Guilt and Innocence
A central theme in "The Man Who Lived Underground" revolves around the examination of guilt and innocence, a concept Fred Daniels continuously wrestles with throughout the story. In nearly every scene, Daniels is tormented by feelings of guilt. For example, when he hears churchgoers singing hymns, he feels an impulse to laugh but is instantly "crushed with a sense of guilt." Reflecting on this, he concludes that the churchgoers are misguided in seeking forgiveness from God. The contrast is striking: he experiences profound guilt over merely thinking of laughing, yet believes others should "stand unrepentant" for their own wrongdoings.
As Daniels navigates the underground tunnels, his perception of guilt becomes increasingly confused. He begins to sense that everyone might share the same level of guilt or innocence. This feeling of guilt does not deter him from taking tools, food, a radio, money, and other items. He shows no remorse for the punishment inflicted on the boy and the watchman as a result of his actions, nor for the watchman's suicide. He even suppresses another laugh while the boy is beaten for taking the radio, hoping the beating will reveal to the boy "the secret of his life, the guilt that he could never get rid of."
Daniels initially enters the sewer after making a false confession, admitting guilt for a crime he did not commit. By the story's end, he tries to convince the policemen that he is indeed guilty, but they now assert his innocence. Daniels realizes the policemen fail to comprehend his message, but he is certain of what he has witnessed: "All the people I saw was guilty."
Alienation and Loneliness
Fred Daniels's profound sense of alienation and detachment from humanity is a crucial element of the narrative. His predicament extends beyond a simple case of mistaken identity; by the story's midpoint, he completely loses his sense of identity and cannot even remember his own name. Throughout the tale, he is continually misidentified as someone else. The police are convinced he is the murderer, the movie theater usher mistakes him for a patron, and a woman at the market assumes he is a store employee. While the police might have their reasons for this error, the usher and the shopper simply lack attention to detail, failing to recognize Daniels as an individual. They don't notice that he is drenched and reeks of the sewer because they don't truly see him at all. This lack of visibility makes him anonymous, enabling him to move freely both underground and above.
As Daniels reflects on his life above ground, he never mentions family or friends. His solitary nature is highlighted by his make-believe activities with the typewriter, the money, and the gun, all of which involve no other people. Below ground, Daniels remains alone, observing groups of people in churches, theaters, and workplaces. His isolation is symbolized by brick walls that physically separate him from those he observes, representing the most common metaphor for separation.
Race and Racism
While not the primary focus, race and racism are essential in understanding Fred Daniels's situation. As an African-American man accused of killing a white woman, he is aware that history offers little hope for justice from white police officers and a predominantly white legal system. Despite knowing he is innocent, the police have already assaulted him. The newspaper headline, "Hunt Negro for Murder," emphasizes that his race is more important to his accusers than his personal identity. Racism is a major factor that instills fear in Daniels and forces him into hiding.
However, not everyone treats him badly. The theater usher calls Daniels "sir," and the woman purchasing...
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grapes is courteous. Yet, when he returns to the police station, he is referred to as "boy" and ridiculed. When the arresting officers struggle to comprehend Daniels's fragmented speech, one officer, Lawson, comments, "Maybe it's because he lives in a white man's world." Wright, who spent much of his adult life outside the United States, believed that racist institutions cause more harm than well-meaning or neutral individuals can offset. In Daniels's case, societal laws—symbolized by the police officer named Law's Son—oppress those they are supposed to protect. Daniels represents an alienated everyman, with his race further isolating him from those around him.
Quest for Identity
An organizing theme for Richard Wright’s story is Fred Daniels’s quest for identity, his journey to discover who he is and how he fits into an absurd world in which people are both victims and victimizers. The opening line suggests this theme: “I’ve got to hide, he told himself.” Although this line suggests that he is literally hiding himself by fleeing into the bowels of the underground, it also suggests that he is hiding from himself, the self that will become visible and apparent by the end of the story.
Each adventure reveals something to Daniels about himself, whether it is the innocence that he shares with the black churchgoers and the night watchman in the jewelry store, or the responsibility for himself and others that is prompted by his seeing the unnecessary suicide of the night watchman.
One particularly telling episode suggests how tentative is the self that Daniels is trying to discover. Sneaking into a jewelry store, he notices a typewriter on a desk. Although he has never used a machine like this before, he inserts paper into it and pecks out his name: freddaniels. When he looks at his name—his identity on the sheet of paper—he laughs and promises himself to learn to type correctly someday. He does indeed learn, not merely to type correctly, as he demonstrates later, but to spell his name and announce himself freely and innocently as the boy who goes underground to find himself and to accept himself.
