Pain Explored by Langston Hughes Essay

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The poet writes with an intent, but very still, voice illustrating how meaningless the event was. Readers are presented with the image of a mother only wanting to protect her child but falling short thanks to the ruthlessness of her fellow men. The child, as in Hughes' poem, represents a type of innocence that will not last long in this world.

"Ballad of Birmingham," is also like "Dream Boogie" in that it has a singsong like quality. It is similar to a lullaby, which only makes the aspect of the bombing that more painful. The danger is realized as the mother says:

"No, baby, no, you may not go,

For the dogs are fierce and wild,

And clubs and hoses, guns and jails

Aren't good for a little child" (5-8).

With this mother's quote, Randall eludes to the danger that is racism. The mother strives to protect her child and tells her, "For I fear those guns will fire. / But you may go to church instead / And sing in the children's choir" (14-6). Her intentions are good but Randall points out that is not enough in a world where evil men wait around every corner. The most horrible fact about this poem is that it is based on a true event.

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The mother and child are significant because they represent an entire generation. The image of a frantic mother looking for her child is one seared into readers' memories. Here we see how we are always affected by others and even when we try to do the right thing, it does not matter.

Hughes and Randall lived during a time when the courts recognized what the right thing was but failed to make it happen simply because the heart of man can turn cold as stone. While African-American should have been enjoying a time of freedom, they feared not only for their own lives but for the lives of their children. Artists across the land recognized this fear and through their art, attempted to express it. The child-like aspects of these poems represent the rose-colored glasses through which many in this country were looking when they thought the heart of man could be changed with law. The underlying truth of the poems suggests the difficulty encountered when trying to work around this problem. African-Americans were learning to live with hate while trying to escape it at the same time.

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