Historical Context

The Great Migration

At the close of the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution transformed the United States' economy from primarily agricultural to largely industrial. This shift opened up new opportunities for African Americans who were either former slaves or descendants of slaves. Throughout the early decades of the twentieth century, hundreds of thousands of African Americans relocated from the rural South to major industrial cities in the North, in an event known as the Great Migration. These migrants aimed to escape the increasingly oppressive Jim Crow laws, mob violence against African Americans, and a struggling agricultural economy exacerbated by a boll weevil infestation. World War I further increased the demand for factory workers, as many workers were enlisted in the war and there was a need for material goods to support the war effort. Consequently, many factories that had previously excluded black workers began to employ them.

However, the new black workers did not find a perfect world. They were often relegated to unskilled or semi-skilled jobs and received lower wages compared to white employees performing the same tasks. Poverty remained prevalent, and the majority of African Americans lived in inner-city ghettos. The arrival of black workers also incited white violence, leading to deadly riots in the 1920s. A notable race riot in Chicago required intervention by federal troops. Despite these challenges, the migration persisted. From the end of World War I to the 1960s, more than six million African Americans left the South in search of a better life in the North.

Richard Wright was part of this migration. Born on a plantation in Mississippi, he lived in Tennessee, Arkansas, and then returned to Mississippi before moving to a black ghetto on the South Side of Chicago in 1927 at the age of nineteen. In Chicago, he worked various menial jobs but also found the opportunity to read extensively and develop his writing skills. He quickly realized that racism was just as prevalent in the North as it was in the South. For instance, during the Great Depression, black workers were the first to be laid off from factories, regardless of their tenure. Wright keenly observed these circumstances, collecting details and anecdotes that would later inform his writing. A decade after his move to Chicago, he relocated to Harlem in New York City, where he wrote "The Man Who Lived Underground." As he continued his literary career, Wright became the first major author to document the experiences of urban black men in the United States, and one of the first to present African-American narratives to a white audience.

The Communist Party

In 1932, Wright became a member of the Chicago John Reed Club, a collective of radical writers and artists organized by the Communist Party. He quickly felt accepted by this group of intellectuals, both white and black, who valued him for his individuality rather than his race. Wright joined the Communist Party, eventually becoming its local secretary. During this time, he wrote poems and essays focused on the proletariat, the working class who had no control over the factories where they toiled. As he collaborated with the Party in both Chicago and Harlem, Wright began to understand that African Americans were not the only oppressed group in the United States. He realized that social class could be as significant as race in determining one's success or failure.

By the time Wright wrote "The Man Who Lived Underground," he had grown disillusioned with the Communist Party. He felt that the Party had manipulated him and turned his art into propaganda. He no longer believed that the Party's goals for...

(This entire section contains 664 words.)

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African Americans were genuinely beneficial. Edward Margolies, in his bookThe Art of Richard Wright, notes that "Fred Daniels' adventures suggest something of Wright's own emotions after ten years in the Communist underground." According to Margolies, the story's tone is one of "compassion and despair—compassion for a man trapped in his underground nature and despair that he will ever be able to set himself free."

Style and Technique

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In Richard Wright’s "The Man Who Lived Underground," the narrative intricately interlaces elements of style and technique to offer a profound commentary on the human condition. The use of vivid imagery, symbolic settings, and naturalistic themes paints a portrait of a world where light and darkness, knowledge and ignorance, are in constant conflict. This exploration of Fred Daniels’ subterranean journey unveils deeper truths about society and the self.

Images and Imagery

Throughout "The Man Who Lived Underground," Wright deftly employs imagery to emphasize the chaotic and inscrutable nature of the world. The dichotomy of light and darkness is a recurring motif, with the subterranean realm symbolizing obscurity while the surface world represents clarity. Yet, this distinction is far from straightforward. Within the underground, light emerges in peculiar hues, such as "lances of hazy violet" piercing through manhole covers and the "glowing greenishly" flame of a match changing to red, orange, and yellow. These surreal colors intensify the nightmarish atmosphere, suggesting that Fred Daniels is acquiring a novel perspective in his underground exile.

As Daniels grows accustomed to his dark refuge, he gains an ability to perceive the world above-ground with stark clarity. Observing scenes such as churchgoers, a corpse on an embalming table, and jewelry shop workers, he sees through their facades to the truths they cannot perceive themselves. Despite their presence in the light, they remain blind to him, illustrating a poignant inversion of sight and understanding. However, when Daniels encounters an artificial light in the mortician's basement, the "blinding glare" renders him temporarily "sightless, defenseless." Upon resurfacing, the inversion is complete: daylight becomes a source of "deeper darkness" than his subterranean experiences, and with the police dismissing his revelations, the illuminating "sun of the underground" fades, leaving him in "the terrible darkness of the day."

Setting as Symbol

The setting of the sewer where Fred Daniels takes refuge serves as a powerful symbol of the moral and ethical decay lurking beneath society’s polished exterior. Just as the foul, reeking sewer lies beneath the bustling city, so does the hidden rot of humanity. Through Daniels’ journey and the sewer’s symbolism, Wright suggests a critical examination of human nature and societal flaws. The sewer represents the pervasive darkness within the human heart, a darkness that society must overcome to escape perpetual fear, isolation, and blindness.

Daniels’ near escape from the sewer mirrors the potential for individual and collective redemption. Although he does not fully cleanse himself of this symbolic grime, his struggle to emerge signifies a yearning for transformation. However, the societal readiness to embrace such change remains in question. His ultimate failure to convey his message of universal guilt underscores the difficulty of transcending entrenched societal evils.

The Influence of Naturalism

Wright’s story echoes the principles of naturalism, drawing inspiration from the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century literary tradition, particularly the works of Theodore Dreiser. Naturalism posits that humans, much like animals, are subject to environmental forces beyond their comprehension or control. Actions that appear deliberate are often mere reactions to these external pressures.

Fred Daniels epitomizes the naturalistic protagonist, ensnared by circumstances beyond his influence. Wrongly accused of murder due to the arbitrary convergence of race, place, and time, he is portrayed as a creature of instinct, likened by the narrator to a rat or dog. His journey through the underground is driven by forces he cannot grasp, reflected in moments of "irrational compulsion to act," and the conflict between his mind and body. In surrendering to fate at the story’s culmination, Daniels is dehumanized, becoming "a whirling object rushing alone in the darkness, veering, tossing, lost in the heart of the earth." Even the policemen, constrained by their own societal roles, are depicted as victims of circumstance, compelled to enforce racial violence.

Wright's exploration of naturalism in "The Man Who Lived Underground" delves into the inevitability of fate, the illusion of free will, and the inescapable influence of societal forces. Fred Daniels’ tragic end, marked by his reduction to a mere "object" within the earth’s dark core, emphasizes the grim realities of a world governed by hidden, uncontrollable forces.

Compare and Contrast

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1940s: Jim Crow laws significantly hinder the lives of African Americans. They face limited legal rights to vote, use public transportation, dine in restaurants, stay in hotels, earn fair wages, attend public colleges and universities, and have no freedom to rent or buy homes wherever they choose.

1990s: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, along with additional civil rights laws, have aimed to eliminate legal obstacles preventing citizens from fully enjoying American citizenship. Nonetheless, economic and social barriers persist, and the vision of complete equality remains unrealized.

1940s: The term "Negro" is a neutral descriptor for individuals of a specific race and is commonly used by members of that race to refer to themselves. It is not considered offensive. Richard Wright, for instance, wrote an essay titled "Blueprint for Negro Writing" in 1937 and helped establish the international Congress of Negro Artists and Writers in 1955.

1990s: The term "Negro" is seldom used today, except in the names of older organizations like the United Negro College Fund. Newer generations have adopted different terminology, often discarding previous terms. "African American" is now widely preferred, acknowledging both African heritage and American citizenship. It can be used as both a noun and an adjective, while "black" is also sometimes used as an adjective.

1940s: When a white person refers to a black man as "boy," it is a deliberate and offensive insult, denying the black man his dignity and adult status. Such an insult has a profound belittling effect.

1990s: The term "boy" is rarely heard and no longer carries the same weight as it once did. As an insult, it has fallen out of use and does not have the same impact on speakers or listeners.

1940s: The Communist Party has some political influence in the United States and attracts many intellectuals, including those like Wright who are disillusioned with societal inequalities or seek to align with a cause they find daring. An example is Alger Hiss, a prominent State Department official during Franklin Roosevelt's administration. However, most Americans view "Fifth Columnists," or organized subversives, as cold-blooded centralizers aiming to replace the republic with an all-powerful state.

1990s: Following the end of the Cold War in 1990, the national preoccupation with combating communism has diminished. While the Communist Party still exists, the term "Fifth Columnist" has largely faded from public memory.

Media Adaptations

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In 1993, the City Theatre located on Pittsburgh's South Side, presented a theatrical adaptation of "The Man Who Lived Underground."

Bibliography and Further Reading

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Sources

Bryant, Earle V. "The Transformation of Personality in Richard Wright's 'The Man Who Lived Underground,'" in CIA Journal, Vol. 23, No. 4, 1990, p. 379.

Gilman, Richard. "The Immediate Misfortunes of Widespread Literacy," in Commonweal, Vol. 74, No. 5, April 28, 1961, p. 130.

Hakutam, Yoshinobu. "Richard Wright's 'The Man Who Lived Underground,' Nihilism, and Zen," in Mississippi Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 2, Spring 1994, p. 213.

Hansen, Harry. A review of Cross Section in New York World Telegram, May 31, 1944.

Margolies, Edward. The Art of Richard Wright, Southern Illinois University Press, 1969, p. 81.

North, Sterling. A review of Cross Section in Chicago Sun, June 4, 1944, sec. 5, p. 2.

Watkins, Patricia D. "The Paradoxical Structure of Richard Wright's 'The Man Who Lived Underground,'" in Black American Literature Forum, Vol. 23, No. 4, Winter 1989, p. 767.