Langston Hughes

In the absence of a father, Langston Hughes spent his formative years until the age of puberty under matriarchal influence. This influence would later manifest itself in some of his fiction--most notably in his first autobiographical novel, Not Without Laughter (Berry 6). Lonely as a child, Langston turned for comfort turned to "books, and the wonderful world in books" (Rampersad 1). Later he would recall the inspiration of the Bible in his early life, as well as the inspiration of W. E. B. DuBois, whose The Souls of Black Folk defined for many people the essential drama of people born black in America in the aftermath of the Civil War (Rampersad 1).

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er in 1919. The poem can also be read as an articulation of the racial conflict in America. In 1968, two black psychiatrists aimed to write a clinical handbook spelling out certain aspects of the psychiatric treatment of blacks (Grier & Cobbs xi). The book sold to an extremely large audience upon its publication and was subject to numerous positive critical reviews. Of the condition of blacks in America following the abolition of slavery and leading up to the 1960s, the authors state: The culture of slavery was never undone for either master or slave. The civilization that tolerated slavery dropped its slaveholding cloak but the inner feelings remained. The `peculiar institution' continues to exert its evil influence over the nation. The practice of slavery stopped over a hundred years ago, but the minds of our citizens have never been freed (Grier & Cobbs 26). If one keeps the above-quoted passage in mind while reading "Mulatto," one is more likely to notice that although the poem does not once mention slavery, one tends to assume that the poet is referring to the relationship between master and slave. Specifically, the rape of the black woman slave and the denunciation of the male child who is born as a result of that
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Approximate Word count = 2846
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)