This piece was my greatest challenge because I really wanted to understand a situation that even it was happening know I don't think that I could truly understand completly. I wanted to understand how much despair someone could fill in not knowing if they were ever going to be free and knowing that it could possibly be at the end of their fingers and not knowing if they were ever going to reach it while they were alive.
In the poem, The Freedom Train, Langston Hughes, uses the literary technique of comparison as a way to describe the struggles and the desires that slaves went through before freedom. He uses it to describe the apprehension that they had at not truly knowing what would happen when they actually achieved the freedom that they had all been praying and dreaming of.
Our first example, which we see of this, is in the first stanza. Hughes talks about all the places he is hearing or seeing something about the possibility of freedom of the slaves. Hughes wrote, "I read in the papers about the Freedom Train/ I heard on the radio about the Freedom train/ I see folks talkin’ about the Freedom train/ Lord, I been a-waitin’ for the Freedom Train (Hughes, pg. 1527). All the slaves are hearing about this thing called freedom and they are not sure exactly what it is. So, Langston compares it to a train, something that is going to come fast and unexpected.
Another example would be when Hughes starts pondering what it is actually going to mean, when and if, they do achieve freedom. He said, " Down south in Dixie only train I see’s/ Got a Jim Crow car set aside for me. /I hope there ain’t no Jim Crow on the Freedom Train/ No Back door entrance to the Freedom Train/ No signs FOR COLORED on the Freedom Train/ No WHITE FOLKS ONLY on the Freedom Train (Hughes, pg. 1527). With this example, Hughes is stating that the only life, that they have ever known, has been one with no freedom. A life with a white section only and the blacks were allowed only to sit in the back of the train or in a special section. In his idea of what true freedom would be, there would be no special sections and anyone could sit anywhere they wanted to. Also, he is comparing the door entrance of the train, to the back entrance that the colored folks had to go through. Hughes wonders that with this freedom that is coming, will the slaves still have a special back door entrance or will everyone be able to use all the doors.
Hughes uses another comparison, of the train and freedom from slavery, when he questions if when freedom comes will he were as equal in society as the white man. He asks, "Who’s the engineer on the Freedom Train? / Can a Coal black man drive the Freedom train? / Or am I still a porter on the Freedom Train? / When it stops in Mississippi will it be made plain/ everybody’s got a right to board to Freedom train? (Hughes Pg. 1527). He want to know that when this freedom comes will he be able to do all the things that he never got to do. Such as, voting for his and other blacks rights, will everyone be equal to each other and being able to be a leader in society instead of the helper all the time.
One final example, of the comparison to the train and freedom, is when Hughes takes about how his grandmother’s grandson, Jimmy, died in Anzio. Again, Hughes starts questioning weather the heaven freedom train will be the actual true freedom to a slave or is it still a white mans train. Hughes asks the questions, "Will his Freedom Train come zoomin down the track/ Gleamin’ in the sunlight for white and black? / Not stopping at no stations marked COLORED nor WHITE, / Just stopping in the fields ……… For the Freedom Train will be yours and mine! (Hughes pg. 1528). Hughes is questioning the fact that when you die, and you’re a free slave or not, does heaven make a difference. He continues to ponder if it will make a difference if you are black and white. He wants to if heaven truly means freedom for everyone, with no special meetings and there are not only white politicians. In heaven, he asks, will there be a line for colored folks or will everyone be able to stand in every line.
Langston Hughes was a wonderful writer. He used many literary techniques, throughout all of his writings, to portray the deeper messages that he wanted to get across to his readers. He wrote about the struggle of the slaves and allowed people to see that even though they were not allowed to have a lot they had their dreams and no one could take that away.
Works Citied
Hughes, Langston. "The Freedom Train". Pgs. 1527-1528.
Lauter, Paul Ed. The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volume D. 5th Edition. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. 2006.
