The Man Who Was Almost a Man

The Man Who Was Almost a Man Summary | Detailed Summary

Dave heads home after working in the fields. Other men are still at work in the fields, but Dave sees no sense in stopping to talk to them. Tired of being talked down to like a child, he thinks that he will get a gun one day and start shooting into the fields so that they will start talking to him like a man.

On his way home, Dave stops in Joe's store. He feels sure of himself as he enters the store, but this quickly changes as Joe enters from the back. Joe is a large man who greets Dave energetically. Joe asks what he can do for Dave, and Dave replies that he does not want to buy anything, but that he would like to look at the catalogue. Joe hands him the catalogue and Dave asks if he can take it home with him. He promises to bring it back the next day after he has finished with his work in the fields. Joe asks if he wants to buy something and if Dave's mother is letting Dave have his money from work. Dave tells him that he is getting to be a man so he is entitled to his money. Joe laughs and asks what Dave plans on buying.

Dave is shy about answering and he makes Joe promise that he will not tell anyone about what he wants to buy. Joe promises and Dave tells him that he wants to buy a gun. Joe thinks Dave is too young and does not need a gun, but Dave makes his case for being old enough to have one. Dave asks for the catalogue again and Joe relents and gets it from the back room.

When Joe returns with the catalogue he makes Dave promise to return it because it is the only one he has. Dave promises and Joe offers to sell Dave one of his own guns. He tells him that the gun is an old, left-handed pistol, but it is loaded and will shoot. He offers to sell it to Dave for two dollars. Dave agrees to buy it and says he will be back for it after he is paid.

Dave goes home and his mother asks where he has been. He tells her that he was caught up talking with the boys after work. Dave sits down at the kitchen table with the catalogue and his mother sends him out to wash up before dinner. She spots the catalogue and asks about it. Dave tells her that he got it from Joe and his mother tells him that they should keep it in the outhouse. He snatches the catalogue from her defensively and informs her that he has to take it back to Joe. Dave goes outside to wash-up with the book in tow.

Back inside, Dave sits down and looks through the book. His father enters and asks what he has. Dave responds simply that it is just a catalogue. When Dave finds the pages with the guns listed his eyes light up and he exclaims, "Here they is!" (page 409). He becomes self-conscious and sees that his father is watching him. He slides the catalogue onto his lap and the family sits down to the blessing and dinner.

Dave continues to look through the catalogue while eating. Finally, his father tells him to stop and just eat his dinner. He asks how Dave gets along with Hawkins, Dave's employer. Dave tells him that he plows more than anyone else does and they get along fine.

After dinner, Dave's father and brother leave the kitchen and Dave remains at the table. He continues looking at the catalogue. His mother washes the dishes from dinner and Dave asks her if Hawkins gave her the money for his work. She tells him yes, but that she is not going to let him waste the money. Instead, she is keeping the money for him so that he will have new clothes for school in the coming winter. He takes the catalogue to her and says how much he would like a gun. She asks if he has gone crazy and tells him that he is not going to buy a gun.

Dave tries to plead his case by stating that his father does not have a gun, so he should get a gun for the house. He puts his arm around his mother and tells her how hard he has been working and that all he wants is two dollars to buy the gun. His mother tells him that he has no need for a gun because he is just a boy. Additionally, his father would have a fit if he knew that she gave Dave the money to buy it.

He tells her that he will hide the gun from his father. She starts to put away the dishes from dinner as he explains about Joe offering to sell him a gun. Finally, she relents and takes two dollars from the roll of money in her stocking. She gives him the money on the condition that Dave brings the gun back to her and that the gun will be for his father. Dave takes off running to buy the gun.

The next morning, Dave reaches under his pillow and feels the gun. He holds the gun, feeling how heavy it is. He did not come home after purchasing the gun as he told his mother he would. He aimed the gun at imaginary targets, but did not fire the gun because he did not know how. So that he would not have to give the gun to his mother, he waited to come home after everyone was in bed. His mother came into his room in the middle of the night and demanded the gun, but he told her that it was hidden outside and he would bring it to her in the morning.

He gets out of bed and secures the loaded gun to his thigh with a strip of flannel. He sneaks out before sunrise and heads for Hawkins' plantation. Hawkins sees him and asks why Dave arrived so early. Dave tells him he was up early so he came down to get Jenny, the mule, and take her into the fields. Hawkins tells him to plow a stretch down by the woods and Dave agrees.

Dave hitches Jenny to the plow and heads down towards the woods. He plows two rows and then stops and unties the gun from his thigh. He tells Jenny not to run off when he fires the gun. She stands with her head down as he wanders off about twenty feet. He fires the gun, Jenny takes off and Dave drops to his knees, his hand numb.

He goes after the mule and sees that Jenny is bleeding. He panics when he sees the bullet hole in Jenny's side; he was not aiming at the mule. Jenny loses a lot of blood and then slumps over dead. He tells Hawkins that Jenny got spooked and fell on the plow and that is how she died.

At sunset, two of Hawkins' men dig a hole to bury Jenny. Dave watches and other people gather to look at the dead mule. Hawkins cannot figure out how it happened and Dave's family shows up. His mother asks where Dave is. She finds him and pulls him aside. She asks what he has done. He tells her nothing but his father insists that he tell them.

Dave explains about bringing Jenny down to plow and that she started acting strangely. She twisted around, started kicking and stuck herself on the plow. He tells him there was not anything he could do because she died quickly.

His mother insists that Dave tell the truth. Hawkins still cannot figure how it happened and one man says that it looks like Jenny has a bullet wound in her side. Dave's mother asks what Dave did with the gun. Hawkins asks about Dave having a gun; Dave looks at Jenny and starts to cry. His mother asks if he shot the mule. Dave gives in and tells them that he did not mean to shoot the mule, and that it was an accident.

Dave's father asks where Dave got a gun and Dave tells him that he got it from Joe. Hawkins walks up to Dave and starts laughing. He tells him "looks like you have bought you a mule, Dave" (page 415). The entire crowd starts laughing about Dave buying a dead mule. Hawkins tells Dave that he wants fifty dollars for the mule.

Dave's father threatens to beat Dave unless he tells him where the gun is. Dave confesses that he threw it in the creek. His father says that first thing in the morning they will go down and get the gun out of the creek. He tells Dave to take the gun back to Joe and give the two dollars to Hawkins to start paying on the mule. He also says that he is going to beat Dave for what has happened. As Dave walks away, he hears people laughing and it makes him angry.

That night, Dave has trouble sleeping. He is upset by the people who laughed at him and the prospect of his father beating him. He shudders at remembering other beatings. He thinks that everyone treats him like a mule because all he does is work and then he is beaten.

He remembers firing the gun and decides he wants to fire it again. He gets out of bed and sneaks out of the house. He runs to the woods and looks for the spot where he actually buried the gun. He digs up the gun and starts firing the gun. He fires it until the gun is empty. He puts the gun in his pocket and heads through the field toward Hawkins' plantation. He gets to the ridge and thinks that, if he had one more bullet, he would fire it at Hawkins' house. He hears a train coming in the distance. He thinks about paying Hawkins' for the mule and figures it will take him almost two years to do so. He hops the train, checks to make sure the gun is still in his pocket, and leaves town.