The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Man Who Was Almost a Man Essay Example

as a way to prove his manhood.

Dave exclaims, "Ah scared them even though they're bigger than me! I'll show them. I'm going over to Joey's place and look at those guns in the Sears Roebuck catalog... I need a gun. I'm seventeen... A man should have a weapon when he's worked hard all day." (757) Ironically, the men he is trying to surpass don't even possess guns. In his quest for maturity and independence, Dave relentlessly wields the gun. Passionately, Wright describes it, "With a gun like this, I could kill a man. Anyone, regardless of race."

If he had his gun in his hand, nobody could harm him; they would have to respect him. The gun was large, with a lengthy barrel and a heavy handle. He held it up and down, fascinated by its weight" (761). Dave's relationship with Nils is comparable to Jane's with Day. Dave's possession of the gun represents Nils' symbolic control, much like the mule Jenny. Unlike Jane's surrender to her mental instability, Dave tries to conceal his downfall by burying the gun. In the end, neither character achieves their desired freedom. Jane liberates herself from her marriage but is confined by her insanity. Likewise, Dave loses his innocence but continues to make naive choices, avoiding his problems and clinging onto an object that only brings him misery. Darkness and light play significant roles in both stories. Jane, the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper," becomes withdrawn and fatigued during the day, similar to the wallpaper itself. "I didn't realize for a long time what the figure behind it was, that faint sub-pattern, but now I am

quite sure it is a woman. In daylight, she is muted and calm. I believe it is the pattern that keeps her so subdued. It is very perplexing. It keeps me silent for hours" (752). She is trapped within her room and garden, afraid to disrupt the enforced routine imposed by Jennie and John.However, at night, she transforms into a frantic woman, spending all her energy watching the moonlight change the wallpaper. It becomes clear to her that the wallpaper is like bars, with a plain woman behind it. Similarly, Dive's days only bring him trouble and humiliation. During the day, Dave must endure his family, the field hands, and Jim Hawkins treating him like a child. He yearns to be understood by others and plans to prove himself by practicing shooting with a gun. However, he accidentally shoots Jenny the mule, resulting in trouble, tears, and humiliation.He heard people laughing and Dave glared, his eyes welling with tears (764). However, at night, Dave seeks his independence and manhood. In the darkness, Dave has the courage to ask his mother for a gun, sneak the gun into the house, and escape to a place where he will be a man. Wright describes Dive's feeling of manhood during the darkness in this passage: "In the gray light of dawn he held it [the gun] loosely, feeling a sense of power. He had not come straight home with it as his mother had asked; instead he had stayed out in the fields, holding the weapon in his hand, aiming it now and then at some imaginary foe.... To avoid surrendering the pistol he had not come into

the house until he knew that they were all asleep." (761) When his mother had tiptoed to his bedside late that night and demanded the gun, he had first played possum; then he had told her that the gun was hidden outdoors, that he would bring it to her in the morning. Although the gun has only brought Dave pain and humiliation, it still represents his transition from being a child. Once again, at night, Dave begins his desperate plot to escape punishment and the bounds of his age: "That night Dave did not sleep. He was glad that he had gotten out of killing the mule so easily, but he was hurt. Something hot seemed to turn over inside him each time he remembered how they had laughed." He tossed on his bed, feeling his hard pillow.... All he did was work.They treat me like a mule, and then they beat me. He had an itch to fire it again. Fee other men kin shoots gun, by Gad, Ah kin! He was still, listening. Member they all sleeping now.... The moon was bright.... He stumbled over the ground, looking for the spot where he had buried the gun. Yeah, here it is. Like a hungry dog scratching for a bone, he pawed it up.... He looked around; the fields were filled with silence and moonlight.... The gun was still in his hands. Dimmit, he'd done it! He fired again. Ballroom! He smiled....

When he reached the top of the ridge he stood straight and proud in the moonlight ... He was hot all over. He hesitated Just a moment; then he grabbed, pulled

atop off car, and lay flat. He felt his pocket; the gun was still there. Ahead the long rails were glinting in the moonlight, stretching away, away to somewhere, somewhere where he could be a man.... (764-765)

Humans always have a need to be powerful and independent, free to do as they choose. However, sometimes they are unable to achieve freedom because of the choices they make. Is Jane any happier free, but without her sanity?

Does Dave come an adult with only an empty gun to protect him? Perhaps exemplifying their own lives: Gillian, a woman who suffers a nervous breakdown, and Wright, from an uneducated poor family, create two examples of the cost of freedom.