Language
The language in “Tales of Simple: Coffee Break” by Langston Hughes is quite simple and easy to follow with the author using occasionally wrong grammar constructions to depict the typical way an African-American talked in the 1960s. Examples of bad grammar are “mens” (p. 130, l. 19) or “nary one in Harlem” (p. 131, l. 27).
What may pose certain challenges in the understanding of the text is the choice of words because the author makes references to a series of historical public figures...
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Here, we will focus on the following language devices:
- Imagery
- Metaphors
- Repetition
- Symbols
Repetition
Repetition is the most recurrent figure of speech used by the author and many times it is used in the form of anaphora (repeating the same words at the beginning of consecutive clauses) or epiphora (repeating the same words at the end of consecutive clauses).
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Symbols
In the short story, the name of the protagonist – Simple – is symbolic of his simple, common-sense wittiness. Simple is an average African-American working in a bar, leading a simple life, yet he is capable of better grasping the social tensions in the American society than his white boss.
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