The Man Who Live Underground Analysis

Adam, Watson. “Fred Daniels As Christ Noir: The Shadow-Savior Imagery Of “The Man Who Lived Underground”. InsightHbb.com, 2003. 29 February. 2012. .

In his critical analysis, Adam Watson attempts to interpret the protagonist in Richard Wright’s “The Man Who Lived Underground”, Fred Daniels, as “Christ Noir”.
He uses the imagery from the text, created by Wright, to depict Daniels as this Christ Noir character. Throughout his piece, Watson analyzes the symbols, such as the watches that were nailed to the cave walls and the meat cleaver, to make a reference to various symbols that are connected to Jesus Christ. The Noir in “Christ Noir” can be depicted in two ways. The first way to define “noir” would be crime literature. This type of literature
includes hardened, cynical characters and drab settings that are evocative of danger and violence. The second meaning of the word is literally black (in French). In calling Fred Daniels “Christ Noir”, Watson is describing both the tone of the novel and it’s protagonist. Besides his “Christ Noir” theory, Watson also hints at capitalism and film, the communist party and Wright’s participation, and some black vs. white imagery. These points do not have much to do with the his Christ theory, but are still somewhat substantial because of their overall importance to the novel.

One of the most obvious Daniels-Christ comparisons is the dream Fred Daniels had of him walking on water just as Jesus Christ had.
He doesn’t spend much time on the topic, but I feel it is one of the strongest comparisons. If Daniels is to be interpreted as a Christ figure, it is important to heavily dissect the paramount event in both the novel and the life of Jesus Christ. In the novel, Fred Daniels is “fleeing unjust persecution” (Watson). When he descends into the sewer, Watson calls it “a vulgar kind of baptism” and sees it as the death of Daniels. Watson reports that this “baptism” is the product of our sins-the unjust accusations brought upon Fred Daniels, our Christ Noir. Just as Jesus Christ was wrongfully persecuted, so was Daniels. To further his comparison, he recalls the scene where Daniels returns to his cave with the things he stole from the safe. Watson dubs this as a “crucifixion of materialism”. He writes, “…later performs a crucifixion of materialism: he uses a hammer to nail the cleaver, watches, rings and other objects upon the wall of his cave…The nails draw his own blood in an epiphanic act of revelation.”. In this revelation, he realizes that he will eventually have to return to the real world. Daniels feels as though he must make a “statement” and, in a sense, free the human race of whatever has damned them. With this insight, Watson views Daniels’ new found purpose parallel with that of Jesus Christ. Watson states, “Daniels will be the Statement.
He will Resurrect to the world of the living and become the Word made flesh, the Christ Noir.”

After Daniels discovers that he must “resurrect” and return to the world above ground, he reencounters the church congregation he observed earlier in the story. Watson pays special attention the hems that were sung by the members of the church. He notes that on Daniels’ first meeting with the church, the congregation was singing “Jesus Take Me to Your Home Above”. When Daniels returns above ground and actually visit’s the church they are singing “The Lamb…Tell me again your story…” This is a direct correlation between Jesus Christ and the Christ Noir. Daniels, like Jesus, has risen and has a message to deliver to the people. Watson mention the irony that comes with this, fore Daniels was shunned by the church when he tried to indeed “tell his story”. This image contrast with the “Christ Noir” thesis. In “The Man Who Lived Underground”, Daniels is not at all welcome when he returns to life. No one cares to hear what he has to say, humanity thinks he is insane, and he is eventually murdered in the sewer that seemed to have given him life and infinite knowledge. When Jesus was said to have been resurrected, he was well received and gained a large following. This is surely an intended contrast created by Wright, but this is not suggested in Watson’s essay. Some physical symbols Watson highlights is the pole our protagonist uses when he first descends into the sewer.
Watson holds that the pole used by Daniels is equivalent to Jesus Christ and his cross. He believes this pole is a “vehicle of salvation”(Watson) as well as an “instrument of death” (Watson), just as the cross was. This is said because, while Daniels used the pole to help him feel his way around the dark, wet sewer, he also used it to kill a nasty sewer rat. Along with the pole, Watson creates a light carpentry connection between Jesus and Fred Daniels. Watson reports that the tool box (that includes the hammer and nails used later) Daniels finds while on his journey underground is a subtle carpentry reference placed by Wright. Jesus was said to be a carpenter, so this detail further pushes the connection linking Christ and Daniels. He further adds that in the “crucifixion of materialism”, which included watches, the watches were not only meant to be a symbol of material wealth but also as a “temporal aspect” (Watson). He also very loosely compares the Three Wise Men to the three policemen that tormented Daniels; professing them as the Three Unwise
Men. Watson rationalizes that all these symbols and metaphors tie together to create the image of a confused and delusional world that, like Jesus Christ, the Christ Noir must liberate. To support this, Watson points the Wright’s attention to media within his novel. Watson describes two scenes where Fred Daniels is reenacting a movie and observing people watch a film. He cites from the novel: (Daniels looking in on the movie-goers)“…looking down into the sea of faces…he could not awaken them…these people are children, sleeping in their living, awake in their dying.”. In the Christian faith, this is what is believed of people who have not accepted Christ as their savior, people who are unaware of the “truth”. Watson dubs Fred Daniels (aka Christ Noir) as the “revolutionary messiah”. He feels that, in writing “The Man Who Lived Underground”, he intended the reader to assume the role as “the “tongues” to finish articulating his message of the true “reality”.” (Watson). The message being the “deconstruction and denunciation of [the] racist, materialist, capitalist system”.