In addition, the ideas or meanings contained in their utterances or dialogue are very similar to the context of everyday conversation. The way the characters utter a word or two sounds like the speech prominent in the black community. Third, Hughes employs dialogue that is ordinary or “real life” conversation.įor instance, the phonology or textual character marked in the play sounds like real Southerners, especially the black people. And the mere mention of her name in the Mulatto evokes the near reality of the drama: early 20th century. Roosevelt is a historical figure who lived beyond the literary text. She is well known for her civil-rights activities, particularly that which relates to women’s rights. Moreover, the name Eleanor Roosevelt is a very familiar name especially to the Americans, both North and South. The realness of the play comes from, among other elements, the spatial context of the narrative. In the narrative, Hughes portrays the existence and persistence of slavery in the South through the symbolism or representation of Colonel Thomas Norwood, a slave owner from Georgia. And one of the objectives of the Confederate States was the maintenance or preservation of black slavery within its geopolitical domain. Historically speaking, Georgia was a state that politically belonged to or supported the Confederate Government. Georgia, for one thing, is one of the States in America, which is located in its Southern region. Mentioning the names Georgia and Eleanor Roosevelt suggests a particular geography and historical time-period in which the narrative takes place. Second, the Mulatto playwright uses real place-and-time continuum in narrating the drama’s reality. In lieu to the Mulatto play, the knowledge that is at work here is a historical one: racism in the early 20th-century South. Upon “seeing” Robert’s character in the play, the sensible reader is able to grasp the resemblance or representation of this protagonist to the real world.Įvidently, the real world that the reader perceives is a material and/or perceptual realm in which he or she possesses based from an aspect or element of knowledge. The realness of the protagonist is made possible by the human reader him- or herself Robert becomes alive within the mental frame of the reader. The representation of the protagonist in the physical world makes Robert, at certain level, a real person. The “Men in the white coats” (Hughes, 1273) who carry Ronnie’s body away are yet another figurative expression of a white society claiming another black victim.The realness of this protagonist comes from the fact that he resembles or represents a real person who exists, or had existed, in certain historical time and place. Even the milk and eggs mentioned as lacking in his diet are a subtle reference to the white society that has stunted his growth as a black man. “He rolls his big white eyes” (Hughes, 1271) at his mother. Ronnie’s description is a “dark boy in a torn white shirt” (Hughes, 1271). Wealth of a spiritual or emotional nature is never mentioned.Īs Kolin and Curley point out in “Hughes Soul Gone Home”, color is also a reoccurring symbol throughout the play (1274). Wealth is only mentioned in a monetary sense, “When I had money, ain’t I fed you?” (Hughes, 1271) and “you said you ain’t got no money for milk and eggs” (Hughes, 1272). The pennies on Ronnie’s eyes mentioned at the beginning and end of the play refer to an ancient custom and also to the poverty that can blind one in a capitalist world. Langston Hughes uses subtle yet powerful imagery to illustrate the plight of a black family in a white dominated society in his one-act play “Soul Gone Home”.
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