Free Essays - Tales of Simple in Langston Hughes Black Voices :: Black Voices Essays

Free Essays - Tales of Simple in Langston Hughes Black Voices         Langston Hughes is represented in Black Voices by the Tales of Simple.  Hughes first presents his feature Jessie B. Semple in the Forward Who is Simple?  In this tale the reader is given its first look at the character Jessie B. Semple who is a black man that represents more or less the anybody or everybody of black society.  Semple is a man who needs to drink, to num the pain 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. Semple, also known as Simple, has righteous the right combination of qualities to be Black Americas new spokesman and unsung hero.  Semple seems to possess just enough urban humor and cynicism, down- home simplicity, naivete, and boy-next-door innocence that Semple easily becomes a character that hard-working, average, everyday people can relate to.  He quickly becomes this sort of Black Everyman whose bunions hurt all the time and whose thoughts are relatively preferably simple, yet he is a man who rises above these facts and has a perception that shows the man to have great wisdom and incredible insight.  And although he maintains a serious-mindedness for all his wisdom to come through his presentation of the facts is given in a humorous manner.  In Bop, Thats why so many white kinsfolk do not get their heads beat just for world white.  But me --- a cop is liable to grab me almost anytime and beat my head- just for being colored (105).  This side to Semple is  an example of Hughes attempt to give simple facts or actual truth but instead of telling these things harshly and angrily he tries to sweeten them with a little sarcastic humor.         At times, Simple is full of pain . I have had so many hardships in this life, said Simple, that it is a curiosity Ill live until I die (105). This comment by Semple is one of many that help portray him as a simple man who has been both mentally and physically broken-down by society but