Initiation And Crises

Richard Wright is a milestone figure in the history of Afro-American literature and a forerunner of Afro-American protest novels. Much of his literature is concerned with racial themes. He wrote a lot of works shocking the sensibilities of both the white and the black, among which Native Son is his masterpiece. The long Dream is his last novel which depicts Fishbelly Tucker's depressing childhood and painful initiation into manhood and blackness in the protest tradition. It narrates Fishbelly's initiation from ignorance about the external white racist society to the acquisition of the vital knowledge. Moreover, it also depicts Fishbelly's initiation as the process of making an important self-discovery and a resulting adjustment to life and society.This thesis is an attempt to analyze The Long Dream in the light of two comparatively contrary themes: one is the initiation of the protagonist, and the other is the crises of the protagonist. This thesis is divided into five parts.Chapter One is introduction. In this part some background knowledge is provided, including the life of the writer Richard Wright and his main works. Then literature review follows, including that both at home and abroad. After literature review, the author proposes that though Richard Wright has been studied for a long time, many critics have mainly focused their attention on Native Son and Black Boy. However, other works have not obtained sufficient attention. So it is necessary to study these works. The Long Dream has much less attention from literature critics, not to mention from the aspect of initiation story.Chapter Two mainly introduces the theory of initiation story. The definition of initiation story is presented at the beginning of this part, which is followed by the analysis of American initiation stories. The author summarizes the development and features of American initiation stories. At the end of this chapter, the author analyses that The Long Dream is an American Ethnic initiation story.Chapter Three is intended to analyze the protagonist's initiation process, that is, the protagonist's transition from innocence to maturity through a series of shocking and painful experiences. The author divides the protagonist's process of initiation into three stages: depressing childhood and sexual initiation; the pursuit and disillusionment of his American dream; gaining maturity and flight. Two important elements are also revealed in this part, that is, the mentors and the epiphanies in the protagonist's initiation. There is more than one mentor in the process of the protagonist's initiation, among whom Tyree has influenced him most. Epiphany in initiation stories refers to the hero's comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization. Generally speaking, there are two types of epiphany: one is derived from protagonists' everyday life; the other results from protagonists' sudden events, which might often be tragic. Fishbelly's epiphanies mainly come from sudden tragic events. Chiris's being lynched to death by the white made Fisbhelly realize that the white women were lynching baits for the black and he must keep away from white women. His experience of imprisonment got him to understand that money had the power to help him survive in the white dominated racist society. His father Tyree's being shot to death by the white policemen and his second imprisonment made him completely realize the cruelty of the white and lose the illusion for the white.Chapter Four is concerned with the other theme of this thesis—crises, which is contrary to initiation. Fishbelly's mental crises contain his feeling of double-consciousness and identity crisis, his aesthetic alienation and the white worship, and his self-hate and self-denial. These negative aspects accompany the protagonist's initiation and form an inseparable part in the novel. The author points out that the sources of the protagonist's mental crises are the cultural colonization of the black by the white and American racism.Chapter Five is the conclusion of this thesis. The author concludes that the novel presents us Fishbelly's initiation into maturity by painfully learning of the racist society and gaining self-discovery. In the process of initiation, as an African American initiate living in the racist white-dominated society the protagonist unavoidably experiences mental crises and his marginal ethnic position brings more obstacles to his initiation. Through depicting the protagonist's painful initiation to manhood and blackness, Richard Wright reveals the nature of the oppression and persecution of the white racist society. Beneath the story of the tragic growing process of the protagonist, there indeed exists a more profound message Richard Wright was endeavoring to convey—indictment of American racism and advocacy of reconstructing African American cultural tradition.