Prejudice in Langston Hughes' Novel, Not Without Laughter

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Recommended: Sparknotes theme of racism in Langston Hughes *Not without laughter

Throughout Langston Hughes' novel, Not Without Laughter, the author introduces multiple characters that reveal their notions of prejudice. The novel explores that prejudice in one form or another is in every aspect of one's life. Prejudice can be defined as an opinion for or against a person's look, race, class, or religion, which is usually formed by a hasty generalization. Most of the main characters, Aunt Hager, Sister Johnson, Jimboy, Harriet, and Tempy contain different accounts of prejudice in the world, which stimulate many of Sandy's thoughts of life as he comes of age. Aunt Hager, Annjee, Harriet, and Sandy, are a multi-generation poor African American family that live in a small home together but are eventually divided by multiple circumstances. The story takes place during the 1910s in the small town of Stanton, Kansas.
The first character introduced in the novel is Aunt Hager, an older Christian Baptist woman who was once a slave. She is the grandmother and advocate of one boy named Sandy and mother of three girls named: Tempy, Annjee, and Harriet. Aunt Hager, even though she was once a slave, throughout the book she shows sympathetic tendencies toward white people. On numerous occasions she defends how white people treat African Americans, explaining that they just don't understand or comprehend their horrendous treatment toward people of color. Although she defends white people, she has no problem in forming prejudice against her son-in-law Jimboy. Jimboy is married to Annjee; Annjee is also Sandy's mother. Aunt Hager's disposition towards Jimboy at times is intolerable to her daughter Annjee. Annjee loves Jimboy and they have been married eight years. Over the eight years, Aunt Hager has formed strong opinions of ...

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...ize each one of the characters in the novel, Not Without Laughter. Each one of the characters lives out his or her, own internal turmoil. Each character in his or her own way deal with the time and the race they were born into. The novel shows prejudice toward looks, class, race, and religious beliefs. In my opinion, the author Langston Hughes, shows that prejudice impacts everyone's life in one form or another. Nobody can be fully excluded from the prejudices that are formed in this world.
While the authors' sometimes-vivid impact of prejudice is described throughout the novel, he also portrays as well, through the exuberant life and thoughts of the character Sandy, that life is also "Not Without Laughter" (249).

Works Cited

Hughes, Langston. Not Without Laughter. 1930. Introd. Maya Angelou.

Foreword Arna Bontemps. New York:Simon and Schuster, 1995. Print.

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