The Man Who Lived Underground ( Summary/Response)

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Why did the black race have thoughts of their lives as a white person? Racial discrimination was very popular before and after the slave trade was issued, In Richard Wright's short story “ The Man Who Lived Underground” the main character's search for an identity involves his struggle for meaning in this judgmental world. The story concerns Fred Daniels, an African American accused of killing a white woman named Mrs. Peabody . 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. This short story was deeply discussed along with other authors and critics who included their thought's on how the story was contradicted. These critics acknowledge only the controversy themes , but Wright however frequently dealt with practical and universal themes that were disregarded throughout, based on the topics written in these essay's.
Cynthia Bily's essay focused on the topics that revolves race and she often summarizes he events that occur which stands out to her. Bily wrote in her essay that this story about how white racism oppresses African Americans (which is profoundly true) she gathers information from scientific books around the world to prove her theory that Wright came to believe that racism was just one symptom of an oppressive and corrupt human nature. The scene at the end of the story when Lawson ( the police officer ) shoots the black man and says “ You gotta kill his kind. They'd wreck things” ( pg 60) this type of statement's is a perfect example of how racism created a deep corrupt in human nature . Bily agrees throughout the sections of her essay about Wrights int...

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Overall this story is believed to be more of a social commentary but is thought differently by others.

So far every critic thoroughly explained every detail and thoughts they believe about this story, but only one stood out amongst them. Shirley Meyer by far had the strongest essay presented in my opinion, one reason is when she included the difference it had from another book published by the same author. Meyer told her opinions on what she believes and she found evidence that could prove her statements from most of the events that occurred in the book and public sources.
The sentence at the end gained my approval of the essay she wrote it is more of a social commentary, words that no one would have known it to be and something that people should be aware of.

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