Characters

The main characters of the short story “Tales of Simple: Coffee Break” by Langston Hughes are Simple and his unnamed white boss. The outer characterization of both charters only tells us that the unnamed boss is a white American and that Simple is an African-American working in a bar and living in Harlem. In this story, the author focuses on the characters’ social and political views and how these come into conflict. Take note that these perspectives are conveyed through dialogue and very little is said about the characters through narrative discourse.

Simple

Jesse B. Semple, referred to in the story as “Simple”, is the protagonist and the narrator of a personal experience – a conversation between him and his boss about African-Americans during a coffee break. As his symbolic name indicates, the protagonist is a simple man, yet he is characterized by a certain common-sense wittiness.

Simple is clearly offended by his boss placing him in a general mass he calls “The Negro”, and he comes across as a person capable of understanding social diversity: “He always says ‘THE Negro,’ as if there was not 50-11 different kinds of Negroes in the U.S.A.,’ complained Simple.” (p. 130, ll. 5-6)

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The white boss

The white boss in the short story is unnamed because he represents a typology; namely the average American who falls prey to generalizations and stereotypical thinking, unable to grasp the real conflict between whites and blacks in 1960s America. This is why he refers to African-Americans as “the Negro” and cannot understand what else they desire after being granted civil rights:

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