Past, Present, Future
“If you don’t now your past, then you won’t have a future.” This holds true to plenty of African Americans from all walks of life. Oppression-- a fixation that lives in the African American history – still roars its ugly head even in this present day. They have been thought of as inferior to the white superiority. Though struggling through these times, they continue to find a way to come together with one another. A common tradition of African Americans happens when aged generations sit down with the youth to recount old memories through stories. Langston Hughes incorporates this common practice through his speaker’s relations of past events in his poem “The Negro Mother”. Acting as the speaker, the Negro mother unifies African Americans of the past, present, and future for a common purpose: to achieve her American dream.
Langston Hughes takes on the persona of a Negro mother to represent the people of the past generation. The Negro mother affirms, “Children, I come back today/ To tell you a story of the long dark way” (lines 1-2). Using this Negro mother enables Hughes to narrate the poem through an attached speaker that people can relate to. This mother represents the older generation as a whole that went through the slave period. Utilizing such a word like “I”, shows the mother being a spokesperson for the older generation (line 1). She internalizes how she “crossed the red sea/…/ worked in the field” (lines 8, 10). Although she may not have gone through all these difficult situations personally, she relates to it as if she did. The Negro mother attributes, “Deep in my breast—the Negro mother” showing how personable it is for her (line 31). Doing this also draws the reader in close making it more relatable. This inevitable makes the reader feel remorse and have compassion for the speaker and the people she speaks on behalf of.
