Customer Description: Compare or contrast between "The Old Man Who Live Undreground" by Richard Wright and "Minivar Cheevy" by Edwin Arlington Robinson. Discuss rebellion vs. conformity. The essay should look at the writers' use of language, symbols, images and characters. 

Paper Body:

In this work I'll try to compare works of two different writers. They are "The Old Man Who Lived Underground" by Richard Wright and "Miniver Cheevy" by Edwin Arlington Robinson. I'll also discuss rebellion vs conformity as well as look at the writers' use of language, symbols, images and characters. 

To begin with I'd like to say that "The man who lived underground" by Wright and "Miniver Cheevy" by Robinson are very much alike. I'll try to explain why I think so. 

First of all it is important to say that when the world was created, each person in it was created with different personalities. No wonder this difference in personalities causes the world to become diverse. Some individuals feel that people should act in the manner that they expect them to. Those individuals judge people by their stereotypes. 

In the short story The Man Who Lived Underground, Richard Wright describes the character that leaves society's stereotype of an African American male by hiding underground. The same situation is with "Minever Cheevy" by Robinson. Its main hero is a drunkard. In my opinion, these people are weak and they can't live in society where there are cruel rules. The world is cruel itself, but these characters can't understand this. 

Let's take some lines from "The man who lived underground": "Once was an old man who lived underground in a sewer. If you were to ask him, "Where are you from?" or "Where is your home?" his reply would most certainly be: here, underground. He could scarcely remember any other place or his reasons for coming here. He made his bed in a dry tunnel with a blanket he had salvaged from the aboveground. The only relics he had saved from whatever past he had were this blanket, a copy of Robinson Crusoe and a pen".

So the author begins his story. After the hero returns to "the worlds," he experiences the ultimate punishment. At the beginning of the story, the main hero is trying desperately to hide from the police. The police accuse him of murdering a Caucasian female. Although he is not guilty, he is forced to sign a confession. Feeling that hiding is his only escape, he decides to escape from jail. 

By the way, many people act in a similar way. Some escape from somewhere, others escape from reality. So does the character of the poem "Miniver Cheevy". He also escapes from reality by drinking. He can't find the aim in his life and he began drinking. But I think only weak people act like that. And as a result they die, as only strong survive in this difficult and cruel world. 
The old man's adventures ("The man who lived underground") teach him to use his survival skills.

Throughout the protagonist's stay in the underground, he endures the swift currents of the sewer. During one incident, the protagonist enters into Nick's Fruits and Meats. When he looks for food there, one Caucasian couple enters into the store. They mistake him for an assistant and purchase a pound of grapes. After they leave the store, he steps outside of the store. Outside, on the street he reads a headline, which states "Hunt Negro for Murder." 

Another example of this is the poem "Miniver Cheevy" by Robinson where the poet gives a skilful portrait of a man born after his time, or at least, a man who thinks so. It is a criticism of an increasingly widespread syndrome - the tendency to idealize and romanticize the past, not for its own merits but simply from a desire to escape the present. Here are the first lines of the poem:

"Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn, 
Grew lean while he assailed the seasons; 
He wept that he was ever born, 
And he had reasons..."

But in the story "The man who lived underground" we can't blame the main character only as other people were guilty in his hardships and troubles too. In this case, police. And the results of their mistakes were awful: they turn innocent person into a criminal. 

As the protagonist continues to travel through the underground, he steals thousands of dollars as well as jewels, rings, and watches. As a result of his crime, an innocent man takes his life because he was accused of the crime. Eventually the protagonist tires of running away from his problem. He returns to the police station where he was accused so that he could return to the world that deeply rejected him. In the end, the antagonists, or police, present the protagonist with a gift they feel he deeply deserves.

We don't see many physical conflicts in the plots of either "Miniver Cheevy" or "The man who lived underground", however they contain many struggles with nature. This is evident, for instance, through the protagonist's struggle to survive the "underground." This story also contains man verses man conflict. The character struggles not to forget who he is. Although the plot moves slowly, it captures the attention of the reader by making the person wonder what will happen next. 

In both works we can see author's humor, maybe not so vivid but nevertheless, visible. "Miniver Cheevy" is marked by a broad, hyperbolic humor. The character whom the poem displays is a figure of fun. However, the humor is wry; we can laugh at the drunkard, who drinks to escape, only as long as we ignore his plight. The poem suggests, in a comic way the survival value for the unsuccessful of delusion plus drink; for those who face up to the truth of things, a bullet may be inevitable...

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