Problem: Make a response to this discussion post:
I chose the poem "Ballad of the Landlord" by Langston Hughes. My initial reaction to this poem is that the year listed at the end of the poem is 1940 and it is extremely sickening and sad that what happened in the poem still happens regularly today. I can hear frustration at first and then anger that sets the tone in this poem. I think the word choice is establishing the tone for us. "My roof has sprung a leak. Don't you 'member I told you about it was last week?" is the first line that makes me think of frustration. The roof still hasn't been fixed and the renter has been waiting over a week. Then in the third stanza the landlord wants ten dollars from the renter because the landlord says the renter owes that but the renter says that is ten dollars more than he will pay until the landlord fixes the house up. The tone goes from being frustrated to being angry at that point. In the 5th stanza the renter says that the landlord is talking high and mighty and the renter tells him to keep talking because he won't be able to talk after that as the renter says he might lay his fist on him, meaning he may punch him. I think that is when the anger peaks in the poem. The poem is pointing out the social injustice, prejudice, racism that is happening. The renter is an African American and the landlord is white. The renter's home is falling apart yet he is still paying his rent on time and in return not getting anything fixed by his landlord, over and over again. Just because the man wants equal rights, like he should have, the landlord states that he's talking over the government because he's stepping out of his lane and of course the police come and arrest him and throw him in jail like they normally do for African American men. I think he's pointing that out too, that men of color are thrown in jail unjustly a lot of the time.