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Langston HughesA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Langston Hughes saw in the Harlem Renaissance a growing acceptance of African American writers and culture, creating space for him and other artists to express their identity without fear or shame. The movement’s efforts to garner support and acceptance for the African American identity required first exposing the realities of a segregated society. “Cora Unashamed” humanizes what may otherwise seem like an abstract and trivial conversation to those on the privileged side of the equation. Hughes uses the conventions and craft of short fiction to develop themes that comment on racism and segregation in America.
Personal experiences growing up in the Midwest informed Hughes’s depictions of interracial relationships in rural America, as in the “Cora Unashamed” town of Melton. The strength of this setting lies, in part, in its economic implications. Hughes portrays Cora’s employment by the Studevants as the result of an economic trap, a set of circumstances that keep better opportunities out of her reach. The direct causes include Ma’s poor health, Pa’s alcoholism, and the lack of resources and opportunities in a town so small it has no paved streets or sewage. However, an underlying recognition that racial inequality lies at the heart of these circumstances permeates the story.
By Langston Hughes
Children’s Rhymes
Langston Hughes
Dreams
Langston Hughes
Harlem
Langston Hughes
I look at the world
Langston Hughes
I, Too
Langston Hughes
Let America Be America Again
Langston Hughes
Me and the Mule
Langston Hughes
Mother to Son
Langston Hughes
Mulatto
Langston Hughes
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston
Not Without Laughter
Langston Hughes
Slave on the Block
Langston Hughes
Thank You, M'am
Langston Hughes
The Big Sea
Langston Hughes
Theme for English B
Langston Hughes
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain
Langston Hughes
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Langston Hughes
The Ways of White Folks
Langston Hughes
The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes
Tired
Langston Hughes