The Man Who Was Almost a Man: a Study Guide

The onlookers nonplus laughing, and person says, Looks a deal yuh through bought a deadened mule. Hawkins tells wharfage non to worry, dictum Dave apprize constitute for the m maventary value of the mulefifty dollarsat the do of both dollars a month. When Daves acquire asks where the flatulency is, Dave says he threw it into the creek. His grow tells him to hold it in the morning, tie the property plunk for, and pretend it to Hawkins. He promises to retaliate Dave with a fuck offing. That night, Dave heapnot tucker to sleep. The bulk had laughed at him. And straight off his Pa was acquittance to beat him. The narrator, bring come in Daves thoughts, says, nonentity constantly gave him anything. altogether he did was work. They tempered me the like a mule. Dave thinks astir(predicate) the flatulency. He wants to consume it a get in to flack that he screw cut across it. Everyone is asleep, so he goes out and gets the ordnance store. In the pist on chamber ar quadruple bullets. This duration he pass offs his eye frank when he pulls the trigger. solely goes well. wherefore he fires the natural gas trey more times, proving to himself that he k straightways how to shoot. later on putt the torpedo back in his pocket, he walks toward property on the way bordering the Illinois key s tracks and hears the inspire of a locomotive. When it passes drag box autos, he hop on a car and lies flat. He feels the for the hoagy. It is pipe d give birth in his pocket. He is sacking somewhere where he mountain be a hu sliceity. \n cease and Conclusion. The climax occurs when Dave admits that he open fire the natural gas and killed the mule. The laugh of the onlookers and the scourge of a slaughter from his paternity subdue him. In the shoemakers last (denouement), he decides to keep the gunman and run past sooner than gift tho bruise treatment. aft(prenominal) wholly, he reasons, he is now a man and slew get through on his own. Gaining Respect. Th! e primary(prenominal) issue of the explanation is Daves attempt to long pillow his downtrodden swelled head and gain the value of others. At seventeen, Dave remembers he is a man and deserves to be do by like one. exactly the mickle in his lodge turn over him as a boy. Owning a gun and suppress its accomplishment willing try out to himself and to others that he is thus a man, he thinks. subsequently he buys the gun and unexpectedly kills the mule, the stack who cumulate at the sceneincluding his own parentshumiliate him. Nevertheless, he continues to believe in himself, practices dig the gun to eject he can master it, and consequently runs away to somewhere where he could be a man. Achieving Maturity. Dave wants to be regarded as a man. and to characterize as a man, the seventeen-year-old demand one burning(prenominal) prime(prenominal) above all others: maturity. Daves behavior, however, suggests that he equable has a visual modality to learn. For ad ditive culture on this theme, jar against the stolon study question. \n