What does this poem mean(:?

Question

ohkay,

this is likee..for real.

tell meh how this makes you feel and tell meh what you think this poem means.

it's for a project thing.

Cross:

My old man's a white old man

And my old mother's black.

If ever I cursed my white old man

I take my curses back.

If ever I cursed my black old mother

And wished she were in h**l,

I'm sorry for that evil wish

And now I wish her well

My old man died in a fine big house.

My ma died in a shack.

I wonder were I'm going to die,

Being neither white nor black?

-Langston Hughes

HELP?

pleasee,

:D

Answer 1

i interpret it as being about a man who feels like he doesn't belong he doesn't know if he identifies more with the whites or the blacks and he's torn between the two

Answer 2

makes me feel sorry for the mother. makes me think of race, and the idea that white people are supposedly superior and climb a sort of social ladder ("old man died in a fine big house") and that black people do not rise above in life ("ma died in a shack"). the narrator probably looks darker, but even though has white in their blood, will live the struggled life of a colored person. and its sad.

good poem, though. Langston Hughes is good.

Answer 3

The meaning is self-evident. If I were to say my dad was white and rich and my mom was poor and black, which will I be, I would just be repeating the poem. If you can't understand this you must not know how to read English.

Answer 4

That poem is about slavery. THe slave is wondering where he will end up because he is neither full black, like his mom or full white like his Dad. THis happened A LOT to the slaves as they were brought over to work the plantations. He says he takes his curses back because he realizes it's hard to be either because he is both, which is even HARDER than either. Back then he probably got looked down on for being mixed and having white in him in the eyes of the blacks and he isn't accepted by whites at all either. He says IF also, meaning IF he ever said anything bad, he takes it all back.

HOpe this helped. YOu should also look up the author online and learn about him. He was one of the greats.

Answer 5

this is not written from the point of view of a young person, but a person who has gone through life, sort of thinking he knows who he is. he has always known that his father and mother were different. he has been angry with each of them for different reasons. he realizes that he was wrong to try to judge either of them-- both have lived their lives and are now dead and gone, but he recognizes that they were shaped by societal forces for good or evil. but he, he is not one or the other. so how does he deal with who he is and where he will eventually end up?  

Answer 6

I think he's talking about the conflict of being biracial ( a person of two races). He's not quite sure to which side he truly belongs.