John Munson: This Side of Brightness

This Side of Brightness is a novel that accurately depicts the lives of two black men with an addiction to the tunnels under New York City. Throughout the novel, the author compares and contrasts the lives of the African Americans at the beginning of the twentieth century to the African Americans at the end of the twentieth century. The author depicts what they go through because of being black, the gender roles of these days, and most specifically how these men of color find pride in their daily lives.

Nathan Walker is the first character introduced. This is a nineteen year old man who begins the digging of a tunnel that goes under the river in New York City. Although, the work he does in the tunnel is very repetitive, he takes pride in being the best digger down there and always tries his best in the environment that some would compare to hell on earth. The novel also shows exposes what an interracial couple in the early 1900’s experienced day to day. Once Nathan Walker leaves his work in the tunnels, he loses his identity, his wife, his son, and most importantly a reason to keep going through life. This is why Walker always wants to ride the tunnels, and eventually loses his life while walking through one of the tunnels to say hello to the men that died down there during construction.

The other main character is Clarence Nathan Walker or “Treefrog”. At the beginning of the novel “Treefrog” is living in a tunnel underground in New York City in the late 1900’s. He is a black man with OCD and who has a “nest” in this tunnel where he conducted his day to day life. These two characters go through many of the same situations even though they take place almost 100 years apart. “Treefrog” gives us insight into what it is like to be homeless in the modern day and also shows us how people can develop in pride in anything. Even if that prides comes from having the best place to sleep in the tunnels under New York City.

Some of the main themes in this book are the idea of pride and how it develops, the gender roles of 100 years ago compared to more recently, the tribulations that black men go through, what inter racial couples face every day, and resurrection.