Customer Reviews

The Ways of White Folks: Stories

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
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Before reading this book of short stories, I knew practically nothing about Hughes, other than that he was famous for being one of the first black American writers to develop a style of writing which directly reflected the uniqueness of the Afro-American experience.

Reading this collection, however, introduced me for the first time to the mind of a truly great observer, thinker, and communicator. Hughes achieved something which is very important in the now overly politicized climate of race: he documented not only the confounding and hostile conditions which blacks had to endure in the early 20th century, but he understood the white culture as well. Through the eyes of the shrewd and empathetic Hughes, these stories read not so much as indictments of white racism as they do as the clashes of two dramatically different cultures.

To be sure, Hughes does not pull any punches when describing the hostility, condescension, and apathy of whites towards blacks during the Great Depression. These stories are glimpses into a world when overt racism was not only condoned, it was institutionalized as part of the American fabric. But despite the awful conditions for black people at the time, I never got the sense that Hughes was writing to express any personal rage or contempt for white people. He seems to present each heartbreaking scenario as an absurd juxtaposition between two disparate cultures. Instead of taking the easy road by presenting whites as evil, he makes them out to be a paranoid, anal retentive, soulless lot who don't know how to enjoy themselves. Unlike many contemporary discussions of race which tend to oversimplify the complex problems we face, Hughes's stories paint the clash between blacks and whites with deep humanity, empathy, nuance, and even humor.

Stylistically, he certainly belongs to the canon of outstanding 20th century American writers, black and white. He was no mere experimentalist (as I had previously thought), but rather a well schooled craftsman who did his homework first, and then did his own thing with it.

But aside from all my amateur literary criticm, I would like to mention that I simply could not put this book down. These stories are a gift!

I've been teaching the stories from this book at Houston Community College for about five years now and every semester my students affirm for me what I first thought of these stories when I read them a decade ago: they are revealing without being trite, moralistic without being didactic, and sentimental without becoming cliche. "Cora Unashamed" and the tiny "Passing" must be the finest short stories of the Harlem Renaissance. Buy this book. It is not for scholars or students only!

The thing that has always bothered me about certain admirers of Langston Hughes is the way, unintentional I guess, some seem to neuter him into being a kind of "minstrel man,"nonthreating to a certain audience because he doesn't challenge them to think to much about certain subjects. THE WAYS WHITE FOLKS definitely disproves this fallacy and proved Langston Hughes could show his teeth.

Without ever standing on a soapbox to shout and point his a finger, here in this collection of short stories Hughes express a range of moods from humorous and bitingly caustic to the tragic showing the various types of ways black and white American interacted with one another during the early part of the 20th century. There is the perennial favorite "CORA UNASHAMED", dealing with a black woman's loneliness and self-awaking in a predominantly white community, SLAVE ON THE BLOCK, dealing with "liberal minded" white dilettantes, "HOME", about a sickly black man who returns home from Europe only to face brutal prejudice, "REJUVENATION THROUGH JOY", a biting satire
that may (?) have been taking a small swipe at Jean Toomer who Hughes lost much respect for after he turned his back to his people to live as white. Then there are the stories "THE BLUES I'M PLAYING" with its hints of Langston's former patron Mrs. Mason, "A GOOD JOB" and "POOR LITTLE FELLOW", all kind of showing the various choices, sacrifices, and prejudice faced in its varied degrees to just get by. And, more shorts where Hughes pretty much presents the entire skin color spectrum of the black American community while recounting in a few stories the often cruel ways these colors came to be, "RED-HEADED BABY" and "FATHER AND SON", this latter about an arrogant black son by a white southern father who refuses to acknowledge him as kin and the resulting tragic consequences. "PASSING", my lease favorite because it was very disturbing, is nevertheless truthful to the affects of racism and self-hate on the soul (e.g. just look at certain male and female actors and singers who cater to prejudiced imaginary percentage points of race for success).

Certain stories in this collection represent a time gone by in race relations in this country. But, while the situation in race relations have change quite significantly, it has not changed completely. There are stories in the WAYS OF WHITE FOLKS that still hold a relevant truth today as the first time they were made public. Still, there exist a widespread denial of the complicated blood history of the larger black American community, only a specific few within the community being allowed the privilege to acknowledge their heritage and, often out of self-hate, contributing to the prejudiced stereotypes against the larger black American community whose blood is "equally" rich and the "same" in its diversity. Still, there exist those little touchs of bigotry today that one has to smile away and pretend doesn't exist and hurt or be branded the angry black and thus difficult,AND the psychologically damaging effects of viewing favorably light skin blacks over dark skin blacks.

Langston Hughes was a skilled and astute observer and this is why much of his work continues to be popular and stand the test of time beyond simple entertainment value. THE WAYS OF WHITE FOLKS is definitely deserves and gets a 5 star rating!!!

How can an author say so much within the confines of so few pages? Within the parameters of several different stories that paint a much larger portrait?

While these stories were written in the 1930s, and one could argue that things have gotten better because of the Civil Rights Movement, this series of short stories depicts some undeniable facts through the vignettes presented in "The Ways of White Folks". The portraits are stark; the characterizations of cruelties, slights, the numerous examples of sheer ignorance are presented in unvarnished terms.

Whether it's the couple who consider themselves to be enlightened enough to collect Negro art and invite Negroes to their home or the outwardly charitable family who raise the "Poor Little Black Fellow" or the vicious cruelty of the man who sires a child and runs away in stark terror when, a year or so later, he sees the baby who bears his own red hair, Langston Hughes knows exactly how to pack an exquisite, well delivered punch straight to the gut!

Two of the vignettes are particularly poignant. One is a letter from a son thanking his mother for not hailing him and showing him any recognition on a public street. His was the good fortune to be born light enough "to pass". He has used that pass to a better life, a white girlfriend, a good job and, of course, he would lose that if his horrid secret were revealed! Imagine the heart of a mother who would receive such a letter. The message is clear, "I need to deny you so that I can have a life." And the letter goes on tell about his white father, with a white family of his own, who would never claim any of his mulatto offspring.

The last story reaches a crescendo in a series that clearly depicts not only the slights but also the cruelties and brutalities that occurred when Negroes were owned. "Father and Son" tells an often-repeated tale of a man who has lived two lives, one the life of prosperity and propriety with a white wife. The second life is one where he magnanimously allows his black mistress/servant and mother of his illegitimate children to live in the big house (but that didn't include their children). Further proof of his magnanimity is the fact that these offspring were allowed schooling, where some of their white counterparts were not even allowed to have an education. The Colonel's illegitimate children are even allowed higher education, if they can handle it.

One son, Bert, is smart, quick, daring and light skinned. He reminds the Colonel, his father, too much of himself in the Colonel's youth. The physical resemblance and personality similarities between father and son are too obvious. Bert's cowers to no man and will not be treated as a nigger...and says so publicly. His daring, where previously bringing him relatively little personal harm because the Colonel would back down, ends catastrophically.

Langston Hughes is a masterful, engrossing, captivating writer and the portrait of some white folks is shameful. Do we ever see ourselves as others see us?

Hughes really understood the condition of human nature, as he demonstrated in this bittersweet collection of interracial tales. Racial clashes in america are often masked over or outwardly denied; in this collection they are thoroughly and unromantically exposed. Hughes is best known as a poet, but is also a prose stylist extraordinaire

This was my first reading of Langston Hughes and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had to read one story for class and read the whole book in a day. His way of story telling is something to be shared with your children. He made me feel like I was there through his descriptive writing style. I recommend that parents share his books with their children...let them see what life truly is.

major fan of both Langston Hughes and James Baldwin, I found this to be beautifully written. In this book there is humor, horror and everything else in between. For once, black culture and the point of view is truely captured in poetic splendor.
This book is such an important vehicle for anyone that wanders what it truely means to be Black in this world.

For centuries the view of Blacks have been hushed and limited and quite frankly meant to be unopened. If you ever wandered what it maybe like to be Black or why Blacks have the views that they do, simply read this book. Though there are some elements of satire, the stories speak truthfully and clearly in a non-offensive manner.

In 1934, the African American poet Langston Hughes (1902 -- 1967) published his first collection of short stories, "The Ways of White Folks", all of which have as a theme the strong force of racial prejudice. The stories show how even the behavior toward black Americans of well-meaning, liberal white Americans in the 1930s had a racist and patronizing tone. The stories are told with a mixture of irony,humor, and sarcasm. They are written with a brisk style, with the attention to rhythm, precise speech, and the telling detail that mark Hughes as a poet. The stories show the difficulties that Hughes believed stood in the way of racial relationships of equality. Yet Hughes qualifies the title of his collection in the motto for the book, to mean "some" white folks. Hughes quotes from his character Berry in one of the stories of the collection. Aware that he is being patronized, exploited and underpaid in his work at a home for disabled children, Berry says:

"the ways of white folks, I mean some white folks, is too much for me. I reckon they must be a few good ones, but most of 'em aint' good -- leastwise they don't treat me good. And Lawd knows, I aint' never done nothin' to 'em, nothin' a-tall."

The fourteen stories in this collection are set in varying parts of the United States, Midwest, East, and South, and involve individuals of varying economic and educational levels. Many of the stories involve themes of sexuality or of music. The most famous and probably the best of the stories is the first one in the book, "Cora Unashamed". This story is set in a small town in South Dakota. The title character is a member of the only black family in town and she has worked for years as a maid for a white family, the Studevants, who treat her with indifference. Cora has a strong sense of pride in herself and in her sexuality. As a young woman she had a child out of wedlock with a white man, the only lover she ever had. The child died as an infant. Cora remembers the man, the affair and the child with love and pride. When the young Studevant daughter finds herself pregnant by a young foreign-born man in town whom she loves, Cora comforts and supports her and bluntly breaks the news to her parents. The Studevants want nothing of the baby and take the girl to have an abortion which proves fatal. At the funeral, Cora rises to speak: "They killed you! And for nothin'... They killed your child. ... They took you away from here in the Springtime of your life, and now you'se gone, gone, gone!" Cora lives the rest of her life alone, with her family on the outskirts of the town.

Two of the stories in the collection, "Home" and "The Blues I'm Playing" center upon black Americans with a deep involvement in both classical music and in jazz and blues. These stories show Hughes' love for all forms of music and his understanding of the classics, as well as of the blues. Music works in these stories as a figure to show what black and white Americans share and also what deeply divides them. Both the stories are rewarding, but I will discuss only the first of them, called "Home".

In "Home" a young man, Roy, returns to his small midwestern town in Missouri after several years spent in Europe. He has been playing his violin at cabarets during the evening to support his study of classical violin with the finest teachers during the day. Upon his return, with his Europeanized dress and manners and his musical gift the white people of the town mock Roy. Both white and black people, however, are moved by a concert of classical music he gives at a local church -- for most of them it marked their first exposure to classical music. An elderly white music teacher at the local high school recognizes Roy's talent and has him play his violin for the students at the all-white school. One evening, when Roy and the teacher meet by chance downtown n late in the evening and exchange some words about music, the passersby assume a rape is about to take place and brutally assault and lynch him. The story concludes "And when the white folks left his brown body, stark naked, strung from a tree at the edge of town, it hung there all night, like a violin for the wind to play."

Other stories in the collection that I thought particularly good are "Passing" in which a young man on his way up refuses to acknowledge his African American mother, "Red-Headed Baby" which discusses an experience between a young white sailor and a woman in in a brothel, "Berry", which I mentioned earlier, and "One Christmas Eve", a story about an African American domestic and the ill treatment meted out to her and her young son.

The message of these stories remain important to contemporary American life. Hughes' writing raises these stories to the level of literature.

Robin Friedman

A few nights ago I read Cora Unashamed and Slave on the Block; the first two stories in this book of short stories and I have to admit that I feel so many mixed emotions about it.
The stories are set in the past during the 1930's before the civil rights movement (as if that time was any better) and so the language and the attitudes that are shown pertaining to Blacks/African Americans is amazingly shocking to me (a child of the 80's) however still very intriguing.
Cora Unashamed had me laughing and crying, all at the same time. Even the next morning after reading that story I started to think about it and the tears began to flow.
I would love to be able to write short stories in this way; with the ability to express raw emotion and captivate the audience without being pretentious or even bitter considering the circumstances.
So far, I am enjoying what I read in this book, including the abundant amount of tragic humor that is found in between the lines

This was the first time I read Langston Hughes and I didn't know what to expect. He simply smashed me.
From the first story ("Cora Unashamed", one of my favourites), he seized me with his vibrant language, so natural, so colloquial, with his stories of deep feelings and passions, with his characters. His characters are what really grabbed me. None of these stories has a happy ending, many end on a sad note, a few come to a tragic end. And still Hughes's characters never feel defeated to me. They have a fire inside, a passion, they always meet life with an agonistic attitude, asserting themselves, fighting with everything they have inside. And so even when they lose, even when they die, they left me a sense of affirmation, even a sense of victory against all odds.
An amazing reading experience, no less than that... and maybe something more than that.