Langston Hughes The Freedom Train, Merry-Go-Round and Madam and Her Madam - Research Paper Example

Langston Hughes’ "The Freedom Train", "Merry-Go-Round" And "Madam and Her Madam" Introduction Langston Hughes was born towards the end of the last century America.  Hughes had a nomadic childhood moving about with his mother who divorced his father.  During a particular year when he was in high school, he stayed with his father in Mexico. The father worked as a ranch boy after he escapes from racial discrimination (Hughes and Susan 18).  With the assistance of his father, he joined Columbia University, but was soon disappointed with college life and absorbed himself with writing. He also joined other people who played tunes for poetry and ballet and despair in Harlem (Hughes and Susan 18). Hughes managed to go through the odds by working as nightclub door attendant and superintendent whereas he travelled to places such as West Africa, Italy, and Paris and it is from most of his work that he experienced heights of inequality and discriminations for being black among whites.  During this time, he developed poems that enabled him to receive a scholarship to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania (Hughes and Susan 20).  In this work, the rhythmic, lyrical nature of his poetry is obvious as is his conviction that only by continuing with his African lineage could African Americans finds appreciation (Anthony and Stephanie 25); however, in most cases black or African Americans were subjected to great discrimination. His emergence occurred around the same time which is being referred to Harlem Renaissance lately. The Harlem Renaissance period was characterised by deep questioning of African American racial orientation and identity (Hughes and Susan 18). This was also combined with the effect of slavery and racism on the generations that followed. Hughes is one of the most successful poets of the period. His success is not determined by the way he struggled to attain success but by the way, he represented the issues of the African Americans that he ever felt was being undermined and regarded as dogs especially when they were formed by their white counterparts to undertake certain chores (Anthony and Stephanie 25). For instance, in his poem Madam and Her Madam, he ironically accepted the claims of love from his madam, “I said, Madam, That may be true-- But I'll be dogged” (Madam and Her Madam22). It is notable that people liked him for his contributions in the field of equality and social justices. The way he wrote the two people attempted to question the racism and the effect of such writing on African Americans. He also questioned the hypocrisy of the correctly elected persons. He noted that while these democratically elected people enjoyed service delivery, he suggests that their focus was on the whites (Hughes and Susan 21). This was a clear an attack on the leadership so that the African Americans could also benefit from their participation in the electoral process by having the leaders put in place plans that escalate their inclusion (Hughes and Susan 20). It is notable that he served as the voice of hope and impartiality for the African Americans who lived in a highly racially segregated society. In this society, the African Americans routinely suffered from all manner of discrimination, bias, and utter violence. It was indeed very unfortunate that white Americans even considered and took the African Americans as their slaves. His artworks reminded people of the kind of life, which they really deserved yet they could not receive because the white men were in charge. He made the clarion call using the “free” where all are “equal” which he argued excluded African Americans (Hughes and Susan 18). The clarion call resonated so well with other emerging African American opinion shapers who conformed and resolved that Black Americans must have their space and enjoy the life provisions with liberty. The people were charged to ask about the rational for perpetuating inequality against fellow Americans because they had a different color. He argued that the behaviors and practices were delaying the American dream. The author sarcastically tells people that the same individual who should espouse it were molesting what is considered the very trademark of American ideals. In the Poem “Freedom Train”, Hughes makes his ideas known very early to the audience. Hughes yearns to be free and he hopes the white Americans can see their suffering and let them live at liberty (Hedin 77). The author decried the lack of equality in America and he presents it using a freedom train. He starts doubting whether the freedom train is for everyone and he is saddened to see that the train had “WHITE FOLKS ONLY” and “FOR COLOURED” signs (Hughes 276). Hughes attempted to show the level of his disgust with the way white people were sticking signs around to exclude the African Americans who are blacks. This was a high order discrimination and injustice to the blacks who were denied resources that formed part of their nation and they otherwise called nationhood or constitutional or even human rights. The author went ahead to mention the cities that were so much into racial discrimination such as Birmingham, Mississippi, and Georgia (Hughes 276). He fought exclusion tirelessly even showing dejection that the Birmingham stations had sections for Whites and Blacks. He says they were marked COLORED and WHITE, arguing that the white people used a different gate and African Americans different one too (Hughes 276). He also suggested that African Americans were used to sitting at the Jim Crow Section, in reference to the laws that forbidden blacks from mixing with white in the public (Anthony and Stephanie 25). Hughes used the poem to show the real struggles of African Americans during the years of Renaissance. It is notable that he, in his poetry, incorporated the reality of daily life that African Americans had to live. Of great significance also is that Hughes appeared to be very optimistic about the future. However, much the segregation was deep and black people; he endured and now tells the story from an insider perspective. In the poem “Merry Go Round” Hughes tells of his experience in the North where there were no Jim Crow Section in the merry go round since they neither had in front nor back (Hughes, Dolan, and Arnold 77). The author used the merry go round as a way of telling people that racial discrimination and exclusion practices were indeed purely arbitrary and the rational for doing that in far from flawless. Furthermore, the merry go round exposed the perpetrators of racial discrimination as being unintelligent. The merry go round is circular in shape and does not promote any segregation (Hughes, Dolan, and Arnold 77). Indeed, the author used the merry go round to send strong messages to whites that the world had become circular thus could not accept human practices that led to division and segregation. Without segregation, the author retorts that the world would assume its true prehistoric innocence in which people mixed freely regardless of their racial background (Hughes, Dolan, and Arnold 77). In the poem “Madam and Her Madam”, Hughes seeks to show the injustice that African Americans went through. The whites took and owned the black Americans as slaves. The whites did not treat the blacks well as explained in the poem that the relationship of the Madam and her madam was not good (Hughes, Dolan, Arnold and Leslie 185). The poem is a masterpiece that summarizes the period during slavery in which one race suddenly felt superior that another. The author has used the poem to expose the actual harshness slavery had on America. The author was saddened that white people showed all manner of injustice to the blacks by making them slaves offering them low pay (Hughes, Dolan, Arnold and Leslie 185). Furthermore, the practice was essentially humiliating and unpleasant and that which brought injustice and devastated the African Americans. Their forever hope for recapturing their pride was shattered. The author points out his concerns that the blacks were being killed anyhow and were really hated (Hughes, Dolan, Arnold and Leslie 185). Therefore, the opportunity to work as a slave for the whites was better than being murdered. Works Cited Anthony, David H, and Stephanie Kuligowski. Langston Hughes: Harlem Renaissance Writer. Huntington Beach, CA: Teacher Created Materials, 2012. Print. Hedin, Robert. The Great Machines: Poems and Songs of the American Railroad. Iowa City [u.a.: University. of Iowa Press, 1996. Print. Hughes, Langston, and Susan Duffy. The Political Plays of Langston Hughes. Carbondale, Ill: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000. Print. Hughes, Langston, Dolan Hubbard, and Arnold Rampersad. The Poems: 1951-1967. Columbia, Mo. [u.a.: Univ. of Missouri Press, 2001. Print. Hughes, Langston, Dolan Hubbard, Arnold Rampersad, and Leslie C. Sanders. Gospel Plays, Operas, and Later Dramatic Works. Columbia [u.a.: Univ. of Missouri Press, 2004. Print. Hughes, Langston. Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. London: Serpent's Tail, 1999. Print. Read More