On the Road by Langston Hughes - Research Paper Example

On the Road by Langston Hughes Two and two, we all believe, are four. If the question is asked at gunpoint, the answer may have to be different. In George Orwell’s novel 1984, O’Brien tells Winston that it isn’t easy to become sane (72). For the same reason, Socrates had to consume hemlock long ago. Hughes’ story On the Road echoes similar sentiments. It deals with the factors like our egos and prejudices that blind us to the absolute beauty of truth, life and their worth. The story, without cynicism, mirrors the agony of the segregated and it is a contradiction that such segregation should be found rooted deeply in the culture of a nation that was ‘conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal’. It is one’s experiences that define one’s attitude and it is also true of the story On the Road. It is born out of the author’s own pain and suffering as a black man, said to have been inspired by his visit to Reno in 1934 (Miller et al. 6). It is an account of the scars left behind by discrimination which he had experienced first-hand. On the Road does not really have much of a story line. It begins and ends quite abruptly. The appeal lies in its aesthetic simplicity (Pavlovski 105), the feel it causes and the emotions it evokes in the mind of the reader. It is experienced rather than read. Hughes, as the writer of the story, accomplishes this by skilful use of metaphors and imagery besides careful choice of language and ‘everyman’ characters like Sargeant (Miller 6). The theme of the story raises fundamental questions pertaining to the nature of religion (Christianity in particular) and its self-proclaimed sanctity. What religion approves man’s inhumanity to man? Was Jesus a white man? Did he have any ‘human pieces of night’ among his followers when he was alive? In his teachings, did he say anything about discrimination? Did he endorse it? Did he condemn it? If he were to witness the racist society in the United States of America, what would be his stand? Who would his sympathies be with? How many kinds of churches can we have? In what way is a white folks’ church different from others? Can we really love our neighbours as ourselves? How many Christians are really Christian? Do the millions who go to church every Sunday ever care to ponder over these questions? Why do we need god? Is it because we want someone to take responsibility for all the nonsensical things we do? Is religion a pretext to justify and rationalize our blunders? Is religion then a cleverly devised man-made instrument for control and subjugation of one section by another? All these are, apparently, idle thoughts and not of any consequence. Hughes seeks and attempts to raise and subtly answer these very idle questions in his story. The church being pulled down ultimately stands for the fall of the hypocritical values (of the man-made artificial system) that have for long been accepted and perpetuated. So Sargeant feels he buried the parsonage and Reverend Mr. Dorset who represented those false values and he laughs. It is also symbolic of Christ’s emancipation from the clutches of a judgmental system and people that he was explicitly fed up with. Towards the end of the story, Sargeant wonders where Christ had gone; giving the indication of his belief that Christ is in his favour. He had enough proof of it already. For the priest, any other name would fit just as well, but Hughes names him Dorset, a word bearing resemblance to the sound of door-shut. That is an example of the writer’s craft. The tone in which Hughes progresses the story is astonishingly diplomatic and not in the least resentful. Particularly, the characterization of Sargeant is peculiar. On the one hand he appears to be completely tired, exhausted, desperate, angry and without hope. On the other, he never gives up, never stops his fight for survival. More importantly, he never seems to lose his balance either in terms of what he says or in terms of his behaviour. Nor does he seem to bear any grudge towards his tormentors. When he pits himself against the church door and tries to break it open, in spite of the futile effort by the cops to stop him, he seems to do so out of survival instinct but not under the influence of an overwhelming spell of aggression. To the end of the story, his spirit is undeterred. It is made obvious from his words in the jail: You wait, I’m going to break down this door too. Though he is hungry and starved, he still has the strength and will to break down the barriers that prevent us from living together. When the story begins, Sargeant desperately is on the lookout for refuge. That was when he never even noticed the snow. After the door slam by Dorset, as he stands in front of the church, for the first time, he begins to see the snow. It is a point of metamorphosis (Black American Literature Forum 745) and beginning of awareness; awareness of his strength, awareness of what he can do. It is interesting to note that when Sargeant sees the church and tries to enter, the motivation was shelter, all the way. He has no intention or interest to pray. The indication is not that he is godless but that he is self-reliant. He is aware god does not solve our problems. We must find the solutions to our problems ourselves. So Sargeant relies on his strength. For a while, he chats with Christ (in his imagination, of course). That is entirely a free and friendly interaction as if it were between equals and not as if it were between the god’s own son and a helpless Negro. Sargeant seeks nothing. Christ offers nothing. One of the most striking qualities in Sargeant is his open mind. He is quite expressive, unlike most of us. He has the guts to call a spade a spade. And it is something that is worth emulating for all of us. It is perhaps the lack of that open mind that makes us send Winston to Room 101 (Orwell 69), charge Socrates with impiety and refuse to give shelter to Sargeant. The same closed mind infects us with prejudices, makes our heart rule over the head and causes us to be foolish enough to maintain army for peace and to make war in the name of religion. It is the biggest hindrance on our way towards unarmed truth and unconditional love. Sargeant’s adversity does not make him foolish or passionate. Even when he is being beaten up brutally by the cops, first at the church door and later in the train, he offers no resistance. The violence against him is unprovoked. What about the people that watch the cops beating him? Hughes tells us, ‘Nobody protested’. In another instance, Sargeant asks Jesus where he is going. Christ’s reply is vague and brief: ‘God knows’. This is after Sargeant has said that he is a bum and he has nowhere to go. So is Christ, another bum, another outcast (Shuman 743) because he does not know where he is going either. In such simple expressions is manifested Hughes’ clarity of purpose in writing the story. He tries to portray, as objectively as possible, a contemporary social picture without distortion or exaggeration, not from a Negro’s perspective, but from a human being’s. He ends the story on an optimistic note. It is to be noted that the end of the story is not Sargeant ending up in jail. On the contrary, the end is his bold declaration that he is going to break down the jail door. It is not just an emotional outburst but a conscious decision of someone who knows what he ought to do for his freedom, for everyone’s freedom; because freedom, like peace, is indispensable. We cannot have it in parts. Either all of us have it or none shall have it. References Black American Literature Forum: Volume 25. School of Education – Indiana State University, 1991. Miller, R Baxter, Rampersad, Arnold & Hubbard, Dolan. The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: Volume 15 – The Short Stories. Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2001. Orwell, George (Adapted by Owens, Robert, Hall Jr., Wilton E & Miles Jr., William A). 1984. Woodstock, Illinois: Dramatic Publishing Company, 1984. Pavlovski, Linda. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Gale/Cengage Learning, 2001. Shuman, R Baird. Great American Writers: Twentieth Century. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2002. Postscript The ideas in the paper drew inspiration from the following: Black American Literature Forum: Volume 25 Page 257: Frantz Fanon’s arguments about the effects on blacks of the construction of ‘negroness’ Page 381: Larkin’s comments on sexism and racism of the west Pages 745 – 751: Sargeant’s metamorphosis and liberation of Christ The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: Volume 15 – The Short Stories Page 6: (a) The story is inspired by Hughes’s visit to Reno in 1934. (b) Sargeant, disoriented, starts talking to Christ. (c) Hans Ostrom’s remarks on Hughes’s perfect use of techniques and tendencies. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=Q9lB2KU1rQ4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=1984+george+orwell&hl=en&ei=wYTiTc_dO4PKrAeK9oi3Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=it%20isn%27t%20easy%20to%20become%20sane&f=false George Orwell’s 1984 Page 72: Conversation between O’Brien and Winston demonstrating how fear and force distort truth Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism Page 105: The mention of Langston Hughes’s Aesthetics of Simplicity http://books.google.co.in/books?id=YCH4rsCxcrUC&pg=PA743&dq=christ+sargeant&hl=en&ei=DYriTZ6PAYzPrQf5pbWSBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=christ%20sargeant&f=false Great American Writers: Twentieth Century Page 743: Analysis of the story ‘On the Road’ Read More