Comparison Between Almos’ a Man (by Richard Wright) And The Sky Is Gray (ernest Gaines)

Comparison between "Almos' a man" (by Richard Wright) and "The Sky is Gray" (Ernest Gaines)

"The Man Who Was Almost a Man" or "Almost a Man" is a short story by Richard Wright, and it was published in the compilation Eight Men in 1961. Man of colour, Wright made his work a witness that makes reference to minorities: being Jew, being black, being a gipsy, etc. His novels, novellas, short stories begin to treat an experience of reality.

In what concerns the setting of "Almos' a Man" , we are made aware that it is in a farming area; however Wright never gets into much detail about it. The intrigue gathered around Dave Saunders and the action are placed in the rural South, before 1940. The third-person narrator tells the story by presenting Dave's thoughts, by presenting the dialogues between the protagonist and other character in the story, and by making the observations from the point of view of the narrator.

Wright's short story presents us Dave, an African American teenager, who like all people 'suffering of this age' wants to feel himself as a 'man'. Being in search of his identity and not wanting to be considered "nothing but a boy" any longer, he plans on buying a revolver, in his perception, the only way through which he would be able to inspire respect. If this be the clue for a simple plot, we are about to see that the threads will tangle.

The plot begins like this: Dave Saunders walks home from work and he is nervous because of the way he has been treated. Everyone sees him just a boy who works on Jim Hawkins plantation so he is sick of this status and thinks to modalities that will prove the other workers that he is an adult. The fact of owning a gun is equal to him to what maturity means, so instead of going home as usually he stops to fat Joe's store to see the guns in a Sears Roebuck catalog. Dave requests the catalog, that leading Joe to asking Dave if he wants to buy something. The boy responds with a "Yessuh". Fat Joe continues whether or not Dave's " ma" allows her son having his own money. Dave's answer is "Shucks. Mistah Joe, Ahm gittin t be a man like anybody else!"

Dave is asked what actually he is planning on buying, question that he will answer to only if Joe promises not to divulge to someone. As soon as Joe promises to keep his mouth shut, Dave tells him he's looking for a gun. Joe states that Dave "ain't nothing but a boy", that doesn't need a gun, but if his wish is so, he might buy it from him and not from the catalogue. Joe makes a good offer to him: only two dollars for a left-hand Wheeler. Happy hearing Joe's proposal, Dave leaves the store, taking the catalogue with him and promising to come back later with the money for the gun.

When he gets home he is scolded by his mother for being late for supper. He even looks at the catalogue during dinner, although his parents question him about his behavior. After his father and his brother leave the room, Dave reopens the catalogue to the gun section. Skilled with the typical maneuvers of a child who wants to manipulate his mother – David knows that he should work on her and not his father. He puts his arm around her waist and tells her how much he loves her. Resistant to her son's strategy at the beginning, she relents later, telling the boy that he may have the gun but that he must bring it to his father. With so much excitement, Dave goes in a rush to purchase the revolver. However, he does not return home until he knows everyone is asleep. He wants to have some time alone with his gun. For him it is the ticket to power and independence. This will make him realize he now has the power to " kill anybody, black or white."

Even if the mother awakens and goes to him to ask for the gun, he tells her that he will give her the gun in the morning because he has hid it. The next morning, Dave wraps the gun in a strip of flannel and ties it to his thigh. The revolver is loaded. He skips breakfast and leaves the house, reaching the Hawkins place when the sun is rising.

When Jim Hawkins asks him why he has arrived so early, Dave responds he was not aware of the time when he got out of bed. He is sent by the farmer to plow "that stretch down by the woods."

Meanwhile, Dave realizes that nobody will hear the bang, as he can shoot his goon. He fires the gun but it's recoil makes him drop it. When he looks up to see Jenny, the mule pulling the plow is running across the field. He observes that the animal is bleeding and tries to block the bullet hole with dirt, but Jenny bleeds to death. Not knowing what to do, he will burry the gun.

It seems like the young man forgot that a firing gun could kill…

Later that day, Jenny's body is found and Dave is questioned by Mr. Hawkins, and by his parents also about the incident. Lying, he states that something was wrong with the mule, causing her to fall on the point of the plow. The mother knows her son the best, so he insists that he tell the truth.

At this point, Dave confesses , but only to lie yet again when asked where the gun is.

Hawkins tells Bob(Dave's father) not to worry, because his son can pay the cost of the mule – fifty dollars – at the rate of two dollars a month.

The next two years of Dave's life are planned in advance but not by the boy. Even more annoying is the fact that people now view him as a child more than they did before. Dave's thoughts are revealed by the narrator, who says: "Nobody ever gave him anything. All he did was work. They treated me like a mule…"

Still, the night comes, the boy thinks about the gun; if he could shoot it that would make him gain control over things. This time different: with his eyes open. He shoot – one, two, three times.

He hears a train in the distance, he approaches it and hops on. He is going in a place where he can be a man.

From this narrative it results that we deal with a lot more than a teenager's desire to have a gun. It looks like Wright wanted to underline the search of meaning in his character's life. He emphasized the process of achieving maturity, but also respect from others. The problem is of real importance when the poverty comes in one's way.

The text deals with the problem if racism, we can see this in the statements: "There were white and -black standing in the crowd" and Dave "cried, seeing blurred white and black faces." The mention of skin color makes one think more than just to pay some money, but to the idea of slavery.

To be noticed is the use of gun as misinterpreted symbol of power and independence in protagonist's eyes. Dave Saunders provides bad judgement, as well as his mother. He acts based on his feelings, not thinking of the consequences of his behavior.

As well as Richard Wright, Ernest Gaines is also an African American author, whose works widely spread all over the globe. "The Sky is Gray" was first published in 1963, only to five years later appear as the second story in Bloodline (1963).

The title of the story, "The Sky is Gray" is used by Gaines ironically, to suggest the gloomy mood of the story, but also to point to the belief in a better tomorrow. Just like the clouds go away after a storm, James discovers on his way to Bayonne that the 'clouds' in his life are parting to let the sun shine a bit. In the narrative a somber tone is portrayed, the atmosphere created by the setting contributing to the sobriety. Seeing how cold it was, James says: "I seen the smoke coming out o' the cow's nose" or "The sleet keep falling. Falling like rain now – plenty, plenty." Even if the setting is made clearer than in Wright's "Almos' a Man" and the place is presented in details, in "The Sky is Gray" the colours are missing. As James puts it: "It's a long old road, and far's you can see you don't see nothing but gravel." There isn't much grass, "the sky is Gray"; and even James' s mother is " wearing that black coat and that black hat."

The fact that the story takes place during a war(World War ll), is induced by the missing of the father: "I wonder when us go'n see him again…Look like he ain't ever coming…"

The short story is narrated from the view point of the eight year old black child, James, still, being profound, because Jim is a sympathetic character oo. We learn what happens in a Louisiana morning in which the boy and his mother, Octavia, take the bus to Bayonne to have a dentist take a look to James' ailing tooth. However, as the day progresses, a series of events are shown up- from the moment his mother beat him because he could not kill two Redbirds, to the praying and aspirin remedies his aunt and her friend use to cure the toothache. As the mother and her son wait for the bus, Octavia thinks about home – about James' aunt, the other children, the weather. Anyway, what James tried was to dissimulate pain because he knew the family was poor. Next, James remembers about the event with two redbirds that he and his brother, Ty, had trapped, to his mother insistence that he kill them and later her fury when he couldn't.

The bus arrives and, while his mother pays, James goes to the back. There the blacks are supposed to sit.

Walking through the cold of Bayonne, they finally arrive at the dentist's office, where is full of people. As they are waiting to be seen by the medicine, a conversation occurs between a man Jim believes is a preacher and a woman who tries to talk to Jim's mother. The woman asks consterned why divinity allows so much suffering on the earth; the preacher thinks that one must accept the facts and stop questioning God's will. A black young man joins the conversation saying that people must "question everything. Every stripe, every star, every spoken word. Everything."

This remark makes the preacher slap the student in the face. The student's reaction is priceless: he sits down and starts reading. Even if he is just a boy, James realizes that when he'll grow up he would like to be like this student.

A little bit later, the nurse enters the room and lets all know the doctor's office will be closed until one o' clock..

They spend their morning trying to escape the cold in a city full of things they cannot buy and full of cold-hearted people.

It is interesting to be seen that at a certain moment, a white woman asks Octavia and her son to enter the store and offers them food. James's mother won't accept any charity, so James has to put out the trash in return for their lunch. We see that Octavia's pride and rationality make her look more like a man. Perhaps because of the absence of the father, Octavia had to adjust her personality in order to let her kids know they are safe and sound. Gaines succeeded in creating the stereotypical black woman in the person of such a strong character we are fascinated with.

If we are to look at Octavia, she is a single parent and provider of the family. She is manifesting a tough kind of love. I mentioned later that she was offered by a generous white woman by giving them a good portion of salt meat, but will be refused. Witty spirit, Octavia demands for the right portion, although she knew her family would have appreciated the extra meat. In contradiction to Dave's mother in Richard Wright's short story, Octavia leaves her emotions aside. One may say that pride comes the heart; it's not the case with Octavia. Her true judgement is the one that reveals her sense of pride.

Everyone, included Auntie, knows that she is the head of the house. Her word is respected. On contrary, Auntie or Rose Mary is pious, domestic, kind, she patterns the traditional female type.

The last scene I mention here is when James and Octavia leave the store. James turns his collar against the wind but his mother tells him to wear it properly. She induces to her son the idea of having dignity: "You not a bum. You a man." She realizes that the secret to succeed in life is by being strong, persistent, it's your moral values that you can accomplish. It can make someone rise above the environment and not to be a victim of it.

As compared to Wright's narrative, Gaines puts his character in a special light: optimism. From a little boy at the beginning, James becomes conscious that difficulties are opportunities to grow up.

Personally I enjoyed reading both Wright and Gaines. If the former made me feel like the world is so uncruel and I should like to change that, the last has made me think you are worth living your life with your head held high.

Works cited:

1. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR2/wright.htm – "Almos' a Man" by Richard Wright;

2.

http://www.avlib.in/adv.php?q=the%20sky%20is%20gray%20by%20ernest%20gaines%20full%20text – "The Sky is Gray" by Ernest Gaines.

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