Langston Hughes Black Voices Study Guide

875 Words2 Pages

Free Essays - Tales of Simple in Langston Hughes' Black Voices



Langston Hughes is represented in Black Voices by the Tales of

Simple. Hughes first presents his character Jessie B. Semple in the

Forward: Who is Simple? In this tale the reader is given its first look at

the character Jessie B. Semple who is a black man that represents almost

the "anybody or everybody" of black society. Semple is a man who needs to

drink, to num the pain of living life. "Usually over a glass of beer, he

tells me his tales... with a pain in his soul... sometimes as the old blues

says... Simple might be laughing to keep from crying" ( 98, 99 ).



Jessie B. Semple, …show more content…

Semple, Hughes returned to his own people rather than reaching

out to the white readers as he had been doing before.



In conclusion, his character held the manners, talk, and dreams

that were in reality the major concerns of Hughes' imagination. For Hughes

the ghetto was more than a place to live and write rather it was a place

that held his interest with all that it had to offer: from the people that

lived there to the individual personality that the place held for itself.

Regardless of what was thought to intrans Hughes into dwelling in such a

place, he was not consumed by merely its name alone ( Harlem) moreover it

was the people and atmosphere that most struck Hughes and pulled him into

this place. Here he became a voice that spoke what many saw, yet they

failed to speak because of the racial tensions of the time. Overall then,

his character Jessie B. Semple was merely an extension of a voice for all

those who failed to speak up when they most needed to but couldn't afford

to because of the times.

Open Document