1938年，当Richard Wright发布时明星在杂志中新群众，1940年，当他将其添加到一个有权的集合中的最后一个故事时汤姆叔叔的孩子他还没有预料到他以后为他的小说而努力的名望和批判令人愉快原来儿子（1940）或他的自传黑人男孩（1945）。事实上，他知道他已经写了这个故事，宣布汤姆 - 哈丽特贝赫斯斯托的小说中的领先和同情，恭敬，自我牺牲的奴隶角色汤姆叔叔的小屋（1851） - 海洋死亡，美国种族主义已成为瘟疫，但他觉得这个故事失败了。他担心他的情绪太大了，并错过了他的预期目标：宣布在美国发生了必要的变化，非洲裔美国人需要拒绝帮助宣传压迫的过去的角色和传统。然而，批评者同意他已经判断了他的工作太严厉，故事和收集 - 包含一个令人满意的团结，并成功地使用文学作为抗议。It displayed what ultimately became Richard Wright’s trademark techniques: a use of religion in a way that applied not to the afterlife but to life in this world, a use of allusion to religious songs and hymns (one of which provides the title of this story), a use of black folklore, a use of naturalism, and a use of the tension between nationalism and integrationism. In employing these literary tropes, Wright hoped to convey a sense of creative resistance grounded in a communal spirit and to break the silence surrounding the racism and exploitive economic forces that prevailed in America.
The America of Richard Wright’s era becomes vividly portrayed through the tale of Sue, Johnny-Boy, Reva, and Booker as they grapple with life in a South free of slavery but not free of the Jim Crow laws that prescribe how African Americans can live and make legal white advantage over and abuse of black citizens. Johnny-Boy, like the brother now in jail for his participation in such a group—and like Richard Wright, himself—serves as an organizer of a Communist Party group that believes the principles and practices of the party will give all Americans equality and economic parity and will finally topple “a cold white mountain, the white folks and their laws” (224). The members of the group are blacks and whites, including the white Reva, a young woman devoted to Johnny-Boy and whose relationship with Johnny-Boy represents the tension surrounding interracial relationships. Johnny’s aging and tired mother, Sue, already grieving because of the loss of her first son, Sug, fears for Johnny-Boy but nonetheless tries to help him. When Johnny discovers a spy has infiltrated their ranks and has told the white authorities about a planned meeting, Johnny-Boy knows he must go back out into the driving rainstorm and warn his compatriots not to attend the meeting.
理查德赖特/新共和国
虽然约翰尼的男孩试图防止出席参加那次会议，但一群被警长为首的白人抵达着他，苏必须独自面对他们。多年来，白人虐待的怨恨突然在她身上沸腾了，她通过嘲弄他们并要求他们离开她的财产来抵抗他们。她遭受了野蛮的殴打，因为他们留下了她的Sass，并且在他们离开之后，她恢复了一些级别的意识，白人博士，这是共产党团体的新成员，问题她。害怕因为警长和他的男人告诉她约翰尼男孩将被抓住并被杀害，她误认为是勇敢的赌棍，并给了他必须警告的党员的名字。只有几分钟后的赌徒叶子苏苏在雷瓦访问时意识到她的错误，并告诉她那个赌徒是Sue标签“''''做犹大的人'（228）。
在这一点上，苏有一个epiphany。她从恐惧中动作，实现她必须采取行动;她完全从基督教皈依共产主义，真正地观看党的“另一个复活”（225），坚如磐石的黑人。在各种可能的方式中，她形成了殴打，瘀伤和生成，形成一个击败赌徒的计划，击败了她儿子的白人。她征服了一种敌对的性质 - 覆盖雨水和洪水河 - 到她的儿子，并通过隐藏在纸下的枪，她表面上掩盖了她的垂死的儿子。经过酷炫的野蛮人，男人对她的儿子造成伤害后，她终于在他揭示党员的名字之前实现了她的目标和射击赌场。当她和她的儿子谎言垂死时，苏嘀咕着她的最后一句话：“”yuh没有git yuh想要！n yuh ain gonna nevah得到它！'“（263）。虽然她和她的儿子死了，但他们就像殉道者一样，在他们的死亡中，在他们的死亡中，通过拒绝谈论，他们保持活力。它们代表了一个比任何个人生活更重要的种族团结。 As the story ends, Sue gazes up to the sky and feels not the hard rain of most of the setting for this story but a soft, gentle rain that symbolizes both her triumph over nature and her spiritual triumph over oppression. She has found her salvation not in an afterlife but in the here and now. She has become the bright and shining star of a hope for an improved future for her people.
参考书目
Brignano，Russell C. Richard Wright：对男人和他的作品介绍。匹兹堡：匹兹堡大学出版社，1970年.Fabre，Michel。没有理查德赖特的未完成任务。纽约：明天，1973年。吉尔斯，詹姆斯R.“理查德赖特的成功失败：叔叔汤姆的孩子们的新看。”Phylon 34，没有。3（1973）：256-266。雷格斯，尼尔。“理查德赖特的闻所未闻的旋律：汤姆叔叔的孩子的歌曲。”Phylon 40，没有。3（1979）：278-290。 Hakutani, Yoshinobu, ed. Critical Essays on Richard Wright. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1982. Jan Mohammed, Abdul R. The Death-Bound-Subject: Richard Wright’s Archeology of Death. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2005. Kinnamon, Keneth. The Emergence of Richard Wright. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986. Maxwell, William J. “ ‘Is It True What They Say about Dixie?’: Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, and Rural/Urban Exchange in Modern African-American Literature.” In Knowing Your Place: Rural Identity and Cultural Hierarchy, edited by Barbara Ching and Gerald W. Creed, 71–104. New York: Routledge, 1997. Reed, Brian D. “Wright Turns the Bible Left: Rewriting the Christian Parable in Uncle Tom’s Children.” Xavier Review 24, no. 2 (2004): 56–65. Wright, Richard. “Bright and Morning Star.” In Uncle Tom’s Children. New York: HarperPerennial, 1993. Yarborough, Richard. “Introduction.” In Uncle Tom’s Children. New York: HarperPerennial, 1993, ix–xxix.
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