Two Distinct Views of Harlem

If you want to get quick snapshots of Harlem from anywhere between 1920 to the late 1950’s, there are few better descriptions or images than James Baldwin and Langston Hughes present in their perspective works. While both of these writers  lived in Harlem at one point or another and share many common points of the city, they also offer differing outlooks on this well known city.

Both Hughes and Baldwin speak often on music in Harlem, which isn’t suprising considering that the town was renowned for its jazz and later for the blues. In “Sonny’s Blues”, music is almost religious a way to escape from reality, at least for a short time. In Hughes poem “The Weary Blues”, he writes how the blues is “coming from a black man’s soul” and how he can make “the piano moan with melody”. Another example on the similarities between these two writers is shown in Hughes poem “Mother to Son” and “Ballad of the Landlord”. These two poems are almost exactly what Sonny’s mother talks on in “Sonny’s Blues”- how it doesn’t matter whether you are right legally or not. If an argument occurs between a white and black person, the white will be right simply because of the culture and worldviews back in that time period. 

A difference in opinion (or similarity depending on which poem you read), is how both authors the authors refer to Harlem. In Baldwin’s story, the ending seems to be hopeful -in time maybe things can change. Sonny and his brother reconnect, with Sonny’s music bringing the both of them together. But in Hughes poem “Prayer”, he refers to Harlem as a “weary city” in which live the “sick, the depraved, the desperate, the tired, all the scum”. Not to hopeful in that particular poem.

All in all, Baldwin and Hughes provide the reader with a very wide-range of  thoughts and knowledge on the distinct city of Harlem.

~ by bcmagee on 28/04/2010.