This story was about Les, who is looking back at the moment he became a man. At age sixteen he has already lost his father, therefore losing a crucial male role model in his life. While he may have already lost his father, he is able to bond with Glen Baxter, his mother’s boyfriend who is both a communist and a hunter. One day, Glen Baxter decides to take Les on a hunting trip. Once on the trip, they find out they are hunting on private property. Les’s mother then puts her foot down and confronts Les in the following statement: “I just want you to know that, because that’s a crime and the law will get you for it. If you’re a man now, you’re going to have to face the consequences.” (266) At that moment, without any hesitation, Les leaves the car to hunt with Glen Baxter, therefore accepting responsibility and becoming a man.
A man in this story is classified as someone who is able to participate in typical masculine activities.These activities consist of hunting and gathering, activities that are commonly associated with males. Les, at an impressionable age, looked up to his father, as we see in the following quote: “I like that because my father had been a labor man.” (216-2017) When a boy at that age looks up to someone, that person is considered perfect to them and will want to be like them. In the case of the story, Les wanting to go hunting is that of a “labor man” job.