"Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man"

[GoodTaste]

Does "Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man" mean "Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a real man"?

Well, biologically, a coward is also a man. But it appears not easy to understand the English rhetorics, which sounds that a coward is just a dog, not a man.

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A little later, Guevara was asked by one of the Bolivian soldiers guarding him if he was thinking about his own immortality. "No," he replied, "I'm thinking about the immortality of the revolution."[SUP][211][/SUP] A few minutes later, Sergeant Terán entered the hut to shoot him, whereupon Guevara reportedly said: "I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man." Terán hesitated, then pointed his self-loading M2 Carbine[SUP][212][/SUP] at Guevara and opened fire, hitting him in the arms and legs.[SUP][213][/SUP] Then, as Guevara writhed on the ground, apparently biting one of his wrists to avoid crying out, Terán fired another burst, fatally wounding him in the chest. Guevara was pronounced dead at 1:10 pm local time according to Rodríguez.[SUP][213][/SUP] In all, Guevara was shot nine times by Terán. This included five times in his legs, once in the right shoulder and arm, and once in the chest and throat.[SUP][207]

Source[/SUP]

 

[bhaisahab]

Guevara apparently called Sergeant Terán a coward for hesitating to kill him. Where is this text from?

 

[emsr2d2]

Does "Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man" mean "Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a real man"?

Well, biologically, a coward is also a man. But it appears not easy to understand the English rhetorics, which sounds that a coward is just a dog, not a man.

[SUP]

Source[/SUP]

For "man", just read "person". I wouldn't define it as meaning "a real man". That suggests that the alternative is a fake/plastic man or a robot! You will sometimes see "kill a man" to mean "kill a person". If you want to know if someone is capable of homicide/murder, you could ask them "Could you kill a man?" The person won't assume that you are only talking about the male of the human species. It simply means "Could you kill a/another person?"

 

[GoodTaste]

Please click the attached Source there.

Or click here

 

[Tdol]

Given the bit about the immortality of the revolution rather than the revolutionary, I would not interpret as meaning a real man, but simply a man/person.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Right. With the word "only," "real man" makes no sense there. The footnote explains it well. He meant that his own fate wasn't important compared to the fate of the revolution - that killing a person won't kill a cause.

 

[SoothingDave]

That's right. The man could be killed, but the revolution would live on.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

And revolution was all he cared about.