19.The man who was almost a man

Retrieved December 25,2009 from
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Dave Saunder was 17 years old. He was between boyhood and manhood. One day he decided to be a man. In order to achieve his goal he decided to buy a gun. Gun meant power, masculanity and equalizer for him. He and his family was worker for a white and rich man who called as Jim Hawkins. He was the landowner and Saunders were just labourers. So, we can see social stratification in this story. By the influence of social stratification, Dave felt himself as humiliated and looser infront of a white man. That's why he wanted to proove himself and change his status. He wanted to scare people by hiding behind his gun. There were two options for him: one of them was to accept his fate and the other was: to make people respect him by having a gun. There is another important point that: he bought a gun and tried to fire it in barn but accedently he killed a mule which called as Jenny.After this event, he was injured both financially and emotionally. People around him made fun of him because he couldn't know even how to fire. Besides, he had to pay 50 dollars(ps: he bought the gun for 2 dollars) for a dead mule and this was a big amount of money for Saunders. Thus, Dave's manhood effort was totally a disappointment. But, at the end of the story we can see that he didn't give over. He went somewhere else by a train and here train is symbolising another way for manhood. It meant a ticket for manhood for Dave.