Thank You Ma'M Analysis

The narrator is unknown and tells the story from a third-person perspective. Additionally, the narrator has a limited perspective because he/she does not know the inner thoughts of all the characters.

Point-of-View – is the perspective or mode in which a story is being told. The individual narrating the story is someone the author of the story invents, so that he or she will tell the story for the ones reading it.

Hughes began his life in strife and struggles; soon after he was born his mother and father parted ways leaving him with no father figure (Biography.com 2015). While his mother moved around, Hughes stayed with his grandmother. She died when he was a young teen, causing this young boy more grief but also allowing him to go live with his mother once again (Biography.com 2015). Soon after these trials, he began to discover the art of poetry and started composing some pieces himself. When Langston went to visit his father in Mexico he wrote a very famous poem named “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” which tells of the soul of the African American and the heritage within them (Biography.com 2015). Hughes mentions rivers in Africa, tying this poem deep to the roots and showing the journey from Africa to America. During this poem Hughes mentions how “My soul has grown deep like the rivers,” which was an exact representation of many African Americans downcast thoughts during this time period. (Hughes 2017). This poem expressed the soul and mind of the black community during this post-slave oppression. Many white men still held grudges against the different race and still persecuted them daily. This did not matter to the African American community because they continued to push and rebel against the racial injustice. Langston Hughes used his poetry skills to voice the heart and soul

During the 1940s there were many authors creating poems and stories to try and uplift the spirit of the black community in New York. However, Langston Hughes felt inspired to write about a fictional character, which in he attempted to represent all of the feelings of the black man without being blatant or bold: “Jesse B. Semple is certainly no romantic hero, protest victim or

Langston Hughes was someone who never gave up on his dream. He was an African-American born in Missouri in 1902. He received his education at Columbia University and later went on to go to Lincoln University. Although he is most well known for being a poet, he held a variety of other jobs ranging from a busboy to a columnist in his early years. In the 1920s America entered the Harlem Renaissance, a time of appreciation for black heritage. It was at this point in history that he became an important writer. The reason he was so important to this time in history is because his writing, “offers a transcription of urban life through a portrayals of the speech habits attitudes and feelings of an oppressed people. The poems do more, however, than

20. Brittany works in the cashier's office on campus. She steals money from her job and thinks that she deserves the stolen money because she has not received a raise in 2 years. This illustrates a(n):

Narrative point of view refers to the position of the narrator in relation to the story that one is narrating. As such, when evaluating the point of view of the narrator, one focuses on the relationship between the narrator and the characters in the story. There are three major points of view that narrators can adopt while narrating a story. These are first-person, second-person, and third-person point of views. Either of the foregoing points of views have different effect on the understanding and believability of the characters or the story being told, as is evident from O Pioneers! and As I Lay Dying novels.

Point of view: the story is told from several perspectives so that the reader can experience what they had to deal with. He tells the story and his experiences

Foremost, Langston Hughes was born on February 1st, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri to two black parents. They later divorced which caused Hughes to move around a lot and be raised by his grandmother. Through his friends and schoolmates, Hughes was “introduced to leftist literature and ideology” (Gale Group), as they associated with socialism. This marked the beginning of Hughes avid love of reading and literature. He was influenced by The Souls of Black Folk which which was a classic novel about racism that inspired his writing and poems about the “experiences, attitudes, and language of everyday black Americans” (Gale Group). Hughes experienced racism first hand through his father, as he considered all other races inferior to whites, further alienating Hughes from him. At 17, he wrote “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” which celebrated the voice and soul of the black community in a time of great hatred, helping to unite and inspire blacks during the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a time of cultural rebirth and a movement during the 1920s and 1930s in America in which black artists, activists, musicians, and writers “found new ways to explore and celebrate the black experience” (Gale Group) in the midst of white oppression. Hughes’ poetry gave a voice and inspiration for many black people across America as he detailed their struggles and pain related to the racial prejudice shown against them. The way Hughes wrote, threading in “structures and rhythms of jazz music” (Gale Group), his

6. He tried to conjure up a story that would cover up the incident temporarily.

Langston Hughes is an extremely successful and well known black writer who emerged from the Harlem Renaissance (“Langston Hughes” 792). He is recognized for his poetry and like many other writers from the Harlem Renaissance, lived most of his life outside of Harlem (“Langston Hughes” 792). His personal experiences and opinions inspire his writing intricately. Unlike other writers of his time, Hughes expresses his discontent with black oppression and focuses on the hardships of his people. Hughes’ heartfelt concern for his people’s struggle evokes the reader’s emotion. His appreciation for black music and culture is evident in his work as well. Langston Hughes is a complex poet whose profound works provide insight into all aspects of black

“…It was a shameful situation. People would talk. All that a man had back then, all that he was, was his honor, his name, and if people talked…”

I read this poem for the first time in African American Literature class my sophomore year at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Margaret Hartsell taught the class. She was one of those hard-nosed professors that you never forget. Her most important lesson was to develop a passion for learning. We analyzed Langston Hughes’ poetry and his influence on the Harlem Renaissance. Many historians believe that he was the most influential and prominent literary figure during the era. When Langston Hughes wrote this poem the Harlem Renaissance was a distant memory for many blacks in Harlem and throughout the nation. Harlem, the mecca of African American life and the country’s most vibrant city became a war zone contaminated with crime, drugs, poverty,

1. Point of view – the view or perspective of how the story is narrated (i.e first person)

One of the Harlem Renaissance writer was Langston Hughes (1902-1967). He was an American poet who was at the same time a social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was also one of the pioneers of the literature art form jazz poetry. Hughes’ began to write poems when he was still in his eighth grade. Particularly, he wrote “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” when he was passing by the Mississippi River, on board on a train down to Mexico with his father (Shmoop 4). Hughes was a key icon during the Harlem Renaissance because his works has helped the black arts and culture flourish in the 1920s. Hughes’ writing reflected his advocacy that “Black is