The Man Who was Almost a Man

Wrights short story is mainly about a 17 year old boy who wants so bad to be a man. He thinks he will become a man by getting a gun. He eventually gets one and accidentally shots his bosses mule while working. In this scene he goes back to being a boy who is crying to his mother. The towns people are laughing at him for a mistake only a boy could make. He really is tormented by the image of people laughing and calling him a boy and not a man. He later goes to find the gun that night and hops the train to Illinois. The gun is still in his pocket. Illinois to him means freedom and that he can be a man. He's hoping to find a place where he's not labeled a boy but a real man. I think this story deals a lot with African Americans of the the time and their fight for true freedom. Their fight to not be called "boy" and to be their own person with their own life. I think that is just what Dave is looking for.