Struggle Bus full of Women
Understanding and being able to convey the struggle seemed to be a major topic for Langston Hughes at the peak of his poetry writing. Hughes utilize the different voices of those he comes in contact with throughout his poems to derive to a central concept of African Americans in society being oppressed because of the lack of understanding of who they are to society and themselves. He brings together the voices he encounters making many of them portray the voices of women, as these are many of the main characters throughout Hughes poems, allowing us to understand their struggle being because of men, lack of identity, and lack of money. Though this is Hughes central idea, he also connects all his poems with voices in other poems that show optimism, which is another one of his central ideas.
As the main characters in many of Hughes poems, women are portrayed as angry, tired, and confused creatures having issues relating back to men. From reading The Big Sea, by Langston Hughes, it is shown that many of the struggles Hughes discusses relate to his perception of his mother as he allows us to see that she is very dependent on men to keep her afloat and angry when this does not happen. He shows the women as fragile and full of emotion when they feel as if they have been deceived by men they trusted. Hughes creates a dramatic ending and dark tone for many of these poems as several of them end with these women discussing death and committing suicide. He highlights the fact that love is missing in these poems, and because of this, women are not able to function properly without being bitter because of this situation. Connecting to The Big Sea, by adding thought and dialogue to what his mother was thinking, Hughes writes poems such as “Beale Street Love” and “Lament over Love”, which reflects women despising men because of their lack of love and commitment to them, which relates to Hughes’s mother relationship with all the men she encounters....