Bop by Langston Hughes (TOW #3)

       Music comes from people’s souls, and Be-bop, a form of American “colored folks’ music” (Hughes 191), tells the struggle of Black Americans in the 20^th century.

       “From the police beating Negroes’ head” (Hughes 191) is how Langston Hughes explain the origin of Be-bop. In his essay, Hughes used a conversation about Be-bop music between an African-American tenant and an African-American landlady to extend the meaning of prejudice against blacks. “Most white folks can’t play Be-bop”, Hughes writes, “ [because] Bop comes out of them dark days” (Hughes 191). Most white folks can’t play Be-bop not because of their ability in music, but because of their different history with the suffering African-Americans. Be-bop in Hughes eye clearly goes beyond its surface music value. It is a symbol for the blacks’ scarred history, a reminder of how Blacks were used to be abused.

Hughes did not forget the struggle, and he does not want other African-Americans to forget either. As a known civil rights activist and famed author with many world-recognized writings, such as the Weary Blue, Hughes published Bop in The Chicago Defender , a popular newspaper within the African-American community, in 1949. The essay itself emphasizes on the struggle of blacks against racial prejudice in the American society and cautions the young African-Americans who want to forget about the darkness of their heritage.

By deliberately juxtaposing a naive African-American tenant with a knowledgeable elder, Hughes shows his African-American readers the importance of knowing their past.When the African-American tenant heard about the origin of Be-bop, he responded, “your explanation depresses me” (Hughes 192). The landlady, portrayed by Hughes as someone who is aware of African-American’s struggling past, said “your nonsense depresses me” (Hughes 192). The tenant is not someone who knows his people’s past very well, and Hughes criticizes such person through the response of the landlady. Through an allegorical conversation between the innocent and the mature, Hughes urges his audience to be more mature, and he seems to be successful. The African-Americans, no matter what time period, will know the essay is talking truth. The automatic ethos Hughes brought with him into this essay and the built up ethos through his description of black sufferings will likely make the African-American readers to pause and think.

Hughes does not deny that the past is depressing; he is stating that being unaware of the past is even more depressing.