Structure

“Tales of Simple: Temptation” by Langston Hughes has tension moments in its narrative, but is devoid of plot and is built on the contrast (or conflict) of ideas put forth by the two characters.

Title

The title of the short story—“Tales of Simple: Temptation”— reveals that the text belongs to the series of short stories written by Langston Hughes which follow Jesse B. Semple, frequently referred to and spelled as “Simple”.

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Beginning

The short story begins in media res, in a middle of a conversation between the two characters about God and black people:

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Middle

The whole story is conveyed through dialogue between the two characters. The middle of the short story presents their opinion on the biblical story of Genesis, as well as on racial differences.

What draws readers in is that the tension moments are created through the fact that the two characters have very different interpretations of religion and racial discrimination.

While Simple takes the story of Genesis as a literal example of why black people and white people are different, the narrator tries to make him understand that the story is symbolical and has nothing to do with race:

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Ending

The narrator does not manage to convince Simple not to take the Genesis story literally, but he also realizes that Simple has a strong moral character which he should maintain, regardless of what he believes about the Bible and racial inequality:

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