Merry-go-round
This poem was written by Langston Hughes in the twenties and
was published in a collection of poems.
It was the Harlem Renaissance, when people were trying to
express the problem, the issues of their time.Harlem is a neighbourhood in the
north of NYC, which was a black community mainly.
Painters, poets, writers, singers, musicians performed in
famous places such as Cotton Club and the Apollo theater.
The narrator is a black young boy or girl, who comes from a
southern state, a place. She/he mentions the place she/he belongs to.
He is currently in the North. In the South racial segregation
prevailed, whereas in the North, people fought against, stood up against,
segregation, and stood for the abolition of slavery during the Civil War.
In L8, the narrator refers to black people who were forced
to, obliged to, compelled to sit at the back of the bus or trains, and white
people would sit , have a seat in the front. It was the Jim Crow laws. The
narrator uses the first person . He is surprised/stunned, taken aback. that
there is no black section in the merry-go-round.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mibxbjkvit3uxlt/The%20merry-go-round%2C%20Langston%20Hughes.docx?dl=0
INTRO : this poem was written in the 20s at the time of
what was called the Harlem Renaissance, when some black artists, writers and
poets developed their own art form. Langston Hughes wrote famous poems
celebrating black pride and harmony.
The narrator is a young black boy or
girl (l. 3 and l. 13).
The
narrator comes from the South of the United States (l. 4): He / She mentions
the South as the region he/she belongs to. The narrator probably came to the
North of the United States, where the situation could be different for black
people because the Northern States were abolitionist. They stood up for slavery
to be abolished during the Civil War and supported equality between black and
white people.
On
buses or trains, black and white people were segregated: Blacks had to sit in
the back rows whereas white people sat in the front rows. The Jim Crow laws are
referred to here.
The narrator is stunned /
astounded / taken aback. That is why he / she asks questions (l. 3 and l. 13).
For the first time in his / her life, he / she sees a public facility / place
where black and white people are not separated. As a circle, the merry-go-round
poetically represents equality, unity, togetherness. Children are on an equal
footing on a merry-go-round. There are no superior or inferior people since
there are no front nor back parts.
Circles and movements are reoccurring
themes- representing the earth and or life cycle. The
horse represents an escape , from life as a black boy during the early 1960's.
It also, with a pole, represented strength and stability. The little boys place
in this world.
This black child who comes from down South has known racial segregation ever since he was born.
He knows that on buses there black people have to sit in the back; likewise, on
trains, there are cars reserved for them. Where they have to sit is called the Jim Crow
section, in
reference to the infamous laws forbidding Blacks to mix with Whites in public
places.
This black child is now in the North a new country to him and would like to ride on a merry-go-round a new
problem. Indeed, as we are made to understand, there is no Jim Crow section on
a merry-go-round for the simple reason that it has neither front nor back. The
questions he asks the adult maybe a white man can therefore receive no satisfactory answers. Yet we
are not really interested in the answers, all the more so as there are none
given. Only the child's questions matter here. They are meant to make us
realise that racial discrimination is a purely arbitrary process and that its logic
is far from impeccable. This particular case the merry-go-round blatantly exposes its intrinsic inanity since the
circular shape of the carousel prevents any form of segregation.
The black child is therefore confronted to a situation where the old rules no
longer apply and is at a loss for what to do. Here again, whether he eventually
chooses to ride on the merry-go-round or not is quite irrelevant. The point is
that he is offered an option he was never allowed to contemplate hitherto.
Paradoxically, the world has opened up in the form of a closed circle. But this
figure of a circle is first and foremost a metaphor for a perfect or at
least, better world,
freed of all its man-made divisions and therefore returned to its primeval
innocence, where anybody can live free regardless of the colour of their skin.
jpf
