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    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Blues I'm Playing"
    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Blues I'm Playing"
    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Blues I'm Playing"
    Ebook37 pages25 minutes

    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Blues I'm Playing"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Blues I'm Playing," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJul 6, 2016
    ISBN9781535819756
    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Blues I'm Playing"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Blues I'm Playing" - Gale

      1

      The Blues I’m Playing

      Langston Hughes

      1934

      Introduction

      In many ways, The Blues I’m Playing exemplifies the qualities that dominate the prose and poetry of Langston Hughes. The author is a major figure on the landscape of American poetry and may be the best-known on the landscape of African-American poetry. First published in Scribner’s Magazine in May, 1934, and in the collection The Ways of White Folks that same year, The Blues I’m Playing combines Hughes’s irony, his directness, and his use of dialect. It also conveys powerful messages about race relations, the beauty of blues and jazz, and the black artist’s experiences in the white-dominated world of modern art. The story of a young black pianist, Oceola Jones, and her conflict with her self-appointed white patron, Dora Ellsworth, The Blues I’m Playing embodies Hughes’s belief in the fortitude and dignity of black Americans.

      Author Biography

      James Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. Hughes was the only child of James Nathaniel Hughes and Carrie Mercer Hughes nee Langston. The elder Hughes left soon after his son’s birth, eventually settling in Mexico, where he prospered in a variety of business ventures. Young James and his mother, however, struggled to make ends meet. He spent many years living with various relatives and family friends as his mother traveled in search of work. When his mother was remarried and settled in 1914, he joined her in Cleveland, Ohio. At Central High School, he proved himself as a student and as an athlete, and began writing poetry and short fiction for the school’s literary magazine.

      After graduating from high school, Hughes taught English in Mexico for a year. He also became a regular contributor to the Crisis, a magazine published by the NAACP and one of the cornerstones of the early fight for civil rights. In 1921, Hughes spent a year at Columbia University in New York City. There he studied English literature and explored the city’s rich social and intellectual life. He also became a regular at events sponsored by the American Socialist Society. After leaving Columbia University, Hughes supported himself and

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