Table of Contents “House” and the Subversive Quality of Presence “Father and Son: Death and Free WillHughes and Hurston: Individualism versus Social Problem In Langston In Hughes' short story collection "Ways of White Folks," gifted and upwardly mobile African Americans often encounter misfortune. On a quick read, these fatalistic narratives seem to suggest a disastrous and helpless fate for African Americans. Despite their oppression, its main characters continue to demonstrate dynamism and courage. In this, he simultaneously recognizes that African Americans can be exceptional, but ultimately their exceptionalism cannot save them. Its hope lies in the action and talent of its characters: that despite these conditions, black people continue to be creative, strong-willed, and articulate. Focusing on the stories “Home” and “Father and Son,” this article will discuss how Hughes uses seemingly fatalistic narratives not only to critique racism, but also to provide hope within these constraints. It will also briefly compare Hughes' views on social mobility with those of Zora Neale Hurston. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the Original Essay “Home” and the Subversive Quality of PresenceHughes is quick to describe the reality of disappearance when one chooses of being a “haughty negro,” (a well-dressed, educated, or gifted black), invented by the white antagonists in “Home” (36). As a second story, “Home” immediately leads the reader to “critique how mobility is fraught with pitfalls for gifted blacks” (class discussion 1/1/07). Roy Williams returns home to Hopkinsville, Missouri after playing violin in nightclubs across Europe. This return is caused by an illness which Roy believes will lead to his death. He is also appalled by Europe's excesses juxtaposed with its devastating poverty. He concludes that conditions are “rotten everywhere” and wishes to “go home” (35). After spending years in a more racially tolerant Europe, Roy can never remember how inappropriate his actions are in America: "Roy had forgotten that he was not in Europe, wearing gloves and shake hands with a white man! Condemn!" (36). He is so accustomed to socializing with white people that he cannot immediately assimilate to the bigoted Hopkinsville. Many white residents ensured that he would not forget his social status in America: “For the first time in half a dozen years he felt his color He was at home” (37). imperfections of Europe, Roy never needed to show unnecessary deference to a white person or fear being harassed for dressing above his class. Roy's mother convinces him to play. a "fo' de Lawd" show in the Hopkinsville church (38) Although the audience is composed of both blacks and whites, the whites sit in the front When he plays, Roy is proud of his profession. and of the example he becomes for his race: “This is the first time that a member of their race has returned from abroad and played the violin. See them looking at me with pride and music above the heads of the whites in the front rows…” (42). This passage expresses the unity Roy feels with his race although he escaped the need for racial unity by traveling to Europe. He remembers that there was no graduate school for blacks in Hopkinsville and that his only chance at education was to run away with a minstrel show. The rarity of his situationproves how difficult it is for black people to access education. After the show, Roy meets and befriends Miss Reese, a white high school music teacher. Their friendship seems to prove the ability of art to transcend racial boundaries. However, this impression is ruined when Roy is accused of rape for stopping and talking to Miss Reese in the street. His white accusers beat and hanged him. Although Roy's lifeless, hanging body is likened to "a violin that the wind plays," this is not a reflection of his passivity in life. The violin comparison suggests that Hughes does not view art as a panacea for racial problems. Roy's free will and ability to make choices don't save him either. But in itself, the fact that he makes choices constitutes greater redemption. Roy's failure to adjust his attitudes and clothing in Missouri can be attributed to naivety. Perhaps this is more than naivety; perhaps it is Roy's deliberate stubbornness in the face of racism. He does not live in fear, he walks at night without hesitation and he ignores the insults addressed to him. For the first time in Hopkinsville, whites and blacks see a black man in a beautiful evening dress, playing the violin. Even in his shyness, Roy's very presence is subversive. “Father and Son”: Death and Agency In “Father and Son,” a story of the doomed relationship between Bert, a fiery mulatto son, and Tom, his distant white father, Hughes enters the story with a strong presence of authorship to convey the “test tube” quality of life. Bert's strained relationship with his father is renewed when he returns from school after a six or seven year absence, determined not to bow to the preferences of a white man: "...after his return to Big House Plantation that summer, life was never the same. On Bert's first day there, something broke, something went wrong. The world began to spin, ferment and spring into new action. Not to be a nigger of the white people – Bert had gone home with that idea in mind” (227-228). Bert's catalytic presence creates unrest among blacks and whites. Hughes compares Bert's arrival to a powerful powder that will boil "the test tube of life", or the city. Bert's diametrically opposed brother, Willie, chose to stay on the plantation instead of receiving an education: "Willie and the Colonel got along well, because Willie was docile, good-natured, and negro-like, he said. bowing and scratching and treating white people as they expected to be treated” (226). Bert's mother, Cora, chastises Bert for his haughtiness and laments that he couldn't be more "like Willie" (237). Bert demonstrates his own freedom by refusing his father's orders to work on the plantation, but as punishment his father forbids him from returning to school. Although Bert is half white, he is still deprived of education by his father. This punishment also stems from Tom's suspicions that Bert is the cause of discontent among the blacks. His proud attitude and constant refusal to bow to white people creates increasing tension between father and son. This tension ends when Tom threatens to shoot Bert and Bert strangles Tom to death. Bert then chose to commit suicide rather than die at the hands of a white mob. Bert is exceptional, and the strength of his action is no less demonstrated by his ability to be the arbiter of his own death. He usurps the pleasure of his death from the crowd and preserves his dignity through suicide. The mob still lynches him, but the entertainment they get from his hanging is “somehow obsolete in the end” (254). Even in death, Bert renders the white people's thirst for blood impotent. However, because Bert's death proves