Poor Little Black Fellow:Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes : The Author ● Born: February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri ● Mother’s name was Mercer Langston and father’s name was James

Nathaniel Hughes○ (Got his first name from his mother’s maiden name)

● Both his mother and father traveled a lot → Therefore, he was raised by his grandmother

● By 1915, his parents had separated○ Went to live with his mother and stepfather in Lincoln, Illinois

when his grandmother died ○ Moved to Cleveland, Ohio due to Stepfather’s job

● Attended Central High School, Cleveland, Ohio ○ Where he was introduced to poetry and began writing his own○ He was a talented writer - works in high school showcased in

Central High Monthly (school’s magazine)

Langston Hughes Continued...● Hughes went to live with his father the summer after his junior year.

○ Father and Son relationship was not strong ○ His father disapproved of Hughes decision to become a writer

■ Refused to pay for his college - Columbia University (1921) - but soon came around to pay for the first year

■ Langston dropped out of the University due to discrimination● Moved to Harlem, NY after college - 1920s

○ He became familiar with the arts scene in Harlem.○ His writing was different from other writers → he wrote with rhymes

from African music

Langston Hughes Continued...● During WW2 Hughes started to write about racial issues during that time

○ He wrote for the African American newspaper○ His writing became very popular

● Died: May 22, 1967 (65 years old) - due to complications after an

abdominal surgery - related to prostate cancer

Langston Hughes Continued...

● “Mother to Son”● “Good Morning Revolution”● “Let America Be America

Again”● “The Negro Speaks of

Rivers”● “Weary Blues”● “The Ways of White Folks”● “Not Without Laughter”

Some of his Famous Poems:

Mr. Hughes in Our History: Overview Click on the link below if you have trouble viewing the videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBTe4IG60u0

What to take away from this clip:

Langston Hughes, an American novelist, poet, playwright, and social activist, is known as the powerful force of the Black artistic movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.

This “literary rebel’s” poetry shaped and influenced Black literature, and brought awareness to how Blacks lived in America.

Hughes in Literature ● He wanted to capture Black

culture in written form● Literary works helped to

shape American literature and politics

● Through his works his promoted equality, was against racism and injustice, and he celebrated African American culture and spirituality

POOR LITTLE BLACK FELLOWPart of Hughes collection, The Ways of the White Folks Published 1934

Hughes tells stories of segregation from the point of both Whites and Blacks.

The theme of the book seems to be the multiple ways the Whites oppress African Americans during the Jim Crow Era.

Poor Little Black Fellow Summarization

Arnie, a black boy who lost both of his parents before he became a teenager, was adopted and raised by a white family, The Pemberton’s.

Arnie is different from most black children. He grew up wealthy, educated, and privileged.

One trip to France changed Arnie’s entire perspective on his adoptive family and his life back in the North. In France he saw many blacks like him, and was treated with respect rather than pity. As the story comes to an end, Arnie abandons the Pemberton’s and stays in France with his love (a white girl).

Story Analysis ● Arnie

○ Throughout his childhood and youth he experienced being denied the same rights as white children

○ Denied to join scouts, camp, and the right to dance with white girls at parties○ Man vs Society

● The Pemberton’s & The Church ○ Adopted Arnie and used him as a symbol of “Christian charity”○ Displayed an act of exaggerated kindness towards Arnie○ Know that he has lost both parents and can’t be part of anything, so they have pity

for him○ Ultimately they use Arnie to make themselves look and feel better

■ Simultaneously, they are contributing to the oppression of Blacks and the continuation of segregation

○ Their patronizing kindness doesn’t help Arnie live comfortably in a White supremacy and oppressed country

○ Theme: kindness can sometimes be worse than spitefulness

Story Analysis Continued...● France

○ Arnie and his “family” take a trip there○ Arnie becomes involved in political activism and social parties with

Blacks○ He falls in love with France and French white girl - which causes

him to stay in France■ The Pemberton’s are outraged - they quit being kind and

show their true colors○ Arnie begins to feel and recognize that the kindness he receives

from the Blacks and others in France is not patronizing and degrading■ The kindness he receives is based on him as a person■ Unlike the kindness he experienced with the Pemberton's

Story Analysis Continued...● Themes/ importance

○ Just because one acts kind to another does not mean that their actions are not harmful

○ Niceness can be a way of looking down on someone who is “inferior”■ Exactly how the Pemberton’s acted

towards Arnie■ Making someone feel less than they

are = an act of oppression○ True kindness comes with equality,

freedom, and opportunities■ The Black yearned for all of these

Story Analysis Continued...Setting ● In Mapleton Utah end of 1919 beginning 1920

Small mostly white town where mostly rich people lived.● The Pembertons Arnie go on a tour to Europe so part of the story took

place in Europe.● In this time in Utah blacks were mostly porters, cook, waiters, and many of

them worked on railroads ● Blacks were seen less than white and were a lower class than white just

like elsewhere in the U.S

Story Analysis Continued...

Theme:Discrimination was a part of the American Society no matter where you grew up who you grew up with or the way you grew up, if you were a black you were considered less than a white and the white always made them feel less than they are.

● “ The Pembertons hoped they would not get a hold of Arnie. They would be a bad influence.” This quote shows how the Pembertons were discriminating the black people next door in the hotel as being a bad influence to Arnie, because they had a different skin color, they saw them as bad people because they were black even though the son they raised believing that he is as their own is black.

● “ there was Parties in which Arnie was not invited couldn’t be invited with the girls and all” This shows discrimination because he was the only black kid in his school and when there was parties he couldn’t go because he couldn’t be around white girls, which made him feel less than those white boys who each have a white girlfriend.

Story Analysis Continued… ConflictMan Vs Society ● “That Arnie wasn’t a servant it was revealed ultimately, made no

difference.He was a Negro wasn’t he”● This quote shows that even though the Pembertons wanted Arnie in first

class with them and not in the economy class with all servants the society wouldn’t allow any black person to be in a first class cabin.

● The main conflict is the society because no matter how much the Pembertons tried to make Arnie feel that he is one of them the society would always remind him that he is black and he is considered less than them.

Literary CriticismThe writer talks about the different

connections and contrasts used in Langston Hughes’ short story “Little Black Fellow”. A point she brings up is how Hughes first positions the story in the U.S. where segregation and racism is very common and a daily struggle to most of the black population.

Hughes then brings the main character, Arnie, to France which is a land much less segregational and offers more rights to people of color at that time.

Literary Criticism cont.... Maaretta, goes on to explaining about how many African Americans moved to Europe before

and after the civil rights movement because of segregation. She elaborates how France and the U.S. were similar and different when it came to racial issues. France was segregational but the thought of france was to be more metaphorical.

She writes “France offered some basic rights for the black Americans while the US still lived in the mind set of Jim Crow” and “France is more of metaphorical country in Hughes story than the real France in a clever way to also show the difference between patronizing and humanizing.”

She concludes her review by stating that there are many different themes in this short story. The different themes she includes are: prejudice, denial, and that hatred comes in many forms. she explains her different themes by giving examples such as how Mr. and Mrs. Pemberton look down on him acting as if he is a lesser but they have denial towards their prejudice. “The story was an example of indirect prejudice” she writes “and should therefore be read by everybody who thinks everything will be okay if we are just nice to each other.”

Unit Question What does literature reveal about African American culture, values and

issues? One of the issues revealed in the story for African Americans in the U.S is that two people from two

different races could not be together as shown from Arnie and Vivi, that the Pembertons did not accept

them together.

Another issue was that there was no place in the U.S where African Americans were not a low class

because at that time in the U.S the blacks were always considered a lower class than whites. It was

thought that black people were less.

Culturally African Americans were never able to fit in a society of whites because whites never treated

them in a good way and always made them feel that they were less.

Historical Context● Harlem Renaissance 1900’s-1960’s

○ An artistic movement of the 1920’s○ African American artists living in Harlem “blossomed” in musical, poetic, theatrical,and

cultural expressions. ○ Harlem, New York○ Wanted to capture the tradition of black culture in written form○ Black people loved reading Hughes work○ African American literature, music, and overall culture has shaped American history.○ It influenced the American Civil Rights movement

■ Black writers, like Langston Hughes, wanted to bring awareness about the Jim Crow Era, and the amount of oppression that the African Americans dealt with.

■ Political movements led by Martin Luther King, and Rosa Parks for example, exemplify the African American desires to gain complete equality, rights and end of segregation within the white society.

Work Cited"Ruby Soup with Pearl Juice." Ruby Soup with Pearl Juice. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. <http://maaretta.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/langston-hughes-poor-little-black-fellow-a-short-story-review/>.

Langston Hughes Biography. Http://www.kansasheritage.org/crossingboundaries/page6e1.html. Web. 31 Jan. 2014. h http://www.

kansasheritage.org/crossingboundaries/page6e1.html