Hughes and Blues: Double Consciousness

A small yet significant recitation in The Big Sea takes mall after Hughes becomes a seaman on a merchant ship at the age of twenty-one and takes his trip to Africa. As the ship arrives along the coast, Hughes writes that the regular ere acquires a supplemental confederacy of Africans, as the current crew he was with werent supposed to be commensurate to stand the sunniness (Hughes 320). Hughes states this simplistically, as though thats the only angle to the regular crews reasoning.The reprobate immediately follo file name extension this oversimplified statement reads, indeed I had an African boy to do my washing, my cleaning, and almost all my become-as did everybody on carte du jour (Hughes 320). Considering Hughes Just used the entire previous paragraph to describe his duties as seaman, it becomes demonstrable to the reader that Hughes is sing the African boy much In the way a white the Statesn would employ a minority to tend their house, do their yard- or fieldwork, co ok and clean, taking advantage of the boys choose for money.Hughes then Justifies using the African electric razor as a sort of housekeeper by saying everyone else is doing it, and, The Africans stood both work an sun without difficulty, it seems (Hughes 320), and with those cardinal lines, Hughes pretty much restates two of the original arguments for slavery. In Ramparts The Life of Longs Hughes, Hughes is occasionally depicted as dealing with the subjective struggle of forked consciousness, such as after the publication of his book of poems, delicately Clothes to the Jew.A collection of poems that, as Hughes describes first- handedly as, a better book than my first, because it was to a greater extent impersonal, more about other people than myself (Hughes 394). He considered the collection to be an honest glimpse into the world of African-American issues, and white America applauded the book. However, his black critics denounced it as garbage, and proclaimed Hughes to be (R amped 140) and the poet Loretta of Harlem (Hughes 396).Hughes relationship with Charlotte Mason, or Godmother as she care to be called, Is spotted with a few examples of double consciousness. Meeting Mason by means of Lain Locke, Hughes was immediately taken under her wing in her effort to elevate African culture to its rightful place of discover (Ramped 147), and enlisted to create literary works of art. Seduced by the opportunity to work on his rhyme and various writings without the uncertainty of poverty, Hughes went to work for Godmother in exchange for financial security, golem an entire KICK Dates on Masons demands.Longs Hughes thread was filled with examples of the tumultuous battle of double consciousness, from early life to old age, whether in Harlem or traveling around the world. His books manages to explore both the assimilation of African-American into the Euro-American culture as well as the recognition and retention of the cultural aspects ludicrous to the Afri can- American community. Bibliography Ramped, Arnold. The Life of Longs Hughes. natural York Oxford UP, 1986. Print. Hughes, Longs. The Longs Hughes Reader. New York G. Brazier, 1958. Print