Authentic Manhood in Wright\'s \"The

Authentic Manhood in Wright's "The Man Who Was Almost a Man" and Updike's "A and P"

Authentic manhood is something that cannot be bought or achieved through a string of mindless actions. Two stories that emphasize this concept are Richard Wright's "The Man Who Was Almost a Man" and John Updike's "A and P." Through tone, imagery, and language, each author demonstrates how each boy cannot be a man because they still have so many lessons to learn. Dave and Sammy are under the impression that manhood can be reached through a series of rather senseless actions. For Dave, the action is possessing a gun; for Sammy, the action is receiving the approval of girls. At the end of each story, neither boy achieves his goal and only sets himself back in regard to becoming a man because there are consequences for every action.

Each story relies on its tone to establish meaning. Wright and Updike are straightforward in relating information for us to decipher. Both stories are ironic in that each young man acts on a notion that he thinks will make him a man. In "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," Dave believes that simply a gun will make him more mature. He hopes his mother will let him "buy one when she gits mah pay from ol man Hawkins... Ahma beg her t gimme some money... Ah mol enough to hava gun" (Wright 1470). Here we see just how childish Dave actually is because he will need his mother's approval and he reasons that the only way he can get the gun is through begging rather than his own character. In "A and P," Sammy actually thinks that how he quit his job will somehow make his life better - especially with the girls. His hope is that they did hear him and he will become "their unsuspected hero" (Updike 1420). What Sammy does not consider is how his life will change with or without the approval of the girls. Just the facts are all we need to determine the character of these boys.

Each author also provides powerful imagery that reinforces the notion that each boy is not ready for adulthood. In "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," Dave does not even realize what has happened when he shoots the gun. We read, "His hand was numb... The gun was at his feet. He did not quite know what happened" (Wright 1475). He then looks at the gun as "though it were a living thing" (1475) and proceed to kick it because it almost broke his arm. Here we see a boy that is clearly not ready to be a man because he does not even know what expect when a gun is fired. In "A and P," Updike provides imagery of the store and Sammy's environment to allow us to see the scope of his world, which does not exist out the store and its parking lot. Sammy describes the store as a "pinball machine" (1418) when looking for the girls to arrive, illustrating how small the store is in relation to the town and even the world. At the end of the story, we see the big windows, "bags of peat moss and aluminum lawn furniture stacked on the pavement" (1421) as Sammy walks away from the only world outside his home the he knew. These images successfully allow us to see the boys as boys rather than men.

Language becomes a significant aspect of both stories in that it allows us to see the boys and the worlds in which they live. Dialect in "The Man Who Was Almost a Man" gives us a clear image of Dave's world and, by doing so, provides additional reasons for him to become a man. He wants to be respected in a town where African-Americans work for white people and a sense of equality is absent. When Dave comments that he wants respect, what he wants is to be considered a man regardless of color. In "A and P," Sammy's language also demonstrates how he is not yet ready to be a man. He only notices things in a sexual nature. He is captivated when Queenie "lifts a folded dollar bill out of the hollow at the center of her nubbled pink top" (Updike 1419). When she speaks, we read "All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room" (1419). This kind of language only surfaces in the mind of pubescent boy. Language becomes significant because we can see each boy in his environment, which allows us to see just how immature he is. Dave and Sammy cannot communicate their feelings and are not articulate enough to be considered real men in the outside world.