For your listening pleasure

Cross

A poem by Langston Hughes

My old man's a white old man

and my old mother's black 

If ever I cursed my white old man 

I take my curses back 

if ever I cursed my black old mother 

and wished she were in hell 

I'm sorry for that evil wish 

and now I wish her well 

my old man died in a fine big house 

my ma died in a shack 

I wonder where I'm gonna die 

being neither white nor black.

Langston Hughes was born to parents of mixed races but in this poem, he assumes the persona of someone with a white father and black mother. With that, Hughes conveys a message of helplessness. Being a half black and half white, he doesn't know where his place is, or where to fit in.  He takes back any contempt he's had against either of his parents, as there isn't much else to do. Being white, his father lived his life and died in a "fine big house" while his mother died in a shack. This insinuates the vastly different lives they lived, one filled with comfort and ease and the other with strife and hardships. Hughes than wonders, what's to happen to him, being from both sides. It was a real issue years ago. "Mulattos" or one with mixed ancestry faced discrimination by both blacks and white and were often stunk in a social limbo. 

50-50

A poem by Langston Hughes. 

I’m all alone in this world, she said,   

Ain’t got nobody to share my bed,    

  Ain’t got nobody to hold my hand— 

  The truth of the matter’s 

  I ain’t got no man.

Big Boy opened his mouth and said,    

  Trouble with you is 

  You ain’t got no head! 

  If you had a head and used your mind    

  You could have me with you 

  All the time.

She answered, Babe, what must I do?

He said, Share your bed— 

And your money, too.

A story is told with this poem. A woman is alone and wanting. She desires a love in her life but doesn't know how to go about getting it. Somewhere in her life she's introduced to a man that offers what she think she wants, but in the end, that man is only interested in his own selfish wants. This poem speaks of and emphasizes on desperation  This woman wants to be loved, to be aided, to be held, and is willing to consent into a false courtship to experience it. This poem, being decades old, still has strong precedence over people today. Hughes perfectly captured the nature of desperate lonely woman  and scumbag men with this poem.   

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

"'Last week he tried to commit suicide,' one waiter said. 

'Why?'

'He was in despair.'

'What about?' 

'Nothing.'

'How do you know it was nothing?'

'He has plenty of money.'"

(Hemingway, 143)

 ~

Thoughts regarding despair driven by indifferent ignorance. It is often the reality of things. Actions misunderstood and those unaware of true intentions only reveal a superficial surface, forever donning a lack awareness in what unfolds in the depths of any certain individual. The message Hemingway portrays here in theses few lines is clear, all the glitters is not gold. Whatever trivial possessions one may have cannot and will not compensate for the hole another may bear in his soul.