Answer:
Richard Wright carefully crafted the background to typify the title. This is the story of a young African American who worked in a field owned by Mr. Hawkins. The main character, Dave, dreams of owning a gun so that he can demand some respect from his coworkers at the field and let them know he is a man. He sees it as a quest for manhood, and he believes that a gun is a symbol of that maturity, so he seeks out to get a gun. He felt bad from the little disagreement he had with some of the workers one day that the only way to command respect was to have a gun. After work, he walked up to the gun shop and asked the shopkeeper for a catalog so that he can look at the pictures of revolvers. David becomes obsessed with thoughts of guns, becoming a man, and most importantly, the strategy that he must use to persuade his mother that he should be able to buy a gun. The storekeeper promised to sell out his old gun to dave for $2. Dave promised to return. He managed to convince Mrs. Saunders his mother that he needed $2 to purchase a gun for the family's security. The young boy later got the gun from the storekeeper on his way from home. The seventeen-year-old boy killed a mule with the gun while trying to test it. The owner demanded a refund of $50 or else he won't go "Scott free." This symbolizes the African-American desire to escape the poverty of the South at the time the story was written. Much like the African Americans, Dave got what symbolizes freedom, but it came at a greater cost since he was so careless with it.
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