Richard Wright's The Man Who Was Almost A Man

347 Words2 Pages
“The Man who was Almost a Man”, a short work by Richard Wright uses a country setting in order to cause the reader to believe the people in the town were ignorant. Based on the text, the reader automatically assumes the story takes place in a small town on the countryside. Dialogue and symbolism contribute to the role of the setting. The use of slang in dialogue is a prime example of Wright’s use of setting. The characters all spoke in southern dialect; the lack of sophisticated language signifies ignorance. Most words are misspelled and words are abbreviated. The simplistic language of the work causes the reader to picture the town as low class and unsophisticated. The conversation between our protagonist Dave and the shop owner Mistah Joe