Richard Wright's 'The Long Dream' as racial and sexual discourse

African American Review, Summer, 1996 by Yoshinobu Hakutani

The scene of miscegenation Wright describes in The Long Dream, as in Native Son, has the status of myth, not only because Fishbelly's and his friends' dream about this experience, but because such an experience evokes the memory of the historical fact that slave owners took advantage of black women for sex. Fishbelly and his friends, on the contrary, never exploit white women.

The Long Dream is, of course, not Wright's first attempt to deal with miscegenation. "Long Black Song" (1938) deals with a sexual encounter between a black woman, the wife of a farmer, and a white phonograph salesman.(5) In contrast to The Long Dream, the short story features an interracial sexual relationship in which a man and a woman exploit each other for their own emotional and physical needs. Such a relationship, however, derives from an interracial mentality widely accepted and maintained in the system of slavery, as Silas, the wronged black husband, wails in protest:

"The white folks ain never gimme a chance! They ain never give no black man a chance! There ain nothin in yo whole life yuh kin keep from em! They take yo lan! They take yo freedom! They take yo women! N then they take yo life." (125)

By contrast, Wright portrays the interracial sexual scenes in The Long Dream with genuinely human sentiments that come from the hearts of the Individuals concerned, rather than with social and economic motives that get in the way. Fishbelly in his dreams and Chris in reality involve themselves with white women in purely personal relationships, as does Bigger, who watches a white woman in a movie and has a sexual encounter with Mary Dalton. That the sexual feelings Bigger and Mary express are mutual is shown by the original portrayal of the scene, which Wright deleted from the galleys in fear of censorship. The original passages included a more explicit description of Mary's sexual arousal: "He tightened his arms as his lips pressed tightly against hers and he felt her body moving strongly. The thought and conviction that Jan had had her a lot flashed through his mind. He kissed her again and felt the sharp bones of her hips move in a hard and veritable grind. Her mouth was open and her breath came slow and deep" (Early Works 524). For Bigger, not only is "the gay woman" first visualized in the movie and later realized in his own life as a symbol of success and power, but she also becomes a symbol of the fulfillment of his youthful dreams and desires. In The Long Dream, on the other hand, Wright incorporates into this symbol an image of human right and equality.

Within the racist context of the novel, Fishbelly's dreams become even more idealistic and romantic. In direct opposition to the sensibility born and nurtured in Fishbelly, Wright reconstructs with subtlety a racist discourse in which a black youth like Chris dares to violate the taboo at the risk of his life. When Bigger is captured, the newspaper account of him reflects the warning that white women must be protected from a black man like Bigger. The Chicago Tribune prints a lengthy article in which a reporter describes him as "a beast utterly untouched by the softening influences of modern civilization" (Native Son 260). In The Long Dream, written two decades later, Wright does not have to use a journalistic technique to intimate the sexual taboo. Instead he portrays a scene in which Chris's body is mutilated and his sexual organ is severed, a scene to which many white women flock together for their curiosity and interest. Not only is such a scene based upon historical facts of lynching in the South, but it also places the hero into a dilemma of life or death in The Long Dream, as it does not in Native Son.