Dec 9, 2009

The Man Who Lived Underground | Introduction

"The Man Who Lived Underground," Richard Wright's story about a man who makes a home in city sewers after he is falsely accused of a murder, was first published in the journal Accent in 1942. It was originally written as a novel, but Wright could find no publisher for it and shortened the story to a length that would be suitable for a magazine. Two years later, the editor Edwin Seaver, a friend and admirer of Wright, included a longer version m an anthology, Cross Section. In 1960 the anthologized version of the story was included in Wright's collection Eight Men. Since that publication, the story has been consistently and widely anthologized and discussed. Wright did not live to see the ultimate success of his story, having died two months before Eight Men appeared.

The story concerns Fred Daniels, an African American falsely accused of killing a white woman. As he attempts to make a new life in the sewers, he examines his assumptions about guilt and innocence and comes to believe that people are inherently guilty and isolated from one another. These themes, as well as the exploration of life in a large city, are common in Wright's work.

Many readers have seen in "The Man Who Lived Underground" influences of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1864 philosophical novella "Notes from Underground." Others compare the sewer scenes to those in Victor Hugo's classic French novel, Les Miserables. Wright, largely self-educated but widely read in world fiction, used the themes and settings of these important European works to present a story that had not yet been told: the story of urban African Americans.

The Man Who Lived Underground Summary

As the story begins, a unnamed man is hiding from the police He is tired of running and has decided that he must either find a hiding place or surrender. At that moment he sees a manhole cover in the street. He lifts the cover; the water below is deep and fast. His fear of the police is stronger than his fear of the water and the darkness, so he enters and is nearly swept away and killed by the water before he finds his footing. As he explores the tunnels, he knows that he is in danger, but an "irrational impulse" prevents him from leaving. Instead he moves forward, looking for a dry hiding place or a safe way out.

Following a faint sound he cannot identify, he comes to a section of the tunnel that is taller and has fresher air He gropes along, using a pole to test the depth of the water in front of him and occasionally lights a match for a brief bit of light. He finds a dirt cave off to one side, and then comes to a brick wall, through which he can plainly hear a group of people singing Christian hymns. Pulling himself up on some old pipes near the ceiling, he can see through a crevice that black people in white robes are holding a church service. It seems to him that what they are doing is wrong, that asking for forgiveness is obscene.

The man moves on, feeling his way through the water. By the faint light from another manhole cover, he sees a dead baby floating m the water; it has gotten snagged on some debris. With his eyes closed he uses his foot to push the body free, but in his mind he sees it swept away by the current. The nightmarish quality of this episode, and his sense that... » Complete The Man Who Lived Underground Summary