The Weary Blues Questions

Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.

  1. What connections can be made between race and blues music in "The Weary Blues"?
  2. Is a simple, repetitive blues song art? What if a lot of thought went into it and touches people emotionally?
  3. What is the difference between Langston Hughes's use of dialect and, say, Mark Twain's use of dialect in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?
  4. Why would Hughes write about a blues singer in a dive bar when many prominent African Americans were trying to represent themselves as high society and cultured in European art, music, and literature?
  5. How are music and poetry therapeutic? Who do they help more: the creator or the audience?