LANGSTON HUGHES ON OBAMA & THE ECONOMY

For the past couple of years, the main focus of President Obama’s efforts has been to first, revive the economy and later, rebuild the economy. President Obama’s plans to recovery include making investments in infrastructure, giving a tax cut to 95 percent of Americans, creating a new housing program that prevents more foreclosures, and creating new jobs for Americans. President Obama talks about how his economic plan seems to be working so far even though the unemployment rate is around 10 percent. He says that the “loss of jobs has slowed” and “hiring often takes time to catch up to economic growth.” I agree with President Obama and believe that he is doing a terrific job in reviving the economy.

Many people believed strongly that the fall of our economy was the end of the United States. They believed that there was no coming back after this and that things would never be the same. Others even began to make plans to leave the country before things got too bad. Luckily for us, we have an intelligent president who came right in the nick of time to make the impossible to be possible once again. President Obama has a vision for what the future for America should be and he’s tackling all of the issues in the way head on. He’s already in motion for fixing our broken health care system and providing health care to the millions of Americans who are without. Another plan that is in motion is the clean energy plan. Obama plans to end our addiction to foreign oil and create millions of new jobs by harnessing the power of alternative and renewable energy. The final point that President Obama is hammering on is to invest in education because today’s children determine America’s wealth tomorrow.

I am extremely proud of President Obama for standing up against all odds for what is right. He pushes for what he knows to be correct even through all of the scrutiny and lies that have been brought up against him. Other people would have given up and conformed to what others wanted them to do or believe, but President Obama was one of the few people that believed firmly in his vision of things getting better and putting Americans back to work.

LITERARY ANALYSIS

Mulatto

I am your son, white man!

Georgie dusk

And the turpentine woods.

One of the pillars of the temple fell.

You are my son!

Like hell!

The moon over the turpentine woods.

The Southern night

Full of stars,

Great big yellow stars.

What's a body but a toy?

Juicy bodies

Of nigger wenches

Blue black

Against black fences.

O, you little bastard boy,

What's a body but a toy?

The scent of pine wood stings the soft night air.

What's the body of your mother?

Silver moonlight everywhere.

What's the body of your mother?

Sharp pine scent in the evening air.

A nigger night,  

A nigger joy,

A little yellow

Bastard boy.

Naw, you ain't my brother.

Niggers ain't my brother.

Not ever.

Niggers ain't my brother.

The Southern night is full of stars,

Great big yellow stars.

                                O, sweet as earth,

                                Dusk dark bodies

Give sweet birth

To little yellow bastard boys.

                Git on back there in the night,

                You ain’t white.

The bright stars scatter everywhere.

Pine wood scent in the evening air.

                                A nigger night,

                                A nigger joy.

                I am your son, white man!

                                A little yellow

                                Bastard boy.

I will be discussing the meaning and the reasons behind the poem “Mulatto.” Langston Hughes is of a biracial background, both of his parents being of multiple ethnicities. Hughes has a forefront view of the plight of biracial people by dealing with his ethnicity on a day to day basis. The poem, “Mulatto” resonates with the tensions of Hughes’s strained father-son relationship, as shown in the first line—“I am your son, white man!”. Although Hughes’s father is biracial, there are still traces of the abandoned boy calling out to a father who acts like a white man and despises his own kind. In the last lines—“A little yellow / Bastard boy”—Hughes’s assertion of pride in his biracial heritage and a slight taunting of his father are paramount. Hughes spoke for himself but by combining the material of biracialism and paternity in “Mulatto.” He also spoke for the biracial community in its entirety. Anglo-Americans refused to acknowledge mulattos as having any affiliation with their pure bloodlines. This point is made obvious by the answer to the first line from the “white father” saying—“You are my son! / Like hell!”, and also, from the response of the “white half-siblings” saying—“Naw, you ain’t my brother / Niggers ain’t my brother / Not ever / Niggers ain’t my brother”.

                Some formal properties used in this poem include specifically its use of italics and its employment of three different lengths of line indentation. The italics and indentations provide essential cues as to whether the lines are words spoken and the source of the words. There are four voices in the poem: the mulatto, the father, the white half-siblings, the narrator, and the combination of the narrator and mulatto. The poem presents five distinct point of views and because of the differentiation for these voices—upon which the entire meaning of the poem depends—Hughes’s use of italics and three different lengths of line indentation.



HARLEM RENAISSANCE

Langston Hughes was one of the most influential writers of the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a literary, artistic, cultural, intellectual movement that began in Harlem, New York after World War I and ended around 1935 during the Great Depression. The movement raised significant issues affecting the lives of African Americans through various forms of literature, art, music, drama, painting, sculpture, movies, and protests.  The Harlem Renaissance was a significant moment in African American literature because of the explosion of creativity among black writers. The Harlem Renaissance began as a series of discussions in Lower and Upper Manhattan in New York. It gained publicity after aspiring black writers began to migrate to the north from other cities and even countries. The literature written during the Harlem Renaissance reflected ways that blacks lived, on a day to day basis, in America.

Works Cited:

Witalec, Jane, project editor. Farmington Hill, MI: Gale, 2008. Call and Response: The Riverside Anthology of the African American Literary Tradition. Ed. Patricia Liggins Hill. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008.

"Harlem Renaissance." Journal of American History 77.1 (1990): 253. Gale World History In Context. Web. 3 April. 2011.

"Harlem Renaissance." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William A. Darity, Jr. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 424-426. Gale World History In Context. Web. 3 April. 2011.