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Lauren Dorf

Mr. Drozdowski

Honors English 10

May 29, 2018

An Author Struggling Against Society

Langston Hughes’ poems, “The Weary Blues” and “Will V-day Be Me Day Too” express

his perspective of an African American living in 20th century America, in which people of his

race were treated as subhuman. Throughout his life, Hughes either was witness to or expressed

his adamant opposition to the discrimination, and segregation occurring in America. During this

time period people of his raise were rarely offered the same opportunities as whites. Therefore,

African Americans often lived in poor, urban communities. Hughes was often a resident of a

similar type of community. He develops a personal perspective of life as an urban African

American, by including black vernacular, and jazz. Hughes was well known for his involvement

in the African American movement occuring in 20th century New York, named the Harlem

Renaissance. The inequality that African Americans experienced in the workforce, along with

seldom opportunities, lead this movement of art, music, and literature as a way of cultural

expression. In traveling, Hughes had the opportunity to compare the various cultures throughout

Europe, and Africa with his home, America. Hughes was often moving around America as well,

in which his experiences with society vs. individual were broadened. Therefore, his travels

played an important role in the focus of his writing. With the influence of segregation within the

U.S., as well as his involvement in the African American cultural movement named the Harlem

Renaissance, Langston Hughes used his point of view of a young African American poet in his

works, “The Weary Blues” and “Will V-Day Be Me-Day Too”.

As Hughes moved into his later years as an author, his involvement in the Harlem

Renaissance became more relevant in his works. The Harlem Renaissance was a movement in
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the 20th century that covered the increase in African Americans partaking in art, literature, and

music. “The Weary Blues” was among Langston Hughes's first works that expressed his

influence in the Renaissance. Furthermore, he developed a relationship with jazz music as his

“Success and the rising popularity of blues music coincided with the Harlem Renaissance, a time

when African Americans were thriving in the fields of art, music, and literature” (Bouchard).

“The Weary Blues” provided an insight into his experiences with the progress in African

American culture. In partaking in the Harlem Renaissance “he provided the movement with a

manifesto when he skillfully argued the need for both race pride and artistic independence”

(Rampersad). Poetry was only a fraction of the works that he produced within this movement, as

he “constantly looked to the musical stage for success” (Rampersad). He produced a few plays at

the Harlem Theater, some of which included other African American music, such as gospel.

Therefore, much of his works included “His earlier conceptions of truly racial art” (Santis).

One of the main themes in blues music was the ever-increasing frustration with the

segregation of African Americans. Much of African American music had begun with songs from

the times of slavery. However, after slavery was abolished, segregation still occurred in America

leaving African Americans unequal in the eyes of the US just because of their skin color. “The

Weary Blues” was created with the imagery of a man expressing his emotions through a blues

song. The emotion that the singer is expressing through the song is mutual to the feelings of the

man listening to the song, as the tone the Hughes creates helps “Recapture the speaker’s

experience and illustrate the power of the blues music on both the player and the listener”

(Bouchard). The poem includes figurative language, as well as rhyme schemes to portray some

of the qualities of blues music. Rhythm within the song plays a strong role in reflecting blues

music. Hughes creates rhythm in his poem by using assonance throughout, such as “Droning a

drowsy” and “Pale dull pallor” (Hughes “The Weary…”). Not only does the assonance create

rhythm, but the use of a rhyme scheme does as well. With this use of figurative language,
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Hughes creates a song within the poem in recognition for the African music of blues. He

develops the tone of the poem with his use of personification “To bring the piano to life”

(Bouchard). The piano “moans” while the player sings the blues, further replicating blues music

while enhancing the emotion of the song.

Langston Hughes used the theme of blues music to express the existing frustration that he

and many other African American people had with the discrimination that they experienced.

During the times of slavery, many slaves used music as a way of expressing their emotions, and

experiences. Therefore, “Blues music originated from African American folk music sung by

freed slaves after the Civil War” (Bouchard). After slaves were freed, this African American

music evolved into blues music in which “Was first performed in northern cities such as

Chicago, Detroit and New York where many African Americans migrated to escape the

oppression of the South” (Bouchard). As a resident in New York City, Hughes had to

opportunity to witness the blues movement first hand, therefore, influencing the focus of blues

and jazz in his poem “The Weary Blues”. The blues music that he experienced was focused on

topics that were more related to urban ideas, and social injustice. These same topics are what

Hughes centered his works around.

Living in New York City, Hughes used his experiences with Harlem to bring to life the

uniqueness of African American culture. In “The Weary Blues”, he uses African American

vernacular, as well as the use of blues to provide readers with his experiences as an urban

African American. As previously stated, blues music was used to express the point of view of an

African American living in America. The song that the blues singer is singing expresses his

unhappiness with the circumstances. By often using social injustice as a focus on his works,

Hughes may have used this individual as a symbol for all of African Americans that were

unhappy with the conditions that they were living in. In spending much of his life in urban

surroundings, such as Washington D.C., Cleveland, and Harlem, urban settings were what he had
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experience with. Therefore, in “The Weary Blues” he used African American culture from what

he witnessed, and struggled with in cities. Using urban African American dialect, Hughes writes

“I ain’t happy no mo” (Hughes “The Weary…”), providing readers with some insight into

African American heritage. Something that he was very familiar with in his writings.

Within the “Will V-day Be Me Day Too?”, Hughes uses figurative language to develop

his theme of emotion towards the old views that have caused the discrimination of African

Americans. Hughes references the Jim Crow laws a couple times within this poem, drawing in

the physical laws that caused the segregation of blacks. Hughes writes, “Jim Crow birds”

(Hughes “The Weary…”) as if implying that the laws feel like birds that are constantly stalking

him. This was a common feeling among African Americans, as they were often villainized as a

minority in America. Not only were they not given the same opportunities as whites, they were

often segregated after slavery was abolished. Like other Harlem Renaissance artists, Hughes

used his works to focus on this social injustice. As an African American, Hughes was drawing

into the poem his personal feelings of the segregation laws that existed during parts of his life.

The protagonist in the poem writes in the letter “Shall I still be color’s slave?”. By using this

personification, Hughes addresses personal feeling that he, and many other African Americans

felt during that time. The only thing that seemed to be keeping them from justice and equality

was the color of their skin. An example of personal discrimination that he experienced was when

he was attending Columbia University and “He learned that as an African American student,

there was no place for him in the university’s residence hall” (Hall). This type of segregation was

commonly experienced by African Americans, and Hughes made sure to reference it in his

works.

The title of the poem, “Will V-day Be Me Day Too?”, holds significance in that the point

that Langston Hughes was trying to convey to the readers, was the call of African Americans for

social justice. V-day references the victory of the Big three’s win over the fascist dictatorship of
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Nazi Germany. Therefore, by making the title “Will V-day Be Me-day Too?”, he questions the

role that victory will specifically play for African Americans. Furthermore, questioning what

America will do at home after fighting against a power that was belittling a minority. Therefore,

he is assimilating the anti-semitism of WWll Europe, with America’s segregation against African

Americans. He brings to light the idea that both of these actions have the quality of being

inhumane. It is not surprising that Hughes felt so strongly in abolishing inequality in America,

for he was raised in a family of abolitionists. His Grandmother would take him to political

rallies, leading him to do the same by himself growing up (Hall). Therefore, in a time when

whites are privileged and African Americans are underprivileged, the war should bring about a

change for equality in the US, and the victory for America should not be subject to one race.

“Will V-day Be Me-day Too” expresses Hughe’s involvement in the modernist

movement. In the case of this poem, an individual is struggling against society and the cruelty

that he has experienced. This individual struggle is a theme that occurs in modernist works, and

was a quality of Hughes’s poems. For “It was Hughes’s belief in humanity and his hope for a

world in which could sanely and with understanding live together” (“Langston Hughes”).

Therefore, the soldier in his poem symbolizes the whole of African Americans that are victim to

the discrimination barrier within the US. He writes “Hoping times will be better/ when this war/

is through” (Hughes “Will V-day…”), proving that he had hope for equality in future of

America. His experiences with modernism occurred throughout his whole life. For as a child, his

family influenced the idea that equality should exist, and the only thing stopping this was the

societal view of African Americans (Hall). However, Hughes spent about a year in the Soviet

Union prior to WWll. Coincidentally, this occurred after a falling out with his godmother. It is

argued that he picked up some of the ideology of communist Russia, for “Hughes career was

vexed by constant harassment by right-wing forces about his ties to the left” (Rampersad).

However, Marxist ideology is not supported by modernist ideas, because modernism focuses on
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the individual’s struggle against society, whereas Marxism focused on the Proletariats struggles

as a class. Therefore, his works that highlight individuals fight for equality against a society that

did not accept them, contradicts leftist views. With accusations of supporting Communism,

Hughes “protested that he had never been a Communist and had severed all such links”

(Rampersad), personally disapproving any attachments to leftist ideology.

Langston Hughes’s poems, “The Weary Blues” and “Will V-day Be Me Day Too”

provide an insight into his experiences with urban African American culture, and his optimism

for equality in the future America. In Hughes’s poem “The Weary Blues”, he used jazz music,

and African American dialect to create the focus of his own culture, and express the emotion

towards social injustice. As a member of the Harlem Renaissance movement, he used his

experiences with discrimination, to develop works that used African American culture and to

work towards the abolishing a race having privilege over another due to their skin color. In

including jazz, Hughes was able to produce one of many works that would contribute to this art,

literature, and music movement led by African Americans. Hughes directly challenges the

discrimination in America with his poem “Will V-day Be Me Day Too”. He criticizes American

society by comparing segregation, such as the Jim Crow laws, with the anti-semitism of Europe

during World War ll. This poem showcases his modernist view as an author, with his optimism

towards the positive future of America. In which he believes that equality among Americans will

exist someday, and that the color of one's skin will not determine whether one individual is more

privileged than another individual. His personal experiences characterize the challenges he had

with societal opposition as African American culture was only on the brink of acceptance in

America. Langston Hughes’s works paid much influence.

Works Cited

Bouchard, Jennifer. “Literary Contexts in Poetry: Langston Hughes’s ”The Weary

Blues.“ Literary Contexts in Poetry: Langston Hughes’ ‘The Weary Blues’, Apr. 2008, p.

1.

Hall, James C. “Young Langston.” [“Footsteps”]. Footsteps, vol. 6, no. 2, Mar/Apr 2004,

pp. 6-9.

Hughes, Langston. “The Weary Blues.” Poetry Foundation. Accessed 1 May 2018.

Hughes, Langston. “Will V-day Be Me-day Too?.” Poetry Foundation. Accessed 1 May

2018.

“Langston Hughes.” The PoetryFoundation.org, Knopf, 2018. Accessed 22 Apr. 2018.

Web.

“Langston Hughes Biography.” The Biography.com, A&E Television Networks, 18 Jan.

2018. Accessed 22 Apr. 2018. Web.

Rampersad, Arnold. “Hughe’s Life and Career.” Modern American Poetry, Oxford UP,

1997. Accessed 22 Apr. 2018.

Santis, Christopher C. De. “Reassessing Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance:

Toward an African American Aesthetic.” Critical Insights: Hughes, Langston, edited by

R. Baxter Miller, Salem, 2012. Salem Online.