The Man Who Killed A Shadow

A detailed Summary of The Man Who Killed A Shadow


In the short story "The Man Who Killed A Shadow," by Richard Wright the main character, Saul, shows his feeling of being powerless towards the white shadow. This fear of the white shadow overcomes him in the end and this makes him give up.

Saul became unable to connect with people because of the early deaths of his parents. From this time to come, his life was unstable and this causes him to disassociate with all people. "People really never became personalities to Saul, for hardly had he ever got to know them before they vanished (194)." Saul never connected with anyone and he never got too close to anyone because he moved around frequently. This instability set in motion the events that would lead to the fear of his shadows. Since Saul has been born into a black society, he already knows he has no possibility to get anywhere in life. "...he came into a world that was split in two, a white world and a black one, the white one being separated from the black by a million psychological miles (193)." All the white people were shadows that he feared. This phobia holds him back from being his ideal self, wh


Eventually Saul lets his shadows overpower him by killing one of them. He does this because he feels threatened by a white woman who screams as if he is attacking her. "He swung down his left arm and hit her a swinging blow on the side of her head, not to hurt her, but to stop that awful noise, to stop that shadow from screaming a scream that meant death (202-203)." He gets frustrated and does not know how to react to the situation. If he does not make her quiet he knew he would be killed as soon as someone heard her scream with fear from a black man. Saul's situation was one that no matter what he did he would have been killed anyway. This is because a white woman's word is the absolute truth against a black man. His reaction to the white woman shows that he has felt threatened by the shadows for a long time and was not able to handle his fear any longer. "...He had been trained to keep floors clean, just as he had been trained to fear shadows (204)." This is his resp!

ich is the desire to be above most of his terrifying shadows.

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Some common words found in the essay are:
Richard Wright, Eventually Saul, Finally Saul, fear shadows, , white people, white shadow, white woman, 196 saul,

Approximate Word count = 754
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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