Bop By Langston Hughes Analysis

For my paper I choose to read “Bop” by Langston Hughes and essay published in 1949 in the book “The Best American Essays of the Century.” Originally I choose this essay honestly because it was the shortest; later to find out it was actually very interesting to me. When I began reading this essay I kind of figured what it was going to be about and how it was going to end, but the author made it much more than what I expected. In this essay I would say the structure is ranked the highest of all categories, because of the fact he has so little words with so much meaning behind them. In Hughes’ essay he explains how Be-Bop came around and why it means so much to him. He says that the words of the music actually have meanings behind them (Hughes …show more content…
In the Introduction essay of the book written by Joyce Carol Oates, she explains how you are going to think and feel after reading a few of these essays. She notifies you on the different types of essays you are going to be reading and helps you have an idea of the action you will face. I really enjoyed how she wrote little clips of some essays in her introduction to help you understand what she was trying to say. Oates defines the writings in this book as a piece of art and not just some fiction story, which proves her ability to notice great writings (Oates xix). She says that every essay gives you a voice (Oates xix). When you are reading one of these essays you will “hear” a voice in your head as you read it to yourself, the voice that you will hear is the voice that you picture that character having wither it has an accent, speaks like a girl or guy, or even in the voice is sick or smooth. This happened to you when reading these essays because they are so well written you can almost picture it as a movie in front of you. Along in the essay Oates list hundreds of different authors and one of their essays that helps explain what she is trying to say in her paragraph. Oates hits just about every essay in this book as an example of the type of story she is explaining to the reader. In Joyce’s essay she …show more content…
As I was reading “Bop” I was picturing a little colored boy with this cool and smooth voice dressed in 50’s attire Be-Bopping, having a good time and explaining the meaning of Be-Bop to his friend, who I pictured with an attitude through the whole situation. The voice of a character can also depend on the reader not just the writer. One reader might think the little bot Simple is trying to be a smarty-pants and another reader might not. That is the art of the essay. Some essays can be taken to many different discussions and interesting