Who's the Man?

The male in Theroux's "The Male Myth" and the Black male in Marable's "The Black Man: Searching Beyond Stereotypes" are equally masculine.  Both men are told what to do.  Marable's text mentions the Black male being a slave: "...the white man reluctantly looked to his Black slave to protect him and his property" (17).  White men told the slaves what to do, and the slaves had to listen to them.  It is something similar to what Theroux says: "The whole idea of manhood in America is pitiful, a little like having to wear an ill-fitting coat for one's entire life" (101).  Men have to wear a "coat," and that coat is everything that society tells them to do. How their behavior should be and telling them to complete certain expectations of society, because if they don't, they won't be a normal man.

• Marable, Manning. "The Black Male: Searching Betond Stereotypes." Men's Lives. Ed. Michael S. Kimmel and Michael A. Messner. New York: Allyn & Bacon, 2001. 17-23. Print.

• Theroux, Paul. "The Male Myth." Across Cultures: A Reader for Writers. Ed. Sheena Gillespie and Robert Becker. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008. 101-105. Print.