This paper will first incorporate a summary of the author 's argument discussing how the experiences the two leading male character in Richard Wright 's "Down by the Riverside" and "Long Black Song" highlights racial oppression and alienation. Hakutani comparing and contrasting their shortcomings leads the audience to focus on the idea that during the Jim Crow conditions the results remain that African-Americans will always be inferior to Caucasians. Therefore, their suicidal actions gave them purpose and the ability to define their existence. Then, one will provide a sum up discussing one strength and one weakness of the article and what can be utilized from this piece of work. Overall, this article can be valued as a credible document for scholars seeking a summary of these two pieces of work. However, the frequent use of summary instead of breaking down the text takes away from Wright 's point of racial oppression and alienation each character faces in the story. This article is recommended to those who are unfamiliar to with these stories in particular from Uncle Tom 's Children. Nonetheless, the author spending an excessive amount of time summarizing the text takes away the value of the article. If a scholar was seeking an article that contains a decent amount of literary analyze this text wouldn 't be beneficial. The article first puts in perspective the experience of the two main characters in stories “Down by the Riverside” and “Long Black Song” from Uncle Tom’s