This week in class we focused on a new poem entitled "Cross" by Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes was a poet during the Harlem renaissance. He was half black. He literally had a white dad and a black mom. So when he says those things in the poem, it's hard for me to look elsewhere for a meaning. This kind of split me because I thought there could be other things to it before I found this out. However, with that discovery it was the only thing that made sense to me. We looked at the poem in a reflective way. Rhetorically, his language is very improper. I would even call it colloquial. I think that adds to maybe just the life he is living, and how it can be rough to not be completely white or black. He's not exactly used to having it easy, or at least that's how it appears to me. Especially back during the Harlem Renaissance. His main idea is that he feels confused and left out from a lot because he is "neither white nor black" (11-12). One thing I really thought was cool was that he ended with a rhetorical question. It added a whole new meaning from the rest of the lines. When I stop to think about his question, to me the answer is all up to him. He will die how he chooses to live his life, but maybe the racism in those days could have prevented that. It is most certainly good material to ponder.
I also think he played the stern, and pretty much stuck-up nature of some of the white people in that time when he says " If I ever cursed my white old man, I take my curses back" (3-4). I don't think his dad was having any of that. His dad would punish him and be angry at him for cursing. And when he says "I'm sorry for that evil wish" (7) in regards to cursing his mom, he is referring to the poor treatment the black people received in that era.
I think the structure of this poem is easily overlooked, but still means something. He spends twice as many lines talking about his mom than his dad. This leads me to believe he was closer to his mom than his dad. He also mentions his dad first, perhaps that is due to his dad's higher social status.
Overall, it is a very short, yet thought loaded poem. I really do enjoy the analysis portion. The fact that we can all see it a different way and make it our own is awesome. I think this poem is great and I hope we read more like it in the future.
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