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Violence and Existence: Richard Wright’s The Outsider

Richard Wright’s The Outsider tends to be viewed as if there is no connection between violence and existentialism; in other words, only one aspect of the two is so emphasized that each work of his is categorized as either a work of violence or one of existentialism. However, the two cannot be separated in The Outsider. They work together as one because the protagonist establish their subjectivity through violence even though Wright did not consider violence as a key to resolving the absurdities into which blacks were thrust. Unlike the previous works dealing with racial discrimination, in The Outsider violence is used toward men in power, both communists and fascists, who want to be as god and dominate others. Cross Damon, who had absorbed existential philosophy at the University of Chicago, rejects the totalitarianism of such power-hungry men that destroys human authenticity. He eliminates those who try to control him to evade the objectification of himself and engage with others for their own good. In the end, he kills himself to atone for what he has done to others. Therefore, in the work Wright dose not regard violence as a means of revenge against racial discrimination but as an inevitable attempt for existence by the oppressed people who are cast into a world of absurdities.