A central problem in understanding Wright's fiction has been coming to grips with the violence, motivated or unmotivated, toward female characters. In Alas, Poor James Baldwin observes that in black fiction there is a great space where sex ought to be; and what usually fills this space is violence. Baldwin interprets the violence in Wright's fiction compulsive and gratuitous because the source is never examined. But Baldwin suspects that the root of violence in Wright's fiction is the rage of a man being castrated, that is, unmanned by a white society. 1 This essay endeavors to show, however, that the pervasive violence toward women in Wright's fiction is caused by the irreconcilable oedipal dilemmas that afflict his heroes. With the publication of studies by Margolies and Brignano 2 we have derived a fuller understanding of the Freudian dimensions in Wright's fiction. Neither of these studies, however, extends its perspective to the important mother-son relationship. Fabre's recent biography is more helpful for the personal dimensions behind the fiction. For instance, Fabre recounts Wright's intense interest in Freudian interpretations of violence exemplified in Wright's involvement with Clinton Brewer, a young black man imprisoned for killing a woman. Wright introduced Brewer to Dr. Frederic Wertham, a Freudian psychoanalyst, who helped plead for Brewer's release. Wright and Wertham were successful; however, Brewer murdered another woman shortly after his release and this time Wright and Wertham had to marshal their energies to save Brewer from execution. 3 Wright's interest in the Brewer case and his association with Wertham can be utilized to understand the general depiction of women in his fiction. That is, his increasingly self-conscious treatment of the Freudian theme centers on the relation to and influence of the Significantly, women do not appear in Wright's fiction except mothers or surrogatemother figures. Consequently, the hero is inevitably engaged in a fruitless quest for the mother's undivided loyalty. As Simone de Beauvoir has observed, Since every woman is endowed with the general essence of Woman, therefore of the Mother, it is certain that the attitude held toward the Mother will have repercussions in a man's relations with wife and mistresses. 4 It is a pattern in Wright's heroes that they are both strongly attached to the motherimage and at the same time disillusioned by the corruption of what should have been her sexual inviolability. They are forced, then, into the position of accepting woman either an asexual, pure being, or a whore, soiled and deserving of death. Fabre traces Wright's personal ambivalence and fear of women to the beating he received from his mother after he set a fire in their house. Richard, according to Fabre, regarded this punishment as a betrayal. It not only seriously inhibited his independent spirit but also caused him to doubt his relationship to his mother.... This episode brutally shattered the emotional security he had derived from the exclusive affection of his mother. 6