the ways of white folks by langston hughes

Aside from it being unthinkable for a white woman to be with a black man in America during this time period, the janitor is happily married with a houseful of children. Her thoughts are entirely inappropriate for more than one reason. After a while, she begins to have romantic feelings for this man. She relies on the black janitor in her building to bring her dog food each night. In 'Little Dog,' a white woman who lives alone decides to adopt a dog for companionship. It's a clever bit of story construction by Hughes that in order to pass for white, he is forced to literally pass by those he loves. He feels bad about this, but knows that if he wants to have any semblance of a nice life, he must keep up the ruse. He was with his fiancé, who thinks he is white, so he couldn't acknowledge his mother without revealing his race. In it, he apologizes for pretending not to know her when he saw her on the street. In'Passing,' a young man who is able to pass as white writes a letter home to him mother. I enjoyed each story in the collection, but a few stand out to me. One gets the sense that this is an important work with layers of meaning to unpack. Hughes is an excellent storyteller, and his keen observations of human behavior feel genuine. All of the stories, no matter their tone, invite readers to pause and think about how strange and cruel life can be. Many of the stories fall somewhere in the middle of those extremes, showing the awkwardness, unfairness, and hypocrisy that inevitably arise between two groups on opposite sides of an unequal society. Other stories are tragic, showing the naked racism and violence that white people regularly employed to terrorize the black community. Some of the stories are humorous, showing white people that fetishize black culture and fail to understand how their fascination with all things African is ironic and silly. These interactions run the gamut of human emotions. The Ways of White Folks contains fourteen short stories, each exploring different interactions between white people and African Americans in the 1920s and 30s. I was interested to see how this collection of short stories would compare. Hughes' poems, without a doubt, are beautiful and thought-provoking. I don't read much poetry in general, but my work as a teacher has brought me into contact with several of his most famous works. Prior to reading this, I was only familiar with Hughes' poetry.

I had several options to choose from on my Classics Club list, but I eventually settled on The Ways of White Folks by Langston Hughes.

In honor of Black History Month this year, I decided to read a work by an African American author.

The ways of white folks by langston hughes