Wright's The Man Who Loved Underground: Summary Richard Wright's, The Man Who Lived Underground, is a surrealistic story about a man who comes to a new consciousness of his own and the actual condition of society as a result of his retreat underground after being labeled a guilty social being. This great irony takes place after a young black man, Fred Daniels, is coerced into signing a confession to a murder that he did not commit and then withdraws underground to escape the police. Mortality, is a very prevalent theme in Daniels' adventure underground as he encounters diverse images and various dreams. Daniels' encounters cannot be desc