A collection of vibrant and incisive short stories depicting the sometimes humorous, but more often tragic interactions between Black people and white people in America in the 1920s and '30s. One of the most important writers to emerge from the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes may be best known as a poet, but these stories showcase his talent as a lively storyteller. His work blends elements of blues and jazz, speech and song, into a triumphant and wholly original idiom. Stories included in this collection: Cora ...
Read More
A collection of vibrant and incisive short stories depicting the sometimes humorous, but more often tragic interactions between Black people and white people in America in the 1920s and '30s. One of the most important writers to emerge from the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes may be best known as a poet, but these stories showcase his talent as a lively storyteller. His work blends elements of blues and jazz, speech and song, into a triumphant and wholly original idiom. Stories included in this collection: Cora Unashamed Slave on the Block Home Passing A Good Job Gone Rejuvenation Through Joy The Blues I'm Playing Red-Headed Baby Poor Little Black Fellow Little Dog Berry Mother and Child One Christmas Eve Father and Son
Read Less
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. All pages and cover are intact. Possible slightly loose binding, minor highlighting and marginalia, cocked spine or torn dust jacket. Maybe an ex-library copy and not include the accompanying CDs, access codes or other supplemental materials.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fair. **May have liquid/coffee damage. ** (U) BOOK ALONE! CD/access code/additional pieces NOT included! *WRITING/HIGHLIGHTING/UNDERLINING THROUGHOUT. Tape to cover/binding. Worn corners, curling, scratches, dents, & tears all over. Page edge shows some dirt & wear. USED publisher/misc. stickers all over.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. Books have varying amounts of wear and highlighting. Usually ships within 24 hours in quality packaging. Satisfaction guaranteed. Books have varying amounts of wear and highlighting. Please note that items may contain writing and/or highlighting and may not include CDs, access cards, or other supplementary material. Your satisfaction is guaranteed! Items ship in quality packaging within 3 business days.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972. Used books may not include companion materials, some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, and may not include cd-rom or access codes. Customer service is our top priority!
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 255 p. Vintage Classics. May show signs of wear, highlighting, writing, and previous use. This item may be a former library book with typical markings. No guarantee on products that contain supplements Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. Twenty-five year bookseller with shipments to over fifty million happy customers.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972. Used books may not include companion materials, some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, and may not include cd-rom or access codes. Customer service is our top priority!
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972. Used books may not include companion materials, some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, and may not include cd-rom or access codes. Customer service is our top priority!
In 1934, the African American poet Langston Hughes (1902 -- 1967) published his first collection of short stories, "The Ways of White Folks", all of which have as a theme the strong force of racial prejudice. The stories show how even the behavior toward black Americans of well-meaning, liberal white Americans in the 1930s had a racist and patronizing tone. The stories are told with a mixture of irony,humor, and sarcasm. They are written with a brisk style, with the attention to rhythm, precise speech, and the telling detail that mark Hughes as a poet. The stories show the difficulties that Hughes believed stood in the way of racial relationships of equality. Yet Hughes qualifies the title of his collection in the motto for the book, to mean "some" white folks. Hughes quotes from his character Berry in one of the stories of the collection. Aware that he is being patronized, exploited and underpaid in his work at a home for disabled children, Berry says:
"the ways of white folks, I mean some white folks, is too much for me. I reckon they must be a few good ones, but most of 'em aint' good -- leastwise they don't treat me good. And Lawd knows, I aint' never done nothin' to 'em, nothin' a-tall."
The fourteen stories in this collection are set in varying parts of the United States, Midwest, East, and South, and involve individuals of varying economic and educational levels. Many of the stories involve themes of sexuality or of music. The most famous and probably the best of the stories is the first one in the book, "Cora Unashamed". This story is set in a small town in South Dakota. The title character is a member of the only black family in town and she has worked for years as a maid for a white family, the Studevants, who treat her with indifference. Cora has a strong sense of pride in herself and in her sexuality. As a young woman she had a child out of wedlock with a white man, the only lover she ever had. The child died as an infant. Cora remembers the man, the affair and the child with love and pride. When the young Studevant daughter finds herself pregnant by a young foreign-born man in town whom she loves, Cora comforts and supports her and bluntly breaks the news to her parents. The Studevants want nothing of the baby and take the girl to have an abortion which proves fatal. At the funeral, Cora rises to speak: "They killed you! And for nothin'... They killed your child. ... They took you away from here in the Springtime of your life, and now you'se gone, gone, gone!" Cora lives the rest of her life alone, with her family on the outskirts of the town.
Two of the stories in the collection, "Home" and "The Blues I'm Playing" center upon black Americans with a deep involvement in both classical music and in jazz and blues. These stories show Hughes' love for all forms of music and his understanding of the classics, as well as of the blues. Music works in these stories as a figure to show what black and white Americans share and also what deeply divides them. Both the stories are rewarding, but I will discuss only the first of them, called "Home".
In "Home" a young man, Roy, returns to his small midwestern town in Missouri after several years spent in Europe. He has been playing his violin at cabarets during the evening to support his study of classical violin with the finest teachers during the day. Upon his return, with his Europeanized dress and manners and his musical gift the white people of the town mock Roy. Both white and black people, however, are moved by a concert of classical music he gives at a local church -- for most of them it marked their first exposure to classical music. An elderly white music teacher at the local high school recognizes Roy's talent and has him play his violin for the students at the all-white school. One evening, when Roy and the teacher meet by chance downtown n late in the evening and exchange some words about music, the passersby assume a rape is about to take place and brutally assault and lynch him. The story concludes "And when the white folks left his brown body, stark naked, strung from a tree at the edge of town, it hung there all night, like a violin for the wind to play."
Other stories in the collection that I thought particularly good are "Passing" in which a young man on his way up refuses to acknowledge his African American mother, "Red-Headed Baby" which discusses an experience between a young white sailor and a woman in in a brothel, "Berry", which I mentioned earlier, and "One Christmas Eve", a story about an African American domestic and the ill treatment meted out to her and her young son.
The message of these stories remain important to contemporary American life. Hughes' writing raises these stories to the level of literature.
Robin Friedman
EmannuelVerette
Nov 23, 2010
The Ways
This book captivated my mind and spirit and I embarked upon a spiritual journey of sadness joy anger and fear. I stopped and cried. What heartache your pain is that it breaks my heart too. There is no more gently powerful description of folks lives: their longings their hopes and dreams their sorrows and shame. The real deal real truth of what the ways of people are. It is about white and black people and how they dance the funky dance of making it all make some kind of sense. Seeking justice and if no justice at least some small measure of understanding. Relating with eyes wide open. yea
