thing in the morning to find it again, return it to Joe, and then give the money to Mr. Hawkins as a first payment on the debt. Dave walks away to the sound of people laughing. He has tears in his eyes and is angry.
That night, Dave doesn’t sleep. He is glad at first that he got out of killing the mule so easily, but he also feels hurt, particularly when he remembers how the crowd laughed at him. Dave is also dreading the beating that his father has promised to give him. Dave remembers previous beatings and quivers. He thinks that he is being treated like a mule, and blames his mother for telling on him.
Dave thinks about how he fired the gun and gets the urge to do it again. He decides that if other men can shoot a gun, he can too. The house is still and Dave decides the rest of his family must be asleep. He slips into his overalls and goes out toward the woods. He stumbles on the ground, looking for the spot where he buried the gun earlier. He finds it, and digs it up.
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Dave blows the dirt off the gun and checks the barrel, which holds four cartridges that haven’t been shot yet. He looks around, and the fields are silent in the moonlight. As he goes to shoot the gun, he closes his eyes and turns his head. But then he decides he wants to keep his eyes open and his head facing forward, so he forces himself to keep his eyes open as he squeezes the trigger. His shot is successful, and the recoil doesn’t cause him to drop the gun the way it did the first time he shot the gun. He empties the remaining cartridges by firing into the empty fields.
Dave starts to walk back home. When he reaches the top of a ridge, he stands tall and proud in the moonlight as he looks down at Mr. Hawkins’ big white house. He feels the gun sagging in his pocket. He wishes he had one more bullet to take a shot at the house. He’d like to scare Mr. Hawkins, to let him know that he, Dave Saunders, is a man.
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Dave hears a train coming down the tracks nearby. He thinks about his debt to Mr. Hawkins and realizes it’ll take him nearly two years to pay it all back. Dave goes down a nearby road, toward the train tracks. He keeps a hand on the gun, and something quivers in his stomach. The train cars thunder past, grinding on the steel tracks. Dave decides that he’s going to be riding the train that night. He feels hot all over. After a moment’s hesitation, he reaches out and pulls himself atop a train car, lying flat. The empty gun is still in his pocket. Ahead, the railroad tracks gleam in the moonlight, stretching on to somewhere new, to somewhere where Dave could finally be a man.
