Wright's The Man Who Loved Underground: Summary

Part I of Essay
Richard Wright's, The Man Who Lived Underground, is a surrealistic story about a man who comes to a new consciousness of his own and the actual condition of society as a result of his retreat underground after being labeled a guilty social being. This great irony takes pl ....

Part II of Essay
.... hide when he notices a manhole cover on the ground. "The cover clanged into place, muffling the sights and sounds of the upper world. . . the rite of separation is complete; the opposition between "aboveground" and "underground" is firmly established" (Bloom 147). Though at times in his journey, Daniels does go aboveground, he never again crosses that border until the very end of the story when he goes up for the final time. Here, Fred Daniels has not only escaped from the police for the time being but he has also escaped from his racial d ....