Discussion Questions

"The Man Who Was Almost a Man" Discussion Questions

To Dave owning and shooting a gun is what he considers manhood. He thinks that now that he is 17, he should ask his mom for his own gun so that that he become a man. We only see the view of Dave, we don't really see into anyone else. We don't get into the perspective of anyone else, but the narrator just shows the viewpoint of Dave but doesn't get into his mind and thoughts. The switches between the narrator and all the other characters make this story difficult to read because the narrator speaks "proper" English while the other characters speak broken English and makes it hard to read without having to go back and reread sentences at a time.

In his future, I think that he is just going to take a long journey until he can find something else to do in a town or place that no one knows who he is. He would keep all his money and be on his own instead of being with his family and having to repay for the mule he accidentally killed.