Langston Hughes's The Ways of White Folks,

Authors Avatar

Kim Velez                A. Simon

20th Century Civilizations I                Final Essay

        In Langston Hughes’s The Ways of White Folks, Hughes illustrates the deepest feelings of resistance and frustration from blacks towards the white-American society in which they live. By analyzing only a few of his short stories, one can see the techniques Hughes used to show the treatment of blacks in different geographical locations, class roles, and also in those musically inclined. In his stories, he blurs the racial line that separates the North and South United States while at the same time accentuating the racial limitations between The United States and Europe. He also illustrates that though the treatment of blacks by the upper class appears to be less violent than that of the lower classes, it offers the same, if not more, belittling condescension. In addition, Hughes also demonstrates, through the medium of music, the ironic hypocrisy and envy of many American whites towards artistically talented blacks. With these strategies, Hughes attacks the issue of race, which defines the social relationships in America today.

        The distinctions made of the geographical settings in Hughes’ work are separated into the possibilities and limitations of blacks in America as compared to their possibilities and limitations in Europe. This distinction is most emphasized in Hughes’s story “Poor Little Black Fellow.” The Pembertons, a rich, white New England family, loose both their black servants in one summer and are thus left with a black baby orphan, whom they decide to raise. Because they had seen their two servants as harmless and naïve, they felt a sense of duty to raise the child (especially since the father died in the war). The prejudice is immediately evident when Mrs. Pemberton takes to calling Arnie “it” (135) for a while. They see Arnie as a possession (similar to how the plantation owners saw their slaves) and someone who is forever indebted to him for their immeasurable benevolence. They even feel as if, “nobody in the town need ever again do a good deed: that this acceptance of a black boy was quite enough,” (137). They raise him in a completely white environment, however, where his only source of friendship is the tainted façade they supply him.

On a trip to Paris the summer after he has graduated high school, Arnie experiences the indifference of Europe towards racial diversity: “Paris and music and cocktails made you forget what color people were- and what color you were yourself. Here it didn’t matter- color,” (149). He meets a well-cultured black girl who invites him to visit her room (which happens to be in his hotel):

Join now!

“For the first time in his life Arnie was really happy. Somebody had offered him something without charity, without condescension, without prayer, without distance, and without being nice,” (146).

In Europe, Arnie experiences sincere, human communication, rather than the polite guise of contempt the Pembertons had raised him in.

In "Poor Little Black Fellow," Europe is portrayed as a racial utopia, and Arnie decides he is not going back to America. “But your father died for America,” Grace Pemberton tells him. “I guess he was a fool,” Archie replies. Archie understands all too well that his father died ...

This is a preview of the whole essay