Mulatto By Hughes Langston Essay Examples

Langston Hughes presents his ideas via powerful imagery techniques as he talks about the relationship the white man and the little boy’s mother. For instance, Hughes mentions the white man referring to the mother of boy as being a “toy” which in this case implies that he simply has nothing and wants nothing to do with the boy. Actually, this term implies the elemental picture of how African slaves were treated back then. Mulatto is a poem that has a wide coverage upon its usage of many characters within the poem including the African-American boy, his father and the author himself. The main idea or thematic standing of this poem is the dialogue between the two main characters, the boy and the White man who is supposedly his father. The dialogue presents several issues that reflect the dark American history of slavery such as exploitation.
In order to understand the key message in the dialogue between the two main characters in the poem, the structure of the poem is the basis to doing so. For instance, one has to understand that the poem is actually a dialogue between a boy who claims that the white man is his father even though the latter doesn’t want anything to do with him as his mother was simply a fun toy. This just brings out where the level of exploitation of the slaves that the Americans had during that era. Therefore, the boy is conflicted by the claiming of his father who doesn’t want him. Even so, the powerful imagery used here such as symbolism is authentic and valid to the structured meaning in the poem as well as making the reader to be captivated.