James Baldwin and Richard Wright focus the majority of their works on black suffering as opposed to the overwhelming and repressive nature of racism that distorts the very existence of bodies blacks, especially men. Wright and Baldwin assert that there are various approaches to addressing racism and the structure of black narratives, as is made evident by Baldwin's use of a white male protagonist and Wright's use of a protagonist who lives underground. Both of these writers suggest that identity is an entity that men, in particular, desire to either proclaim their roles as masculine or proclaim their roles as human or they cease to hold their power and become subhuman bodies. 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, Jesse and Fred both enter an oppressive darkness that consumes their identities and forces them to face their role in society or face imminent death. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Baldwin and Wright emphasize the importance of naming in their works as it generates a tangible form of existence and meaning for both men in the tales. Fred Daniels is presumably a reference to Frederick Douglass who, unlike other black leaders, encouraged living in white-controlled conditions and sought to demonstrate black worth through adherence to racialized roles and physical labor. Fred didn't have to face conditions of fear and oppression head on until he was accused of murder and that one act forced him to retreat underground to a place where reality only existed above him. While underground Fred encounters death, particularly when he sees the discarded body of a child. This child has no name and is like Fred and the mouse he killed when he entered the sewers; everyone is 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, contempt and his false role as a fugitive. Fred's decision to go underground allows him to escape his identity, as black and human, but gives him a new identity as a voyeur of the human condition who has the option and will to enlighten others on the surface. One of the most touching moments in the narrative is when Fred finds a typewriter and tries to practice writing. Wright explains, “Now he wrote his name on the typewriter… But what was his name” (Wright, 1453). Fred finds that he is unable to write his name or, in a sense, write his name into the story. Faced with the predicament of nonexistence, Fred decides that the knowledge he has learned as a voyeur can be used to enlighten those on the surface. Fred chooses to return to reality for a chance to change the world that has criminalized and dehumanized him. However, Fred is fatally shot and discarded as an innocent child and is unable to exercise his power and free will that he clandestinely acquired in the context of the real world. Jesse's identity is composed of his own suppression of guilt that leads him to oppress black people. to maintain a sense of self. His job is to maintain order, but he does so by raping black women, attacking black men, and caging them in the police station like animals. Jesse's wife asks himcontinually why he chooses to work in such a dangerous field, but Jesse seems to relish the subjugation of blacks which he rationalizes as jurisdictional control. Jesse's desire for control governs how his character is portrayed 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 is spoken it seems like a reflection and he is given the title Mr. as a sign of respect. Naming proves to be a vital point within the text as Jesse seeks to denote others, particularly black people, by names that are not theirs. In response Jesse receives the same treatment. Baldwin writes: “White man,” said the boy, from the floor, behind him” (Baldwin, 1752). In this moment the young black man takes away Jesse's power by being the one to name him. Furthermore, the young man, “grabbed his private parts,” as he puts it, this emphasized the overt expression of masculinity and power around which Jesse shapes his life. Jesse's identity becomes a battleground of power, particularly regarding how he is perceived and named by others. Unlike Fred, Jesse's identity is shaped by blacks, but he maintains agency and power through his role as a policeman and his identity as a white man; which is something Fred could never have. Jesse not only dehumanizes 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 child. When his father and other whites captured a black man and burned him alive, they did so in retaliation but also to ensure that black citizens in their town could not gain power and would be afraid to do so overall. Jesse explains: “The head was hanging. He saw the forehead, flat and high... as he had it, as his father had it” (Baldwin, 1759). The way Jesse commodifies the black body into parts is similar to the way one might sell the parts of an animal. Jesse also describes the man's hair as "another jungle" and the man's complexion as similar to that of an African jungle cat. These descriptions highlight two things in Jesse's narrative. It exemplifies 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 blacks to a geographic otherness, which allows him to segregate blacks 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 for the violence he and his father perpetuate against blacks because, in his mind , blacks are equated with animals. which do not take into account the moral obligations of fair treatment and safety. Fred becomes a subterranean animal, crawling and climbing through the sewers but by the end of the text he becomes divine, making the choice to retreat from voyeurism and become the voice others desperately seek. need despite being doomed from the start because of his race. Fred gains a disturbing perspective while underground. He sees a spiritual choir practice, he sees an embalming, and most importantly, he witnesses people watching a movie. Fred observes: “These people are laughing at their lives, he thought in amazement. They shouted and screamed at their animated shadows” (Wright, 1441). This observation forces Fred to empathize with the helplessness of others as they are trapped in their own miserable existence. At the end of the text Fred resists his identity as an animal and makes the choice toregain 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, states, “'You gotta shoot guys like him. They would destroy things'” (Wright, 1470). Fred's species has the ability to shatter and destroy positions of power held by police officers and to destroy the racist, materialistic, 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 path in which Jesse imposes white supremacy and invalidates the existence of others. Jesse fears: “He was a big, healthy man and his hand never had any trouble sleeping. And he was not yet old enough to have difficulty in getting up again” (Baldwin, 1750). The focus on male genitalia in this text emphasizes male perceptions of masculinity as perceived through sexual prowess. The entire story takes place in a bedroom with the focus of the story focusing on Jesse's helplessness. At one point a black man grabs his penis to assert his power, the lynch mob castrates a black man, and Jesse constantly uses tools other than his penis to assert his power. These tools include his gun and cane which can be perceived 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 lack of capacity equals death because the man is no longer capable of creating life. Jesse's memory of the lynching of a black man gives him the sexual arousal to have sex with his wife. Jesse describes, “He felt that his father had brought him through a mighty trial, had 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. Distorting something beautiful, creation and life, with something destructive, violence and death; the moralistic ideology of good and evil is clouded into non-existence. Jesse's father taught him that power comes from degrading other human beings, which allows white men to proclaim their sexual delinquency as pure and masculine. This lesson Jesse's father teaches him is that whiteness is power, as the lynch mob castrates the black man and this memory leads Jesse to perform sexually. Jesse's ability to perform allows him to presumably continue on a lineage 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 cops 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 white men. 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 the moment he returns to the world; as he cedes his power to that of white men. To gain freedom he must believe in a just world and trust a group of men who have already condemned him to imprisonment or death. Wright's pessimism and disbelief in a just world leaks into Fred's narrative. As Fred attempts to persuade the police of his innocence, he speaks "in a childish tone, as if repeating a lesson learned by heart" (Wright,.