49 pages • 1 hour read
Langston HughesA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The first story takes place in Melton, a small, unremarkable town. Cora Jenkins, a middle-aged Black woman, works for the White Studevant family. Townsfolk occasionally call Cora racial slurs, and the Studevants mistreat her. Born and raised in Melton herself, Cora doesn’t plan on leaving despite regularly facing racism. The oldest child in her family, Cora helped raise her siblings and even dropped out of school to help. All her siblings have moved away, and now Cora cares for her aging parents. Cora remembers having a White lover, Joe, and baring his child, a girl she named Josephine. Cora and Joe never married, but Cora happily took on her parental duties: “But the child was hers—a living bridge between two worlds. Let people talk” (6). Josephine dies from whooping cough, and Cora curses the heavens for taking her baby so soon. She returns to work, heartbroken, but finds solace caring for the Studevants’ own little girl, Jessie.
The years pass, and Cora continues to bond with Jessie. Jessie isn’t good in school, to her mother’s chagrin, but Cora helps serve as a mediator. Jessie develops a knack for cooking and further bonds with Cora in the kitchen, becoming closer with Cora than her own family.
By Langston Hughes
Children’s Rhymes
Langston Hughes
Cora Unashamed
Langston Hughes
Dreams
Langston Hughes
Harlem
Langston Hughes
I look at the world
Langston Hughes
I, Too
Langston Hughes
Let America Be America Again
Langston Hughes
Me and the Mule
Langston Hughes
Mother to Son
Langston Hughes
Mulatto
Langston Hughes
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston
Not Without Laughter
Langston Hughes
Slave on the Block
Langston Hughes
Thank You, M'am
Langston Hughes
The Big Sea
Langston Hughes
Theme for English B
Langston Hughes
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain
Langston Hughes
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Langston Hughes
The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes
Tired
Langston Hughes