Blog 9 - Revolution in the Words of a Brown Girl Dreaming and Langston Hughes

Revolution in the Words

of a Brown Girl Dreaming and Langston Hughes

     Social protest writing can take on many forms ranging from essays to novels to poetry. Jacqueline Woodson's narrative arc in Brown Girl Dreaming follows her memories, coming of age, and developing world view in the form of free verse. In one of the closing poems of Brown Girl Dreaming, “The Revolution,” Woodson presents her young girl's point of view about revolution, which takes form as a merry-go-round metaphor. In contrast, Langston Hughes social protest poem “Good Morning Revolution” is told through the eyes of an adult worker who addresses a personified revolution. The pairing of Langston Hughes' classic poem and Jacqueline Woodson's young adult poem would be useful in the classroom to compare the overt style of Hughes' social protest poem to the covert style of Woodson's childlike interpretation of revolution.

Although Langston Hughes is often viewed as a voice of the Harlem Rennaissance, he is also known for his social protest essays and poetry later in life. In particular, Hughes published a collection entitled Good Morning, Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings in 1973, which contains his famous protest poem “Good Morning Revolution.” In the poem, Hughes personifies revolution who is the friend of workers. With an air of camaraderie, Worker tells his friend, Revolution, that it has become obvious to their boss that they have been hanging out together. Both Worker and Revolution are tired and hungry, but Worker says that they should take over everything used for production to give back to other workers. Hughes' Worker represents the laboring class, and the poem's message has a distinctly Marxist perspective because Hughes saw race as a class issue as well. Hughes' Marxist leanings can not be any clearer when he writes “Greetings to the Socialist Soviet Republics / Hey you rising workers everywhere greetings” (Hughes 50-51). Then Hughes writes “Sign it with my one name: Worker / On that day when no one will be hungry, cold oppressed, / Anywhere in the world again” (57-59). Hughes sees a worker's revolution against a privileged upper class, possibly by joining a union. This worldly and overt message of revolution serves as a contrast to Woodson's childlike perception of her Uncle Robert's discussions of revolution.

In Brown Girl Dreaming, it is evident that Woodson addresses revolution as well in “The Revolution,” which is a poem that is both childlike in its voice and use of metaphor, but adult in message. Woodson has stated that she initially was not sure who the audience would be for her memoirs in free verse (Fox). According to her memoir, part of Woodson's coming of age, as a reader and writer, was reading the poetry of Langston Hughes, which is reflected in three instances in Brown Girl Dreaming. First, Woodson opens her memoir with Hughes' poem “Dreams.” This poem supports her title, Brown Girl Dreaming, and her dream to be a writer. Second, she directly references and mimics Hughes' writing style in “Learning from Langston” in which Woodson expresses her love for her friend, Maria. This is a child's reworking of Hughes' simple untitled “I loved my friend” poem that originally addresses the death of Hughes' friend when he was an adult. In this instance, Woodson's reworking of the poem demonstrates her reading interests as a child, the development of her own writing with Hughes as a model, and the means in which reading and writing was an outlet for her memories. Similarly, Hughes' influence permeates her poetry again in “The Revolution.” Again, Woodson is childlike in her perception of her Uncle Robert's beliefs and ideas of revolution. “The Revolution” expresses an awareness of social change when she is “...too old / for hand holding and the like / The revolution is when Shirley Chisholm ran for president / and the rest of the world tried to imagine / a Black woman in the White House” (7 - 11). Woodson views herself as too old to have her hand held, but is aware of politics and knows of revolution even if it makes her think of carousels. She explains that she understands “that the revolution is like / a merry-go-round, history always being made / somewhere. And maybe for a short time, / we're a part of that history. And then the ride stops / and our turn is over” (16 - 20). Woodson's revolution can be interpreted as a burgeoning world view and awareness of the need to participate in social change or her personal revolution as a blossoming writer. Woodson's participation in revolution could also be reflected in her efforts to ensure that there is diversity in her writing. Interestingly, Hughes ends “Good Morning, Revolution!” with the command “Let's go, Revolution!” (63). Woodson answers this command in the final line of her “The Revolution” with “I am ready for the ride” (25). Woodson's dedication to ensuring that margianalized children and young adults have a voice through literature demonstrates she is ready for the ride; Woodson's efforts to include tough topics such as faith, race, sexual identity, alcoholism, and sexual abuse shows that she is ready for the ride. Thus, Hughes' “Good Morning Revolution” and Woodson's “The Revolution” would be worthy of comparison and contrast in a high school American literature class as poems that reflect the need for participation in social change.

With some prior planning and coordination, I would teach both poems so that they coincide with my students' Civil Rights Movement unit in United States History class. The focus of the lesson would be about how revolutions can take on many forms. In a perfect world, I would show scenes from The Butler, where Cecil, a White House butler, defies stereotypes of a black man that cannot hold a job, while his son is a freedom fighter and fulfills the stereotype of a rebellious black man in jail. This is a fictionalized movie loosely based on the life of Eugene Allen, who was a butler in the White House for 34 years. In The Butler, both Cecile and his son are ashamed of each other because each man disapproves of the other's choices. This would be an interesting backdrop to a discussion on Jacqueline's mother and Uncle Robert, who love each other even though Jacqueline's mother thinks that Robert does not always do what is right. The Butler demonstrates the many paths to social change and would be a great supplemental resource to assist student understanding of the issues that influenced Jaqueline, her mother, and Uncle Robert. Again, I could not require my students to watch the movie, but I could show brief clips to support my point. Regardless of whether The Butler is shown or not, I would pose to my students the following questions during and after reading Brown Girl Dreaming: (1) Who is the audience in each poem? (2) How would you describe the author's style in each poem? (3) What is the effect of Woodson's use of the carousel metaphor? (4) What is the effect of Hughes' use of personification? (5) When comparing the two poems, how is the message similar and different? (6) When Woodson states, “history always being made / somewhere. And maybe for a short time, / we're a part of that history. And then the ride stops / and our turn is over,” how is Woodson “a part of that history”? How is Hughes' a part of history? These questions require higher level critical thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation, and judgement, which are required for truly appreciating Brown Girl Dreaming. Although the memoir can be read in a day, it is worthy of a slow, considerate read and discussion.