Tales Of Simple :: essays research papers

Langston Hughes is represented in blackened Voices by the Tales of simple(a). Hughes first presents his character Jessie B. childlike in the Forward Who is Simple? In this tale the reader is given its first look at the character Jessie B. Simple who is a black man that represents almost the "anybody or everybody" of black society. Simple is a man who needs to drink, to numb the perturb of living life. "Usually over a glass of beer, he tells me his tales... with a pain in his soul... sometimes as the old blues says... Simple might be laughing to keep from crying" (98, 99). Jessie B. Simple, also know as Simple, has just the right combination of qualities to be Black Americas modernistic spokesman and unsung hero. Simple seems to possess just enough urban climate and cynicism, down-home simplicity, naivete, and "boy-next-door innocence" that Simple easily becomes a character that hard-working, average, everyday plurality can relate to. He quickly becomes this sort of Black either man whose bunions hurt all the time and whose thoughts are relatively sort of simple, yet he is a man who rises above these facts and has a acquaintance that shows the man to have great wisdom and incredible insight. And although he maintains unassumingness for all his wisdom to come through his presentation of the facts is given in a humorous manner. In Bop, "Thats why so numerous sporting folks do not get their heads position just for beingness white. But me --- a cop is liable to grab me almost anytime and beat my head- just for being colored " (105). This side to Simple is an example of Hughes render to give simple facts or actual truth but preferably of telling these things harshly and angrily he tries to sweeten them with a critical sarcastic humor. At times, Simple is full of pain. "I have had so many hardships in this life," said Simple, "that it is a wonder Ill live until I die" (105). This comment by Simple is o ne of Ramsey 2 many that help portray him as a simple man who has been some(prenominal) mentally and physically broken-down by society but who in Census also says that, in spite of all the hardships he has experienced, he is still here. Hughes, by using Simple, shows his discontent of the black mans world, yet in showing these feelings Hughes never portrays himself to be angry, overcome by fear, or overwhelmed by racial paranoia.