After reading and analyzing
the short story “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright, I found a
connection between Dave Saunders, the protagonist of the story, and Antonio
Montana from “Scarface”. Both of these men were in search for power, which ultimately
led them to their downfall.
The
story “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” is about seventeen-year-old Dave. He is
convinced he is “almost a man” and hopes to someday own a gun to get the
respect he thinks he deserves from others. “Scarface” illustrates the life
of Antonio Montana, a political refugee from Cuba who is better known as
"Scarface". The movie portrays
the journey of Antonio’s search for power as one of Miami’s wealthiest and most
famous drug dealers. Like
Antonio, Dave has a strong desire for power. He believes that owning a gun will
get him what he wants. Both protagonists crave authority as a result of bad
life experiences and the lack of social and economic supremacy earlier in heir
lives. Dave is constantly over-worked and looked down upon by other people. He feels like he is trapped in a world that denies him
freedom, and believes that such gun will grant him the liberty he is in search
of. Antonio escapes Cuba, where everyone is poor and mistreated by the
government, and is focused on obtaining the authority he never had.
Despite Antonio’s rise to fame and fortune, his
selfish thirst for power puts him in great danger, which eventually leads to
his demise. Although Dave did not die, his quest for power brought him very
unfortunate consequences. After accidentally shooting and killing his boss’s
mule, Dave was punished for his reckless actions and ended up running away from
his family as a way to escape the retribution he brought upon himself.
This was a very clever comparison you made. Looking back on the short story, there are definite similarities found in The Man Who Was Almost a Man and to this 80's classic. As Scarface is one of my favorite movies, I immediately took interest in your blog entry within moments of reading it. I agree with you in that both are very much connected although Scarface had more extremes. I like how you showed how both Tony and Dave are desperately searching for power in the wrong places. The main characters in each respective story shared the common thirst for power despite having completely different morals and beliefs. I found it interesting that two completely different people and be hypnotized by the thought of power and authority. Good job.
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