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
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.
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