Almos' a Man

In the mid-1930s Richard Wright drafted an early version of ''The Man Who Was Almost a Man'' as a chapter in a novel about the childhood and adolescence of a black boxer entitled Tarbaby's Dawn. Wright never finished the novel, but in 1940 the story appeared in Harper's Bazaar under the title ''Almos' a Man.'' in a collection of short stories entitled Eight Men.

a sensitive look at racial oppression.

The first African-American author to write a bestseller and gained an international reputation for his exploration of racial issues and bold, realistic style.

''The Man Who Was Almost a Man'' chronicles the story of Dave, a young, African-American farm laborer struggling to assert his identity in the restrictive racist atmosphere of the rural South. Longing for a symbol of power and masculinity, Dave fantasizes that owning a gun will win him the respect he craves. After he gets a gun, he learns that he needs more than a gun to earn respect.

Richard Wright is noted for his trapped heroes

Ends with bittersweet images of the heroes moving vaguely North in search of new lives which may or may not be available to them. The Long Journey concludes with its central character on "a journey that would take him far, far away" from a restrictive past toward new possibilities.

The first decades of the twentieth century were difficult and violent ones for African Americans in the South. The agricultural economy was suffering, leading to poverty for poor whites and blacks; but with ''Jim Crow'' segregation laws, which appealed especially to poor whites, blacks were kept oppressed with limited opportunities. Moreover, African-American masculinity was threatened during the time when ''The Man Who Was Almost a Man'' takes place, offering a useful context for Dave's struggle for manhood and respect.