"Being A Man" - Steinbeck's "Flight"
...found him and told him he would make a trip into town he immediately began asking questions. “Mama, you will put the hatband on the hat? And the green handkerchief, Mama?” (1366) These were articles of clothing that more than likely belonged to his father. His mother warns not to get anything on these articles. His response is, “I will be careful. I am a man.” (1366) This is the first time that we hear Pepe speak of himself as a man. His narrator mentions mother thoughts of Pepe earlier in the story by saying, “Mama thought him fine and brave.” She did not however refer to him as a man. After he rides out of sight toward town Mama does say however, “He is nearly a man.” (1367). After Pepe returns from town and tells his mother of the happenings at Mrs. Rodriguez’s she insists that he must ride into the mountains in hopes of evading his certain pursuers. We learn from his tales that he had drank wine at Mrs. Rodriguez’s, which is thought of as an adult – man, thing to do, and had killed a man during an argument. Pepe did leave the scene of the crime but did not act as a child when facing the facts of what he had done or what he must do. His mother helps to saddle up the horse and tells him to ride into the mountains and not to stop until dark. As she was packing the horse Rosy, one of the siblings asks, “Where goes Pepe?” (1369) In which the mother responded with, “Pepe goes on a...