Comparing The Man Who Lived Underground And The Invisible Man

Richard Wright’s The Man Who Lived Underground and Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man are both set in the pre-civil rights era when segregation laws prohibited African Americans from basic human rights. Both stories are told by unnamed narrators, with Wright not revealing Fred Daniels name until the end and even then he struggles with his name. Both stories deal with black men in search for their identity, and visibility by white America. They are both falsely accused of something they did not do and find themselves running to evade capture. Wrights character is running from the white police officers who have convinced him to sign a confession of murder. And Ellison’s character is also accused of murder and finds himself running from white militants. Both are deceived, angry, and sometimes delusional. Their stories are both set in big cities so they are able to utilize manholes as their place of escape and music as a refuge; a place to surrender. Both stories deal with guilt and innocence for example, in The Man Who Lived Underground, as Fields begins to explore the underground tunnels, he’s lured by the sounds of music. As comes across a gospel choir singing songs of faith and forgiveness. His first impulse is to laugh, but he checks himself. What was he doing? He was crushed with a sense of guilt. Would God strike him dead

The conviction in him made him feel that those people should stand unrepentant and yield no quarter in singing and praying. Yet he had run away from the police, had pleaded with them to believe in his innocence, and they didn’t. He stands bewildered. (pg.1439) He reflects on his guilt through out his travels of the underground tunnels and when he does surface and see’s that he is wanted, he became fearful. His decision to declare his innocence, and is only betrayed by those who feels he’s a crazy nigger and take his life.