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Cather and Wright have both written stories about young adults who could not fit or did not want to fit in their environments. Both stories show how the conflict between the young men and their environments develops and what they do deal with it. Their actions may seem similar; they both run off somewhere in hopes of finding a better life. But despite the similarities the two stories use space and time very differently to prove their points. And the points themselves are very different.
So A Man Who Was Almost a Man and Pauls Case are two very different stories that seem similar on the outside because of the way they are written and the way their authors used plots. In Pauls Case Paul has many spaces. The story starts off with showing his school space. It is oppressing.
The teachers hate him and want to get rid of him. He cannot study well because he cannot focus. The school also gets to him by being blank plain and ordinary. The teachers have no real physical reason not to like him.
He is not paying any attention, but most of the students are like that. It is just his attitude that puts them off and he cannot change it. His other space is his home. That space is so poor and colorless it is almost intolerable for Paul. He cannot learn to like it, he cannot learn to get along with his father because his goal is money and it comes before his quality of life or his son. So Pauls home space is also intolerable for him.
Paul does have some spaces he likes. The theatre where he works as an usher is not as poor as everything else around him. It has color, it has class and it has magic. The problem with the theatre is that every time Paul visits it he finds it even harder to go back to his usual gray world. Another little space Paul has is with his actor friend.
His company gives him a glimpse of the life he longs for. But generally the spaces he has are very far from what he wants them to be. Paul wants color and life but all he can only have it in small doses and at a great price. So he cannot change himself to like his space, he cannot change his space to be likeable and he decides to run away from it. Paul takes the companies money and goes to New York where he gets a whole new space that he loves and wishes to live in forever. But then he finds out that his father is coming after him and commits suicide correctly thinking that he cannot go back to his old space and incorrectly assuming that there is no other way out.
In this story Willa Cather shows us that sometimes an environment that a person lives in can be can be so dreadful and unbearable it can force the person to flee. But the most important point of the story was that life is the best thing that ever happened to anybody and no matter how bad it gets there is always a way out. Even Paul realized it but unfortunately he only understood it when it was already too late and the train was about to hit him. The way she proves that is by showing us the horrible environment that Paul was living in and by showing us the right thing to do.
That is just going off hoping that things will get better. And then she shows us the wrong thing to do. Paul was so afraid of even the possibility of going back that he lost the ability to think, it never even occurred to hem that New York is a very big place where it is not easy to find somebody or that even if he was dragged back he could escape again. And at the last moment he realizes that but unfortunately it is not called the last moment for nothing.
So Pauls Case is basically a hymn to life and its ways and choices. A Man Who Was Almost A Man by Wright is a story of a black boy who lived in the south where every single person seemed to have decided that they knew exactly who a black boy was and what his place in life is. Dave had tolerable space. But the people he lived with never let him choose for himself.
They assumed they knew whats best for him and never even listened to what he said. He had some huge self-esteem problems because of that. He even got it into his head that without a gun he could never be truly respected or thought of seriously. So when he tried to go his own way for the first time to no ones surprise things went terribly wrong. But even after Dave shot the mule Jim Hawkins knew exactly what Dave would have to do to pay for it and his parents knew what they would to him for shooting the mule.
It is like his life has been predefined and he could not surprise anybody with anything because everyone knew what he might do and what would happen to him if he did it. So the night after shooting the mule he went and did something the people who had set up his entire life did not think he could do. He maid yet another choice on his own. He went and shot the rest of the bullets in his gun thus proving to himself that he can do something right on his own. After realizing that he decided that ever since he can make his own decisions he would do so and left the people who used to make his decisions for him and practically live his life for him far behind. Unlike Paul in Willa Cather's story Daves fate is unknown.
He may become a worthy member of the society or a criminal, or maybe even the train he jumped on will become derailed and hell die that very night. That is unknown. We do know however that Dave lived with people that would not let his space be truly his and that after a small fumble he managed to put an end to that. In A Man Who Was Almost A Man Wright makes the point that the society is not always right. That even many people together can sometimes be mistaken. And that in certain cases someone may have to stand up to that crowd no matter how scary and dangerous it might be.
On the example of Dave he shows that the environment and people around us may have something planned for us that we do not particularly like or agree with. And he shows that one needs to fight for his right to go his own way. And one should not be discouraged if the first attempt is a failure. Daves first decision made his life even worse then it used to be.
But he knew that giving up at that moment would be even worse of an idea then the idea of buying a gun. Breaking free from an oppressing society cannot be done partially. If you go halfway things only get worse. And as Dave had to one needs to go all the way. And no one ever said that anything would be better after getting away.
As Dave rode that train he hadnt the slightest idea where he was going. But he did know that he would not let other people make his decisions for him anymore. And the point of the story is that if the society one is in is oppressive he should break free. The next society he is in might or might not be better.
But if he knows that he can break free that will give him the self-confidence and empowerment to make sure that he at least tries to make the new one better then the last. So there is a big difference between the space-time use and the main points of the two stories and both of them provide valid points in the argument between life and death and the argument between structure and freedom. In Willa Cather story life and its options is the main topic and space and time are used in display manner to illustrate that. First we are shown bad personal space and correct decision and then taken to a good personal space and a bad decision.
In the Man Who Was Almost a Man we first see a person stuck and oppressed by the society and then the way that person breaks free and goes his own way. The flow and plots of the two stories may seem similar but the main points and the use of space and time are significantly different.
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