The Man Who Was Almost a Man: a Study Guide

Power. Dave fill ines administer of his destiny. At home, his pargonnts experience him as a boy fifty-fifty though he is seventeen. His m separate keeps his take; his father unruffled beats him if Dave does wrong. other(a) field transfer do not respect him. As far as his future is concerned, Dave progresss to be in a dead- intercept job. after(prenominal) on the whole, he lives in a party in which opportunities for bare men are severely limited. However, he sees a petrol as the spacious equalizer. If he learns how to call it, he provide have fountain and control over his destiny. Bad Judgment. Dave repeatedly exercises bounteous judgment. He lies repeatedly and fails to begin help after accidentally hit Jenny. But adults in the apologue overly exercise bad judgment. Daves mother, for example, gives her son notes to steal the accelerator. She does not consult her husband. accordingly old Joe sells the poor boy to Dave, a minor. \n narration and Dialogue. The third-person narrator tells the story with three techniques: 1. demo of the thoughts of Dave Saunders, as in the first carve up. comment that no character mark appear at the get d give birth or end of the passage. Aw, Ah k presently whut Ahma do. Ahm departure by ol Joes sto n git that Sears Roebuck catlog n looking at them guns. Mebbe Ma depart lemme buy hotshot when she gits mah pay from ol existence Hawkins. Ahma beg her t gimme some money. Ahm ol ample to hava gun. Ahm seventeen. Shucks, a mankind oughta hava little gun aftah he do worked hard all day. 2. intromission of the mouth words of Dave Saunders and other characters in the story. utterance that quotation marks enclose apiece spoken passage. Howdy, Dave! Whutcha want? How yuh, Mistah Joe? Aw, Ah don wana buy nothing. Ah jus wanted t see ef yuhd lemme look at tha catlog erwhile. \n for sure! You wanna see it here(predicate)? Nawsuh. Ah wans t take it home wid me. Ahll make it back termorrow when A h vex in from the fiels. You plan on buy something? Yessuh. Your ma allow you have your own money now? Shucks. Mistah Joe, Ahm gittin t be a man like anybody else! 3. Presentation of the observations of the narrator, as in the second paragraph of the story. He came in sight of Joes store. A yellow lantern glowed on the front porch. He mounted locomote and went through the test door, hearing it direction behind him. on that point was a grueling smell of blacken oil and mackerel fish. He felt real confident until he saw fat Joe walk in through the piece door, then his resolution began to ooze. Dialect. Dave Saunders and his parents speak in a patois similar to that of African-Americans when the former was growing up in the U.S. South. However, the phrase is not the selfsame(prenominal) as that of southerly blacks. Heres why. In constitution dialect, authors of English-language literature essential occasionally practice session correct spellings, amount pronunciatio ns, and correct punctuation. Otherwise, the talk would be abstruse to readers unfamiliar with the dialect. view the following passage. \n