Theme

The main theme of the short story “Tales of Simple: Temptation” by Langston Hughes is religiously influenced racial prejudice. The author explores the way African-Americans feel discriminated against by white Americans, but also the prejudices of African-Americans against the white, using the religious motif of the biblical story of Genesis, as well as the motif of poverty.

Religiously influenced racial prejudice

“Tales of Simple: Temptation” explores the way religion contributes to racial prejudices that white people and black people have about each other. The story is set in 1960s American society and follows a conversation between two African-American men: Simple, who is not very well-educated, and the narrator, who comes across as more educated.

While the narrator understands that the biblical story of the Genesis is symbolic and metaphorical, Simple takes it quite literally. Simple, who was “baptized” (p. 128, l. 19) and “converted” (p. 128, l. 20), has come to the conclusion that colored people are inferior to white people because they must have missed Genesis:

‘I don’t know where we was when Eden was a garden, but we sure didn’t get in on none of the crops. If we had we would not...