“An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.” Poet, novelist and social activist, Langston Hughes was a proud, black American citizen entrenched within a society where racial segregation was strictly enforced. Challenging dominant perspectives regarding race, colour and the identity of being American, Langston Hughes stood up for those who were marginalised. As a result, he became a figurehead for those standing up for racial pride and equality. Within the essence of this quote, Hughes inadvertently summarises his life as a proud supporter of American’s rights. However, the exploitation of predominantly African American labourers based solely on social status and the
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Hughes begins the first verse by listing common service jobs. In doing this he highlights the focalisation of speaking to the common man. Through this, he identifies his audience, and gives some context to his poem. By foregrounding the invited reading within the poem, Open Letter to The South, Hughes encourages the audience to take on the view that unity of all racial ethnicities would create a collectively stronger and more powerful society. In his own words, his poetry outlines the lives of, "workers, roustabouts, and singers, and job hunters on Lenox Avenue in New York, or Seventh Street in Washington or South State in Chicago—people up today and down tomorrow, working this week and fired the next, beaten and baffled, but determined not to be wholly beaten, buying furniture on the installment plan, filling the house with roomers to help pay the rent, hoping to get a new suit for Easter—and pawning that suit before the Fourth of July." The focalisation of Open Letter to The South, among many other of Langston Hughes’ poems, is that of the lower class, especially African …show more content…
This literary element displays to the reader the change between racial tension and harmony the difference it makes on society. Following this, Hughes mentions cities of extreme racial tension in the past possibly so to imply to the reader that racial inequality caused that but together we could change the world for the better. Subsequently, Hughes uses an allusion to Booker T, Washington’s 1895 speech through the words, “separate as the fingers.” This speech was followed by a large amount of opposition in the black community and Hughes encourages the audience to forget about this unfortunate past and focus on the future of racial unity. This is then trailed in lines 25-27 by Hughes alluding that, the workers, of all racial ethnicities, are but slaves being exploited by the rich. He does this through the use of words such as drive, time clock, and plow. Slave-drivers were people who oversaw the work of slaves and time-clocks and plows were both used during their exploitation. “Helpless, stupid, scattered, and alone-as now” follows this allusion and through alliteration, which emphasises what America would be without racial union, it places the readers focus back on the invited
Hughes begins the first verse by listing common service jobs. In doing this he highlights the focalisation of speaking to the common man. Through this, he identifies his audience, and gives some context to his poem. By foregrounding the invited reading within the poem, Open Letter to The South, Hughes encourages the audience to take on the view that unity of all racial ethnicities would create a collectively stronger and more powerful society. In his own words, his poetry outlines the lives of, "workers, roustabouts, and singers, and job hunters on Lenox Avenue in New York, or Seventh Street in Washington or South State in Chicago—people up today and down tomorrow, working this week and fired the next, beaten and baffled, but determined not to be wholly beaten, buying furniture on the installment plan, filling the house with roomers to help pay the rent, hoping to get a new suit for Easter—and pawning that suit before the Fourth of July." The focalisation of Open Letter to The South, among many other of Langston Hughes’ poems, is that of the lower class, especially African …show more content…
This literary element displays to the reader the change between racial tension and harmony the difference it makes on society. Following this, Hughes mentions cities of extreme racial tension in the past possibly so to imply to the reader that racial inequality caused that but together we could change the world for the better. Subsequently, Hughes uses an allusion to Booker T, Washington’s 1895 speech through the words, “separate as the fingers.” This speech was followed by a large amount of opposition in the black community and Hughes encourages the audience to forget about this unfortunate past and focus on the future of racial unity. This is then trailed in lines 25-27 by Hughes alluding that, the workers, of all racial ethnicities, are but slaves being exploited by the rich. He does this through the use of words such as drive, time clock, and plow. Slave-drivers were people who oversaw the work of slaves and time-clocks and plows were both used during their exploitation. “Helpless, stupid, scattered, and alone-as now” follows this allusion and through alliteration, which emphasises what America would be without racial union, it places the readers focus back on the invited