James Baldwin and Richard Wright focus much of their work on black suffering in opposition to the overwhelming and repressive nature of racism that distorts the very existence of black bodies, especially men. Wright and Baldwin assert that there are diverse approaches to addressing racism and the structure of black narratives, as made clear by Baldwin's use of a white male protagonist and Wright's use of a protagonist who lives underground . These two authors suggest that identity is an entity that men, in particular, desire both to proclaim their role as masculine and to proclaim their role as human, otherwise they cease to maintain their power and become subjugated bodies. humans. Richard Wright's The Man Who Lived Underground and James Baldwin's Going to Meet the Man represent two opposing forms of masculinity as they exist in black and white culture. However, both Jesse and Fred enter an oppressive darkness that consumes their identities and forces them to address their own roles in society or face imminent death. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Baldwin and Wright emphasize the importance of naming in their works because it generates a tangible form of existence and meaning for both men in the short stories. Fred Daniels is likely referring to Frederick Douglass who, unlike other black leaders, encouraged living in white-controlled conditions and sought to prove the worth of blacks by adhering to racialized roles and physical labor. Fred didn't have to face the conditions of fear and oppression head-on until he was accused of murder and that single act forced him to retreat underground to a place where reality didn't. exists only above him. In hiding, Fred encounters death, notably when he sees the abandoned body of a baby. This baby has no name, and like Fred, and the rat he killed when he entered the sewers; all are lost in the vast darkness where humanity and morality lose their meaning. There is a sense of freedom while Fred is underground, he can choose to face reality or continue his odyssey and avoid facing oppression, scorn and his false role as a fugitive. Fred's decision to go underground allows him to escape his identity as black and human, but it gives him a new identity as a voyeur of the human condition who has the ability and desire to enlighten others on the surface. One of the most poignant moments in the story is when Fred finds a typewriter and tries to practice writing. Wright explains: “He now wrote his name on the typewriter…But what was his name” (Wright, 1453). Fred realizes that he is unable to write his name or, in a sense, write his name in history. Faced with the fate of non-existence, Fred decides that the knowledge he gained as a voyeur can be used to enlighten those on the surface. Fred chooses to return to reality for his chance to change the world that has criminalized and dehumanized him. However, Fred is fatally shot and abandoned like the innocent baby and he is unable to exercise his clandestinely acquired power and agency in the context of the real world. Jesse's identity is composed of his own suppression of the guilt that leads him to oppress black people. in order to maintain your self-esteem. His job is to maintain order, but he does it by raping black women, attacking black men, and caging them at the police station like animals. The wife ofJesse continually asks why he chooses to work in such a dangerous field, but Jesse seems to relish the subjugation of black people which he rationalizes as jurisdictional control. Jesse's desire for control governs the way his character is presented to the reader. Baldwin structures the text so that Jesse's name is not mentioned until his wife, Grace, is introduced; even when Jesse's name comes first, it seems to be an afterthought and he is given the title Mr. as a sign of respect. Naming proves to be a key point in the text as Jesse attempts to refer to others, particularly black people, by names that are not their own. In response, Jesse receives the same treatment. Baldwin writes: “White man,” said the boy from the ground behind him” (Baldwin, 1752). At that point, the young black man takes power away from Jesse by being the one to name him. Furthermore, the young man "grabbed his private parts", as he puts it, this underlines the overt expression of masculinity and power around which Jesse shapes his life. Jesse's identity becomes a battleground for power, particularly regarding how he is perceived and named by others. Unlike Fred, Jesse's identity is shaped by black people, but he retains his agency and power through his role as a cop and his identity as a white man; something Fred could never have had. Jesse not only dehumanizes the black people in his town by naming and objectifying their bodies, but he also does so by subjecting them to the same dissociation his father did when he was a young child. When his father and other white people captured a black man and burned him alive, they did it in retaliation but also to ensure that black citizens in their town could not rise to power and would be afraid of do it in general. Jesse explains: “The head was hanging. He saw the forehead, flat and high… like him, like his father” (Baldwin, 1759). The way Jesse transforms the black body into parts is similar to how one might sell the parts of an animal. Jesse also describes the man's hair as "another jungle" and the man's complexion as that of an African jungle cat. These descriptions emphasize two things in Jesse's story. This illustrates the idea that Jesse desperately needs other black people to stay safe despite the fact that Jesse notices small similarities between the black victim and his own family. Furthermore, Jesse subjects black people to geographic otherness, which allows him to segregate black people and remain comfortable when he is with his father, at work, or even with his wife. The idea that the black man is like an animal and that Jesse associates him with the jungle allows Jesse to eradicate from their consciousness any guilt he has regarding the violence he and his father perpetuate against black people because, in his mind, black people are compared to animals. which do not take into account the moral obligations of fair treatment and safety. Fred becomes an underground animal, he slips and climbs through the sewers but by the end of the text he becomes God-like, making the choice to withdraw from voyeurism and become the voice that others desperately need despite the fact that he is doomed from the start because of his race. Fred gains a disturbing perspective while underground. He attends a spiritual choir practice, watches an embalming and, most importantly, sees individuals watching a film. Fred observed: “These people don’t care about their lives,” he thought with astonishment. They cried and howled at their animated shadows” (Wright, 1441). This observation forces Fred to sympathize with the helplessness of others as they are trapped in their own miserable existence. At the end of the text, Fred resists hisown animal identity and makes the choice to rediscover his humanity and become a martyr for society as a whole. Fred is an unstable soldier in the battle against the jurisdictional and criminal institutions that repress him throughout the text. Lawson, a police officer, expresses: “You have to shoot his people. They would destroy things” (Wright, 1470). Those like Fred have the ability to break and destroy the positions of power maintained by police officers and destroy the racist, materialist and capitalist systems of their reality. Sexually, Jesse is inadequate, his role as a man is defined by procreation and control over his sexual experiences, but his sexual arousal is stimulated by the perceived connection between racism and violence and this is the avenue through which Jesse imposes white supremacy and invalidates the existence of others. Jesse fears: “He was a big, healthy man and he never had trouble sleeping. And he was not yet old enough to have difficulty raising it” (Baldwin, 1750). The emphasis on male genitalia in this text emphasizes the male perception of masculinity as perceived through sexual capacity. The entire story takes place in a bedroom with the core of the story focused on Jesse's helplessness. At one point, a black man grabs his penis in order to assert his power, the lynch mob castrates a black man, and Jesse constantly uses other instruments, besides his penis, to assert his power. These implements include his gun and baton which can be seen as extensions of Jesse's genitals. The castration of the black man generates the idea that a man is defined by the use and ownership of his genitals and that lack of ability is tantamount to death because the man is no longer capable of creating the life. Jesse's memory of the lynching of a black man gives him the sexual arousal necessary for him to have sex with his wife. Jesse describes, “He felt that his father had brought him through a mighty ordeal and revealed to him a great secret which would be the key to his life forever” (Baldwin, 1761). The key to white masculinity is the perversion of desire. By distorting something wonderful, creation and life, with something destructive, violence and death; the moralistic ideology of good and evil is blurred to the point of becoming non-existent. Jesse's father taught him that power comes from the degradation of other human beings, which allows white men to proclaim their sexual delinquency as pure and masculine. This lesson that Jesse's father teaches him is that whiteness is power, while the lynch mob castrates the black man, and this memory leads Jesse to behave sexually. Jesse's ability to perform supposedly allows him to continue a line of whiteness, but it also allows him to metaphorically enter a "sanctuary" by literally entering his wife, Grace. Fred's narrative is defined by the fact that white police officers reduce him to the role of criminal, but he needs the affirmation and salvation of white people to survive, placing his role as a man under the control of other men whites. Fred is reduced to an invisible man underground, nothing he does matters unless he takes a leap of faith and re-enters the real world. Fred, unknowingly, gives in to systems of oppression as soon as he returns to the world; as he relinquishes his power to that of white men. To obtain freedom, he must believe in a just world and have faith in a group of men who have already condemned him to captivity or death. Wright's pessimism and disbelief in a just world shine through in Fred's story. SO.