ipl-logo

Comparing The Man Who Was Almost A Man And Paul's Case

1238 Words5 Pages

“The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright and “Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather both have protagonists who desire a life distinct to the one they currently live and use a train as a means to gain it. The train symbolizes being brand new and starting a life they have always wished for. Dave and Paul are the same in a lot of ways. Both of them wanting their life to be bigger and better than what they are used to and will go to extreme measures to get what they want. “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright is about a teenager, Dave Glover, who is trying to break free from childhood and enter the world of adulthood. Dave wrestles with the tension of wanting to be an adult yet being viewed as a child by the adult community. When thinking …show more content…

They have the desire to run away in order to achieve a life they imagine is better suited for them. The train in both of the stories is a symbol of renewal. For Dave he uses the train almost as a rebirth into a new life where he can be a man, where as Paul uses the train to finally be able to live that lavish lifestyle he has always wanted. However, for Paul the train is what helped him achieve death when he saw that he will not be able to have the life he desires as well. Paul chose to use the train as a way out so he won’t be forced to return to the same monotonous life he had before. “He had a feeling that he had made the best of it, that he had lived the sort of life he was meant to live” (Cather). Paul commits suicide to preserve those last moments, ironically realizing once the train hits him that there was so much more for him to experience. In “The Man Who Was Almost a Man”, Dave constantly tries to prove to everybody he is a man. When he finally purchases the gun he feels liberated, “Nobody could run over him; they would have to respect him” (218). However, when it was time to man up and accept the consequences Dave chose to run. He used the train as an escape, hoping to find what he has been searching for. Dave and Paul could not face their problems head on and took the easy way out. Dave deciding to skip out of town when he did not get what he wanted and Paul committing suicide when he found out he could not live the life he

Show More
Related
729 Words | 3 Pages

He wouldn’t tell his parents that Erik was a bully. After a while in the book Paul’s confidence had grown to enrage, determined, and a little bit Fearless. He had new friends at school and his confidence grows when he stands up for Theresa when Joey gives attitude about Theresa walking him around. At the end of the book Paul’s confidence changes dramatically. Paul went from a wimpy, Troubled and Anxious little boy to a Brilliant, Cool, and Fearless boy.

Read More
702 Words | 3 Pages

Paul was a young soldier who did not have much to go back home to besides his family, but many other soldiers had families of their own. We saw Paul go through many challenges if it being watching his friend die, going back home, or killing his enemy. Paul was by his friends side the whole time that he was dieing. Paul friend Kemmerich had got his foot amputated and had died from all the bleeding and pain. In the novel we saw at the hospital how poorly the patients got treated and how quickly they got kicked out.

Read More
989 Words | 4 Pages

His entire trip was a journey for him to find himself, and I think his bigger journey is when he left home and decided to travel and survive without giving notice to anyone. He felt misunderstood by his parents, and maybe he thought by leaving and surviving on his own that would somehow show them how he thinks and feels. He also had pent up feelings about his parents from the past that maybe he was trying to work through by leaving. Despite the fact that he dies, his ultimate goal was to convey some sort of art in fleeing with no money or job and attempting to survive on your own as a young adult. People hear his story and want to do what he did.

Read More
527 Words | 3 Pages

“Sometimes, we need to be hurt in order to grow. We must lose in order to gain. Sometimes, lessons are learned best through pain”(SoraTemplates). In fact that’s what Chay and Henry had issues at school, family, and peers. Henry a fourteen-year-old and his brother had a dream to hike Katahdin Mountain.

Read More
425 Words | 2 Pages

He knew that suicide wasn’t the option, that he had a whole future in front of him. Life is like a person who wants to beat you up, succeeding many many times. But then we learn how to

Read More
575 Words | 3 Pages

Paul is in the middle of a war, his mother is dying, his friends are dying, death surrounds him, and he has firsthand killed a man to protect himself and his hiding place. Mentally, he has experienced more stress and trauma than most of the people his age. His transition from reckless teenage years

Read More
556 Words | 3 Pages

If you keep reading this it shows how Paul slowly comes to realize that his friend has truly died with him thinking his friend has died before slowly coming to know the

Read More
1724 Words | 7 Pages

He knows there’s more for him outside the farm and despite what his family believes he’s compelled by every whistle of a train to go beyond what he knows to find belonging. But, the family’s opposing views of what “home” truly is only pushes David further into a state of confusion over his identity. Thus, the relationship between David and his family

Read More
1302 Words | 6 Pages

Paul was beginning to feel the pressure; he knew he would soon have to return to Pittsburgh and settle back into his monotonous life “...and it was a losing game in the end, it seemed, this revolt against the homilies by which the world is run” (Cather). Paul thinks about the flowers he saw on his first day in New York. He compares his own short, but elaborate, escape with the short life of the beautiful flowers on his journey back to Cordelia Street. While dosing off on an overpass, Paul is awakened by the sound of an approaching train. When the time is right, Paul jumps from the overpass and “falls back into the immense design of things,” ending his life (Cather).

Read More
1264 Words | 6 Pages

For example, when he was in training, he was physically pushed to limits that he couldn’t reach, and despite being hghly frustrated with the punishments he would receive, he did not overreact when his good friend Kemmrich had his leg amputated and was dying despite neglect from the doctors that Paul felt could have saved

Read More
618 Words | 3 Pages

Every book has things that make the read so enjoyable. In All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, he uses techniques that make the book so enjoyable. It’s a story with two sides. For example, the book is a huge love story between John Grady Cole (main character) and Alejandra daughter of the owners of the ranch. The other side of the book is that there's too much death that goes along with the love.

Read More
1444 Words | 6 Pages

Be Careful What You Wish For For Connie and Dave to desire to be mature and free is one thing, for them to get it and end up not wanting what they wished for is another and not knowing what to do with it is also another thing as well. Connie the main character in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates, and Dave the main character in “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright have similar hungers but have been put in different circumstances to want such liberation. Connie, age fifteen craves to be mature though at home she acts pure, “she wore a pullover jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home” (Oates page 5). Connie has a two-sided personality a brat at home and a loose goose at night. Not very close to her family members, she sort of ignores them and does her own thing and she also has very little conversation.

Read More
288 Words | 2 Pages

In the contemporary smartphone, internet, and infinite content society, there are no figures that present themselves in the same way Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst, and Edward R. Murrow did in their respective time periods. The media market is far too diverse to support a system where there is only one source of news as was the case in the past. The internet provides a platform for ranges of voices that would not be heard in the age dominated by radio and television. This allows the general public the freedom of choice when it comes to selecting the type and political bent of journalism they want to consume and puts pressure on larger outlets to produce high quality journalism. However, it has allowed the phenomenon of fake news to

Read More
708 Words | 3 Pages

Can people be fully mature? Many teeangers and adults think they are mature and can control many things. Here are two literary works that show how people are not fully mature as they thought. A short story “Crystal Stars Have Begun to Shine” by Martha Brooks and a poem “12 years old” by Kim Stockwood deal with the maturity of people.

Read More
1234 Words | 5 Pages

Then his life was flipped and he had to make some hard decisions, an he became very troubled. He walked around depressed and if suicide wasn't

Read More

More about Comparing The Man Who Was Almost A Man And Paul's Case

Related Topics

Open Document