Being a Man by Paul Theroux is an essay about how the author feels about being a man. Theroux expresses himself by using examples and facts about a man’s life. He also talks a little about his experiences and the obstacles he had during his lifetime. He states that he has “something of an objection to the way we turn boys into men”. Theroux thinks “the whole idea of manhood in America is pitiful”. It makes the reader see how hard it is to be a man, and all the stereotypes there are about men that make them be who they are. He states this when he says that “Man means ‘manly’”, by this he means that the expression “Be a man!”, means “be stupid, be unfeeling, obedient, soldierly, and stop thinking”. The reader knows what Theroux’s opinion is about being a man from the very first paragraph, where he talks about how fetishism is so associated with men and says that “it is just one more awful thinks about being a man”.

The work’s expressive purpose is very obvious throughout the reading. Theroux uses his own words, thoughts and opinions to describe his feelings about being a man, he writes about the things he dislikes about being a man. Theroux defines hi

mself as a person who has “always disliked being a man”. This is very obvious to the reader, and anyone can clearly see it, since throughout the text he complains about the idea people have of manliness and how he wishes it wasn’t that way, but another way where men weren’t stereotyped so much that they had to behave a certain way in order to be manly. Especially since this begins to take place when they are in their childhood.

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