Racial and Ethnic Identity, Essay Example

In terms of location, it greatly influenced what each individual poem was saying. The perspectives of each respective poem would have greatly changed in such a manner that individuals would be thinking of completely distinct geographical characteristics if the location would have been changed to another one. I believe that by placing “Song for a Dark Girl” in the South, the narrator was trying to portray  just how bad things were in the South at the time. This is not to alleviate the things that were going on in the North, but it is clearly seen how the events that unfolded in the South could in any way compare to the things in the South. Without the information on the location, the message of the poem would have changed in such a way that it would have been pure violence as opposed to being able to understand the violence and where it was taking place.

The presence of strong female characters in the poem indicates that the women do not fully comprehend what is happening and why it is happening in the beginning. This is especially portrayed in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” where the little African American cannot begin to understand why individuals would mistreat her if even she cannot find anything wrong with herself. This is shown when she questions the individuals who discriminate against her: “ How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me.” I believe that the narrator includes these kinds of passages to portray how individuals were being mistreated without having them truly realize why they were being treated in such a manner. Overall, the poems do a great job at conveying their intended message.

Works Cited

Hughes, Langston. “Langston Hughes – Song for a Dark Girl.” Song for a Black Girl. 2015 Genius Media Group Inc., n.d. Web. 14 July 2015.

Hurston, Zora Neale. “How it Feels to be Colored Me.” World Tomorrow, 11 (May, 1928) 215-216.