Use Of Situational Irony In The Man Who Was Almost A Man

In Richard’s Wright’s short story The Man Who Was Almost a Man, the are many examples of irony throughout the text. It is shown throughout the plot by using the main character, Dave. Irony is when a word or action is used to have an opposite or different meaning. In this text, there are many occurrences of situational irony. Richard Wright uses irony throughout his short story to express the point of manhood and the mental development of his character Dave who is seventeen years old. He is at an age where he could be considered a man. Therefore, Wright uses plot progression to express his irony. In the short story The Man Who Was Almost a Man, situational irony is expressed in three occurrences the first is Dave’s ideal path of manhood, the killing of the mule, and the ending of the story.

Dave is a seventeen-year-old teenager which by modern terminology he is coming of age and can be perceived as a young man. In modern society, at this age, he is able to work and graduated or about to graduate which graduating from high school is the first step in becoming a man. However, Dave feels as if he is already a man and believes that a gun will show everybody his manhood. However, this immature idea shows how much of a child he is. According to the bible, a man is someone who puts away childish things (Corinthians 13:11). The childish thing about Dave is that he disobeys the adults and does not in fact give the gun to Mr. Saunders like he was told too. He later starts to lie constantly about the gun and even lies about the death of Jenny. This in facts truly shows how childish Dave is and how far off the path of manhood he