Intrinsic Elements in The South by Langston Hughes by :Elizabeth Tambunan (13020115140115)

1. By : Elizabeth Tambunan
INTRINSIC ELEMENTS: IMAGERY, SYMBOL,
SATIRE IN POEM THE SOUTH BY LANGSTON
HUGHES

2. ABSTRACK
This paper the author tried to analyze “the South” by Langston Hughes. The
purpose is to analyze and understand the meaning beyond the words in the
poem. Theories that used are textual, cotextual, and hyper textual by close
reading method. The writer found that this poem is dominated by imagery,
symbol and satire that used in this poem. In conclusion, “the South” by Langston
Hughes is easier to understand by analyzing the intrinsic elements.
KEYWORD : imagery, symbol, satire, Langston Hughes.

3. 1. INTRODUCTION
One of the most powerful literary works, which is relatively close to human
desire and emotion, is a poem. Poetry has an essential meaning from the human life,
which reflects moral values. According to William Wordsworth (1770-1850), Poetry is the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in
tranquility. Another definition of poetry comes from Laurence Perrine in “Sounds and
Sense: An Introduction to Poetry” (1969:3) which defines poetry as a kind of language
that says more and says it more intensely than does ordinary language.
Therefore it can be interpreted that the main purpose of poetry is to convey
such powerful emotions written in words by the poets to whomever reading it.

4. 2. METHODOLOGY
1. To analyze the using of Imagery in the poem.
2. To analyze the using of Symbol in the poem
3. To analyse the using of Satire in the poem

5. 3. RESEARCH OBJECT
The objects of research are sorted into a material and formal
object. Material object in this study is “the South” by Langston
Hughes. Formal object of this research is intrinsic elements in this
poem.

6. 4. BIOGRAPHY AND POETRY
4. 1 Biography of Langstn Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin,
Missouri. In 1925, Hughes’s poem “The Weary Blues” won first prize in
the Opportunity magazine literary competition, and Hughes also received a
scholarship to attend Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania. After his graduation
from Lincoln in 1929, Hughes published his first novel, Not Without Laughter. In
1934 he published his first collection of short stories, The Ways of White
Folks. In 1937 he served as a war correspondent for several American
newspapers during the Spanish Civil War. In 1949 he wrote a play that inspired
the opera Troubled Island and published yet another anthology of work, The
Poetry of the Negro. During the 1950s and 1960s, he published countless other
works, including several books in his "Simple" series, English translations of the
poetry of Federico García Lorca and Gabriela Mistral, another anthology of his
own poetry, and the second installment of his autobiography, I Wonder as I
Wander. On May 22, 1967, Langston Hughes died from complications of
prostate cancer.

7. Seductive as a dark-eyed whore,
Passionate, cruel,
Honey-lipped, syphilitic —
That is the South.
And I, who am black, would love her
But she spits in my face.
And I, who am black,
Would give her many rare gifts
But she turns her back upon me
So now I seek the North —
The cold-faced North,
For she, they say
Is a kinder mistress,
And in her house my children
May escape the spell of the South
The lazy, laughing South
With blood on its mouth
The sunny-faced South,
Beast-strong
Idiot-brained.
The child-minded South
Scratching in the dead fire's ashes
For a Negro's bones.
Cotton and the moon,
Warmth, earth, warmth,
The sky, the sun, the stars,
The magnolia-scented South.
Beautiful, like a woman,
4.2. POETRY
THE SOUTH

8. 5. DISCUSSION
5.1. IMAGERY
Imagery is the stage when the speaker tries to describe his experience based
on the sense of touch, visual, smell, movement and onther sense.
With blood on its mouth.
The sunny-faced South, (line 3-4)
This is an example of visual imagery which is we can see by our visual sense, our eye.
The word ‘blood on its mouth’ and ‘sunny face’ it can only by seen by our eyes. In these
lines, Hugdes want to describe that the south only have a big mouth, they talk whatever
they want to talk without respecting other. The sunny-face represented how they look
like. They have white skin.
Warmth, earth, warmth, (line 11)
According to Oxford Dictionary (2012:1556) warmth means The quality, state, or
sensation of being warm; moderate and comfortable heat. We can see that this feeling
can be felt by our sense which is our skin. So, this line uses tactile imagery.

9. Passionate, cruel, (line 15)
According to Oxford Dictionary ( 2012: 1073) Passionate means having or showing strong feeling
of sexual love or of anger, also cruel means wilfully causing pain or suffering to others, or feeling
no concern about it. This is one of the examples of Organic Imagery which is concentrates on
recreating internal sensations. However, this line explain that the land is rich and sensual, but it is
also harsh and inhospitable to those who had to work it
5.2. SYMBOL
Something in the world of the senses, including an action, that reveals or is a sign for something
else, often abstract or otherworldly.
The lazy, laughing South
With blood on its mouth (line 1-2)
"South" can be literally interpreted as a place that is a place in South America. But also it
becomes a symbol of white people, where they are the laziest people because they could not
perform and complete or accomplish the work or anything without slaves.

10. And I, who am black, would love her
But she spits in my face.
And I, who am black,
Would give her many rare gifts (stanza 5)
Black is a symbol of colored people or commonly called African American. Black can also means
slave, because in this age all colored people are treated like slaves by whites.
So now I seek the North —
The cold-faced North, ( line 23-24)
'North" also be interpreted as a place in North America where described by Langston is a better
place to live and work than in the South. North once again be a symbol of white Americans, but
they are white people with a more friendly attitude according to the author's perspective.

11. 5.3 SATIRE
Satire, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both
particular and wider issues in society.
The lazy, laughing South
With blood on its mouth. (line 1-2)
This line represented how the writter insult the South, he used setire explain how lazy the South is,
they only used them for slavery because they can’t do their own stuff. In fact, they all need African-
American for their works, if they are gone, who will doing their stuuf? No one, because they only use
their mouth.
Idiot-brained.
The child-minded South (line 5-6)
In this line, the writter also use setire to describe the behaviour of the South, an idiot and child-minded.
As we know when someone shouted someoen idiot it means they do someting stupid or behaving in the
stupid way. So we can see what they do for African-America by slavering and bullying them is a stupid
thing. They don’t even have a fault for the start. More, childed-minded they have such a ignorant. They
often see how bad it affected for African-American but they still continued it.

12. Beautiful, like a woman,
Seductive as a dark-eyed whore,
Passionate, cruel,
Honey-lipped, syphilitic–
That is the South. (line 14-20)
According to the previous line before this line, this line explains the
condition of nature in South. In fact, the South has a good enviroment to farming
and breeding. This beautiful woman is immediately transformed into a “seductive”
and “dark-eyed whore”. The writting also wants to depict how he sees the South as
something beautiful, something that everyone will love as it is beautiful, passionate
and seductive as a whore. But he also wants to tell that the South is cruel, and even
worse, a person affected with syphilis. It shows that the white people in the South
were cold and cruel to the black the relationship with the South. The writter satiring
the South by describing the South as a beautiful woman or a whore, Hughes is
drawing upon the common association of the South with a certain degree of
seductive fertility, due to its agricultural climate. The land is rich and sensual, but it
is also harsh and inhospitable to those who had to work it.

13. 6. CONCLUSION
Racial discrimination happened in America in 1920 to the African-American. In
1815 slave trade domestic in the united states has become economic activity important
and sustainable to the decades 1860. Between 1830 and 1840, almost 250.000 slaves
transferred passing border of the state. Told in the poet how bad The South treat African-
American and until many of African American people criticize about cruel act by white
people.
In the poem we can get something interesting conclusion that there is a
revenge from the African American to the American white people as long as they
oppressed. Also their dreams and hope to free from that slavery.

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