as in the scene with the hired Caucasian prostitute in the third act. Virgil’s gun-play on the Las Vegas hooker impedes the transcendent evolution to manhood. The phallic symbol of the pistol is the implicit connection with penis to gun, and the gun is the conduit through which violence (and Virgil’s masculine identity) must come. Virgil’s use of the gun in correlation to sexual activity and losing his virginity links manhood to violence. However, Virgil never actually uses the gun on anyone but himself. His inability to obtain manhood is his own failing both times: he pulls out the gun in order to show off how much of a tough guy he is, but it halts any possible sex he might have had with the prostitute. Virgil’s attempt at violence fails, too, when he loses his grip of the gun prior to Steve’s murder. The gun is not fired by Virgil, but Steve instead. Virgil has not