Hughes And His Women Essay Research Paper

Hughes And His Women Essay, Research Paper

Hughes and His Women

Were Eve s eyes

In the first garden

Just a bit too bold.

Was Cleopatra gorgeous

In a gown of gold.

Jazzonia

Langston Hughes devoted his art, writing, to the true expression of the lives, hopes, fears, and angers of ordinary black people, without the self-consciousness or sugar coating (Moore). Hughes not only focused on black people s lives in general; he went into detail about their hopes, their fears, their accomplishments, and their failures. Hughes s poetry expressed the pride he held of the black race and his pride in being one, or at least part of one. Hughes would dedicate his entire life to writing poetry and books about his people: the Negro race. One of the subjects Hughes focused on in his poetry were women. Hughes s women were always mistreated, yet always proud and bold, taking matters into their own hands, in most cases. Hughes sympathizes with black women, and writes poems to express the situations they lived through by writing about them, and in some cases expressing his view of women, and writing through a woman s point of view to express the hardships of their lives.

During Hughes s career, he was criticized for his writings as straightforward treatments of the harsh and gritty lives of ordinary black people (Moore). Even black critics and intellectuals, who wanted only the most positive and refined images of black life to be presented for the inspection of white audiences (Moore) were offended by his writings. While Hughes was not unsympathetic to the feelings of such critics, he rejected their assumptions as a willingness to allow the dominant white society to dictate the terms upon which black people, their values, and their lifestyles would be judged. Due to his lifelong affection for ordinary black people, and his vivid and affectionate rendering of their lives in their own language, he has a place in his poetry for the roles of women. Since he is so blunt about the situations of his people his representations of women are successful, primarily because it s a true and honest representation of black women in his time.

Jazzonia (Meyer 1017), Hughes s poem written in 1923, is one of many poems that are influenced by women. Although Jazzonia is not one of Hughes s poems written through a woman s point of view, it establishes the way Hughes feels about black women. He introduces and explains a woman briefly in the 5th and 6th line: “A dancing girl whose eyes are bold / Lifts high a dress of silken gold. Already it is established that this woman is not shy or embarrassed, her eyes are bold, a sign of strength and pride. The setting of the poem is in a cabaret in Harlem. This woman is probably entertaining the men by dancing for them, maybe even stripping for then, yet she is bold. It does not seem to bother her that she is the object of attention in a Harlem cabaret for a group of men. The poem goes on and in lines 9-13 Hughes writes:

Were Eve s eyes

In the first garden

Just a bit too bold.

Was Cleopatra gorgeous

In a gown of gold.

Hughes mentions the bold eyes of Eve, as he mentioned the bold eyes of the woman in the cabaret. Hughes is insinuating that although God created Eve to accompany Adam, maybe Eve wasn t the innocent, na ve woman that it is assumed she was. Then Hughes mentions Cleopatra, probably in reference to the way Marc Antony saw her. Cleopatra is well known for her love affair with Marc Antony, obviously Cleopatra was a bold woman, she had to be since she was the queen of Egypt and involved in a forbidden love affair. In mentioning Cleopatra, Hughes is making an indirect connection to Africa, and tying the woman in the cabaret, a woman of African descent, to Cleopatra through Africa. Hughes mentions Eve because she is the root of all women, black women specifically in Hughes s poetry. In conclusion in Jazzonia, Hughes establishes his view that women are bold. Although he only uses three women in his poem to represent all women, an ordinary woman and two prestigious women, he makes his point clear. He is successful in representing women because of his honesty towards women in his poetry. Hughes refuses to idealize his women, he states they are bold and strong. Perhaps his straightforward approach to explain his women is the reason he succeeds in his representation of women.

Red Silk Stockings (Meyer 1022-1023) , written in 1927, is another one of Hughes s poems that represents women. The poem is written in dialect to represent low and middle class black people. The poem is talking to a prostitute telling her to go out an let de white boys look at yo legs (3-4) . The goal of the prostitute is to have a child with a white man: Put on yo red silk stockings, gal, / An tomorrow s chile ll / Be a high yaller (8-10). Here we see another bold woman, although she is a prostitute she still goes out and does what she has to do. Her accomplishment will be to have a child with a white man, a yaller. Coincidentally, Hughes is a yaller, and he knows and understands what it is like to be of a mixed race. Hughes has taken up this theme so often he was perhaps unconsciously drawn to it (Rampersad 4).

Rent-Party Shout: For A Lady Dancer (Meyer 1023), written in 1930, is a poem that represents the betrayed, yet bold and proud woman. Hughes wr

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