The Analysis of African American Real Society During the Harlem Renaissance Era Reflected in the Story Red Headed Baby

Abstract

Literary works relate widely with the background, as well as the life history of the author. When we read a literary work, more or less we read the mirror of the author's life. Here in the short story entitled Red Headed Baby written by Langston Hughes, I find the richness of these cultural aspects as well as the social perspectives. Besides being a black writer, Langton Hughes was also a main person in Harlem renaissance, which makes his literary work such as this novel Red Headed Baby worth discussing related to the socio cultural of the black society at that time being. In this story, the background which connects closely with slavery is a very interesting aspect to discuss. Viewed from the era when Langston was famous as a writer, this story took place exactly at the time when Harlem Renaissance was the society's trend. The trend of the time is to get rid of slavery. Here in my thesis I would like to discuss the issue occurred in the work in order to help us understand the similarity between the real life society on that era and the life told in the story. Therefore this discussion might help the readers to comprehend the situation in the past viewed from the literature works created at that era of the story. In the end, my reasearch following has explained the link between the society at that time, Langton Hughes as the writer of the Red Headed Baby, and the most important is to the story Red Headed Baby itself.