Men in Making by Bruce Machart

In Bruce Machart’s last short story in “Men in the Making”, the male point of view reaches its final turning point. The short story, “What You’re Walking Around Without,” involves a male character who is struggling with disconnect between his physical, emotional, and spiritual life. A common thread throughout the novel is the need for human acceptance, whether all of the characters came to terms with the harsh reality of their life or not, they all long for the feeling of acceptance from others.

There is no one correct way to “make a man.” As the stories begin to unfold the male characters are faced with different hardships, heartbreaks, losses, moments of denial, and compassion. Bruce Machart allows us, the readers, to distinguish what it is to be a man of the twenty-first century. Overall, the male characters Machart presents throughout the novel are coping with the difficult task of establishing, defining and maintaining their masculinity.

My interpretation of what it means to become a man is one who is able to come to reality with their own identity, while also fostering the ambition to do whatever it takes to provide stability for those whom are in need of your protection. I feel that all of the short stories portray males to be complex beyond their inability to provide emotions in critical conditions, their lack of effort to rise above struggle, or their inability to deliver with physical strength or love. These male figures in Machart’s novel represent a vulnerable, destructible, confused, weak, and misplaced masculine that are all unable to fit this predetermined mold of what it means to ‘become a man.’

“Men in the Making,” particularly the last short story, “What You’re Walking Around Without,” spoke directly to the reader about the reality that it is human nature to be in need. On page 187, Dean Covin, reaches a turning point, “and knows, despite his injuries, or perhaps because of them, that to be a man, a whole man, is to remain forever