Literary Analysis Of Langston Hughes

Author Background:
Langston Hughes, born in February 1st, 1902, grew up in segregated America. His own ancestry was as mixed as that described in the poem. Both his great-grandmothers were enslaved African Americans and both his grandparents were white slave owners. Both of Hughes’ parents were of mixed race descent. Many of his family members were key figures in the elevation of blacks in society, and they impressed upon him the nobility of black people. Hughes had a rootless and often lonely upbringing, moving back and forth between family members’ homes. Hughes was a prominent leader of the Harlem Renaissance and referred to it as the period when “the negro was in vogue”.

Paraphrase:
My father is white, and my mother is black. If I ever wished evil of my father I regret it now. If I ever wished evil of my black mother and and cursed her to hell, I apologize for wishing that, and now I wish all the best for her. My father died in a nice, expensive house. My mother died in a poor shack. I wonder how I am going to end up if I’m neither white nor black?

Imagery:
In this poem, the Hughes contrasts the colors black and white in order to illustrate the distinction between

Especially being born in segregated America, his mixed identity was more confusing and difficult for him to come to terms with. In the poem, the narrator’s father is white while his mother is black; this reflects Hughes’ confusion and frustration towards his own muddled racial identity. Thus, in the second stanza, he describes his resentment towards both of them, which he now realizes is misplaced anger and seeks forgiveness. The last stanza describes the discrepancy between the narrator’s father’s superior status as a white man with a nice house and his mother’s inferior status as a black woman in a poor house, once again emphasizing Hughes’ difficulty in finding his place in