Implications of Naturalism in "Down by the Riverside"

    Today, I am going to be talking about "Down by the Riverside," and the way that it relates to the movement for equal rights for black people during the the mid-1950s. "Down by the Riverside" is a very interesting text because of its naturalist tone. You might expect to have super hopeful and optimistic stories about black people finally being seen by their white peers as equal and not being looked down upon. However, what we see in this story is basically the opposite. Through every moment of the story, there is a feeling of hopelessness and inevitability that feels quite pessimistic. Reading this text makes you feel that this horrible situation that exists in the United States will not be changed by any effort that is made. I was surprised while reading how negative of a message this text seems to send when this feels like the time to be pushing back and hopeful for the future.

    

    Throughout the story, we see very strong themes of continued racism from every white character that is introduced. To make the point even stronger, Richard Wright also includes a scene where a white colonel is impressed with his efforts to save the village and wants him to contact him after everything is over. However, when it is discovered that Mann has killed a white man, even though it was in self-defense, everything turns around and he ends up being shot and killed after trying to run. The fact that this story is a naturalist text means that the whole story is painted in this very bleak light, where there is never really any hope for Mann and his family even from the beginning of the story. This feels to me like a pretty strong statement on his expectation of equal rights existing. Even after so long, the racism is still just as strong. We also still see the stark contrast that Richard Wright creates in the manner of speech and thought between the white and black characters in the book. His use of the black vernacular really highlights the difference and adds to the pessimistic view of black vs. white interaction in this text. The fact that the black people in the story don't speak "perfect" English as opposed to the white people (for lack of a better way to put it), really reinforces the stereotypes that were common about black people at this time, i.e. dumb, uneducated, etc. To me, this fact feels like it takes away hope from people. Using this story as a lens for real life, it makes all the efforts for equal rights feel pointless, making the naturalist argument that society, nature, and even your own body will simply affect you, and you have no control over things will play out.

There are many good examples of the dynamic between white and black people in this story. However, the one that I thought was the most significant and impactful was the way that Mann acts during the crisis, yet still ends up being killed by white soldiers. The backstory for this part of the story is that one of Mann's family members stole a boat to be able to reach the city and get his wife Lulu to the hospital. However, when they reach the city, they immediately encounter the family whose boat they stole. The father grabs a gun and attempts to shoot Mann, but misses, and Mann then fires back, killing him. However, when he arrives at the hospital with his wife, she has already died, and almost immediately the levee breaks, and the flood roars in. In the moment of crisis, Mann steps up and helps save the people in the hospital to get them into boats with the direction of Colonel Davis. In fact, Colonel Davis is so impressed that he says, "You did well! I won't forget you! If you get out of this, come and see me, hear?" This is the one moment where there is any respect toward Mann from a white character. We even see him refrain from using the N-word to refer to him, which is very significant in this story. Then, he goes and saves yet more people, coincidently, the family of the man he killed. However, when they get to the hills where everyone else has evacuated, the boy immediately rats him out for killing his father, even though it was self-defense and he just saved the boy and his mother. Colonel Davis then gets involved and we see the immediate difference in his manner: "N*****, do you know the meaning of this?" The immediate return of the use of the N-word and the way he interrupts Mann's attempts to explain by saying, "Do you know this means your life?" gives the same tone of hopelessness to the story yet again. Even with all the things he did, the fact that he is a black man who killed a white man in any circumstance means he has to die. This comes back to the point that the story seems to be making that no matter what he or anyone else does, they have no control over their situation, and they can't create any change. It is also interesting that he makes it very clear that it is self-defense in the story, as Mann waits until the man has fired at him before firing. This feels like a connection to Malcolm X's rhetoric on the use of violence in self-defense. He has been famously quoted that he considers violence in self-defense intelligence, not violence. However, in this text, we see that from the perspective of white people and the way they are treated for it, it makes no difference, had he simply shot the man the outcome at the end of the story would have been the same.

Overall, I think that "Down by the Riverside" is a very interesting story to look at in its historical context. We see a very negative view of the world through the lens of this story, which is unsurprising given its naturalist nature. However, it is surprising in the social context of the rising civil rights movement from black people at this time. The fact that this story has such a pessimistic and hopeless attitude to the world raises a lot of questions for me about why he would choose to create the story in this way. I would have assumed that the general attitude would be more aggressive and hopeful: fighting to create change in an unjust society.