The Implementation Of Realism Theory In The Short Story Written By Richard Wright "The Man Who Is Almost A Man"

                                                        Analysis Essay

The implementation of realism theory in the short story written by Richard Wright "The man who is almost a man"

Have you ever done something stupid, crazy or even extremely risky only for the sake of trying to impress or please people around you?. Some of us must have been in the stage where we have kind of self-interest to be the central of people's attention, to get compliments from our friends, neighbours or relatives and then to get respect from others. It is actually a very normal thing to have such interest because we agree that as social creatures, we have the tendency to acknowledge and to be acknowledged, to give and gain respect. We want to be seen, acknowledged and respected. It is just a normally basic character of human beings to get people's validation on their existence.

What makes it wrong or even dangerous is if the self-interest already reaches the certain stage or level in which has wholly manipulated and taken control over one's life and hampers others' lives. It cannot be tolerated anymore if the self-interest has driven one into crazy obsession. The selfish interest which can turn someone into a Narcissistic. It becomes unhealthy because it will fail him in understanding and seeing his real-life value.

The tendency of having this kind of interest happens mostly at the early life stage such as when we are young and still naive and innocent in perceiving our lives and we have not gotten enough life knowledge, understanding and experiences. It more likely occurs when we are on the transition process to maturity. It becomes an integral part of our early self-discovery journey and therefore it is often regarded as a part of puberty process.

That is why we often figure out that many young teenagers who are on the process of puberty often involve in kind of dangerous and foolish actions such as trying to use drugs, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, involving in student brawls and bullying actions, joining illegal car races and so on only because they want to satisfy the self-interest of getting people's validation. They want to be seen as cool, strong, brave and powerful by their peers, they want to get their attention and respect.

The same thing goes to Dave, the main character in the short story written by Richard Wright entitles the man who is almost a man. As it is narrated, Dave, a 16 years old black African American boy did have obsession on having a gun because he believed that the gun could give him power to take control over people whom always looked down upon him. Having undergone racial and social discrimination in his community, he began having more and more self-interest of looking for people' s validation. He wanted people; his co-workers, friends and family see him as a man and not a naive boy. He felt sick of being humiliated, laughed and mocked, he was eager to gain more respect from those people. Unfortunately, he was misled by his own thought and belief that only by owning gun people would pay more respect for him and treat him better. As a matter of fact, the interest at the end put him into a big problem which potentially led him to a changing life decision.

In this essay, the writer tries to give her analysist explanations toward the interesting elements of the short story which is also correlated to the implementation of realism theory in it.

Here are some interesting points of the analysis:

  First, the short story represents the real social and cultural life of rural black African American people in the early 20th century

In this short story, the author portrays vividly how the real life of African American people in the twentieth century really looked like through the following elements:

*Real life issues

As we all know that the issue of discrimination and poverty cannot be separated from the life of mostly black African American people. From generation after generation, they have been undergoing a lot of social and racial discrimination. In the past, they were treated as slaves, they were put in laborers: they had to work for the white people without proper payment, they were not given the basic rights like voting, doing certain jobs, attending schools and so on. No public transportation, no right for freedom of speech, no life safety and guarantee for the blacks. They were suffering so much because they did also have to live under the line of poverty. No proper foods and homes, they were forced to live in segregated lands, each of their movements were watched and limited. Even in the present time, many years after the fall of apartheid and the increasing number of black african american movements, some black people in America still become victims of social and racial discrimination.

Well, the relatable life issues are also revealed in this short story since Dave, as the lead character also experienced a kind of discrimination. Since he was just a young boy who came from a poor black African American family, the discrimination he should experience was unbearable and chained, it was like a devil circle of oppression which trapped him tightly. First, he was oppressed emotionally by his parents and peers who did always see him as a kid. He didn't get much freedom to do what he really wanted since his parents especially mom did dominate and take control over his life activity. He was told what time he had to leave home for work (at Mr Hawkin's plantation) and what time he was supposed to be back at home). Second, since his family was poor, he had to work for a white master in his cattle farm. He did work all day long but what he got was only tiredness. His youth time was stolen because there's no privilege for such a black boy like him as if he was destined to be inferior: always under the control of superiors.

Furthermore, even if deep down inside his heart, he knew that he wanted to do and be more but he could not even get opportunity to grow and develop since people in his community were so unsupportive. He could feel really well how they (working peers, friends and the master always looked down upon him, they kept underestimating him no matter what he did). In other words, in this short story it shows the contradictory life conditions of black and white African American people at that time. Black people like Dave's family had to work for the whites because they were racially less privileged, they were poor and had no social power compared to the whites who at the very first beginning benefited from the privilege they had

*The use of authentic language

As we all understand that black african american people especially in the past spoke English with less normal standard and with different accent from the white Americans. The author includes this element in this short story by using the local language of black African American (unique dialect) for every dialog or monolog among the black characters like Dave and his parents while at the same time he uses standard English for the white characters like Joe and Mr Hawkin. It is aimed to give an accurate description of commonly black African American speech patterns which is surely different from the white ones. It also shows how this difference indirectly helps to separate these two groups, which not only reflect varying degrees of their education but also highlight the inequalities in their divergent lifestyle and standards of living.

Now let's see the difference between the language style used by the black and the white people in this story:

This is a dialogue between Dave and his mother in which both of them spoke English with their local dialect:

Ma, ef yuh lemme buy one Ah'll never ast yuh fer nothing no mo."

"Ah tol yuh t git outta here! Yuh am gonna toucha penny of tha money fer no gun! Thas how come Ah has

Mistah Hawkins t pay yo wages t me, cause Ah knows yuh am got no sense."

While this following dialogue between Joe and Dave in which Joe spoke

+ in normal English while Dave uses the local dialect

"Here, but be sure you bring it back. It's the only one I got."

"Sho, Mistah Joe."

 *The choices of authentic characters

In this short story the author implicitly shows a few common stereotypes of black African American people through the character of Dave's parents. First, as we see that Dave's mother was narrated as such a controlling mother. She asked Dave to work diligently, return home on time and sometimes she was rude, saying that Dave was a kind of foolish, crazy and naive child. It's clear that through her dialogues with Dave, we were directed to believe that she was just like the stereotype of most black African American women: loud, aggressive, demanding, and rude.

Then, Dave's father was also another representation of the common stereotype of black African American men. People usually believe that black African American fathers are kind of deadbeat fathers. They are violent and uneducated. The same thing also goes in this short story, once it was narrated implicitly that Dave was really scared of his father, he didn't even dare to tell him back since his father seemed to have favour on disciplining his sons with violent power. As a result, Dave didn't even have the courage to ask his father's permit to buy a gun.

Therefore, it can be assumed that the author used regionalism which is common in realist works. Regionalism refers to storytelling style that includes language/dialect and the unique personality of an area. In this case, the author wrote this short story with real characters who speak in a way that reflects their region class, gender, age and race

 *The relatable story setting

From the story, we learn that Dave's family and his friends lived in a rural area (probably farming land) where they worked for white people (like Mr Hawkin) in plantations and fields. It proves that the author even considers the setting of the story as an important element to portray the authentic life atmosphere of black African American people at that time. As we all know, black African Americans used to live in farming lands where they had to work for the whites, even became their slaves.

In addition, it can be said that the author uses mimesis and verisimilitude. The concept of imitating real and authentic life experiences which includes detailed description of everyday life, dialogue that accurately reflects the speech patterns of theme and place, and the authentic characters in creating literary or art works.

Second, the implementation of satire and irony in the short story aimed as a critique to the societal norms and values of people at that time

From the story we learn that there's something really wrong with the social life system of people in that place at that time. We know Dave was still young and immature and how he was in the transition of teenage hood to adulthood makes it reasonable for him when he was trying to look for validation and approval from people as a part of his journey of discovering self-identity.

Even more, what he frankly really wanted was just freedom and chances to develop because deep down inside his heart, he knew he could do and be something more. Somehow ironically Dave was living in a very unhealthy and unsupportive neighbourhood where social and racial discrimination existed. In his belief, the only way he could grow and live a better life was by having power over people. Due to the discrimination and humiliation, he experienced and the lack of knowledge and understanding of life essense (since he was uneducated), both had contributed in shaping his unhealthy mindset. As a result, he grew up with this belief and he became obsessed with social life power (in his naive thought, a gun means power). He believed that his life could be more meaningful if he had power (gun) because none would dare to disrespect him anymore.

It's ironic when Dave knew exactly how it felt really bad to be controlled, underestimated and discriminated by others but at the same time he grew his interest in controlling and oppressing others. In other words, the author tries to show people: this is the result or effects of long and painful discrimination, that what is going to happen when you put someone under physical and physiological oppression for such a long time.

 Luckily that was a mule that Dave shot by the gun, just imagine if at that time he aimed to shoot human beings only for the sake of his self interest in trying to convince people that he was powerful, of course the effects would be much more miserable. That is why this kind of story can also be a reflection for the social life problems exist in our community. We can probably use this reflection to question why many young people these days are involved in young delicuency and violent actions, maybe there is also something wrong or not right with the social norms and values on life essense that exist in our society

Third, Dave and Mr Hawkins are characters with complex behaviours and motives

One of the characteristics of realism is the use of a character with complex behaviors, in this short story Dave could not be easily and lightly seen as a young naive boy. As a matter of fact, if we try to analyse his behaviours from the lens of psychoanalysis, Dave 's behaviors were kind of complicated though describable. On one hand, he could behave so obedient and respectful towards his parents. He did follow what his mom demanded him to do" working diligently", he did respect his father, never trying to upset him. Ironically on the other hand, he turned into a rebellious problematic child. He did refuse to obey his mom when she asked him to bring the gun back to home as soon as he bought it, he did not keep his promise to his dad to work hard for paying the debt to Mr hawking. Furthermore, once he felt regretful and helpless for being trapped in a place where he got no respect nor freedom but then he took the courage to leave and choose his own life path. It is obvious that some of the decisions he made were affected by his past life experiences. It took a process actually for him to reach the stage when he at the end chose to make the changes. It could be tracked down from the long process of oppression he underwent, how at the end his violent tendency and rebelliousness came to the surface and started taking control over him

Even more, it's interesting to observe how at the end of the story we could assume that Dave's mental and physiological condition grew ( he started knowing what he wanted and he dared himself to take control over his life when he decided to leave his hometown) on the other side, he was still not progressive on the concept of understanding life value, he did still believe that social power: having gun could make him happy and his life more meaningful. Indeed, he didn't even get the lesson from his mistake, he was still not aware of the idea of being responsible" to be seen as a grown man, he should have known that responsibility is an integral part of an adult's life"

 Then, Mr Hawkins can be also regarded as a complicated character. He seemed very kind to Dave. He did let him work in his plantation and take care of his mule. He always gave him payment. Somehow, there's no kind of thought and awareness of this old man to help Dave in preparing for his future. He did enjoy the privilege of being rich and white, he didn't even care if the young black boy might not have a bright future, that he had to live in the same way as his father or his great grandfather used to live as a worker for the white men.

His complicated behavior and motive can also be detected when he did act like a hero trying to save Dave from his father 's anger. He seemed very understanding when he offered such a win win solution for Dave's problem. He did not send Dave to prison or fire him for having shot his mule and making up a foolish lie. Somehow, he laughed at Dave's innocent stupidity and he made Dave promise to pay for his debt by working in his plantation with payment cut off which indirectly he did steal Dave's chance to be freed from the working labourer in the plantation for a certain time in which Dave actually really regretted. As a matter of fact, Mr Hawkins was just like the other whites for Dave, he did take benefit from the situation and the privilege he had.

 Last but not least, the focus of this short story is day to day life activity of marginalized and low-class family and therefore the plot is less complicated and plausible

 As we do understand together that in this story the author concerns mainly the daily life of Dave as the lead character and his family as the representation of low-class people, it is narrated vividly how Dave and his brother as young boys should work in plantations, they didn't go to school because they had to collect money first to be able to attend school. They had to work for the whites. It's portrayed how they had a simple family dinner in their modest house, how their lives were more likely about working and working, they did interact with the same people in the neighborhood every single day without having the chance to meet new people. Since their lives were just about the same activity circle: getting up early, working, having dinner and the like, therefore the setting is also limited, just home, plantation, Joe's store, wood and as a result, the plot becomes less complicated and plausible.

It shows how the author adopted realism theory for this short story because one of the characteristics of literary realism is to have plausible plot and to focus on the daily life of middle- or low-class family

 In conclusion, the man who is almost a man is an example of literary work that implements the realism theory. It consists of the characteristics of literary realism such as the portrayal of daily life experiences of low-class family, the use of authentic characters and local language, the plausible plot and the existence of a character with complex behaviours.