Setting and Language

Setting

The setting of the poem “Merry-Go-Round” by Langston Hughes is the Northern US. This is not directly revealed, but it is suggested by the speaker’s confession about the South: 

Down South where I come from

White and colored

Can't sit side by side. (ll. 4-6)

“Down South” (l. 4), where the speaker comes from, Jim Crow laws are enforced. In public transportation, black people are separated from the whites and forced to sit in special sections. For example, the speaker reveals that there is “a Jim Crow car” (l. 8) in trains and that black people have to occupy the places in the back when they ride in buses (l. 9). Through the descriptions of racial segregation, the middle of the poem creates a tense atmosphere. 

The poem’s focus is on the merry-go-roun...