Social problems in literature
While Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, James Baldwin's The Language of the Streets, and Langston Hughes' "Dinner Guest: Me," were all written by different men with different intentions, these three works each share the common theme of social problems in urban communities that have not received the attention they deserve. These three men each expose social problems in different communities in different times. Mayhew examines the plight of the mudlark in nineteenth century London, Baldwin discusses the poor condition of inner city communities, and Hughes portrays the "negro problem" of the early 1900s. While each author writes about a different problem, they also each write about how a blind eye is being turned to the particular social issue. These problems affect most of the members of the communities Mayhew, Baldwin, and Hughes depict, and yet in each piece it is made clear that adequate attention is not being paid to these important matters. The need for change in the light of social problems can come only when a genuine attempt is made. This attention and attempt is what Mayhew, Baldwin, and Hughes are each calling for in their work, as a response to the complete apathy they have encountered.
The difficult lives these people lead is reflected in their appearance, with their "tattered indescribable things that serve them for clothing, their bodies grimed with the foul soil of the river, and their torn garments stiffened up like boards with dirt of every possible description" (209). Hughes perfectly concludes his poem "Dinner Guest: Me" with the line "solutions to the problem/ Of course, wait" encompassing the theme of disinterest for the social problems found in this poem. Baldwin describes the city as a cold, hard place that causes people to isolate themselves from one another and "divorce us from a sense of reality and to divorce us from each other" (134). One boy who had been imprisoned said he preferred prison "for while he staid there he wore a coat and shoes and stockings; and though he had not over much to eat, he certainly was never afraid of going to bed without anything at all" (210). He finishes his study with the example of another boy, forced to the muddy banks to seek his living, who eventually falls in with a gang of thieves who steal from shops and boatmen to increase their profits. Yet all three authors manage to incorporate this theme into their work, even make it a main point of their pieces. Social problems such as these require time and attention if they are ever to be fixed, and Mayhew, Baldwin, and Hughes wrote their pieces in the hope that it will bring attention to these matters that had been ignored for so long. Mudlarks would often find themselves in prison for petty theft, a place they preferred to the streets and banks of the Thames. This exodus of white people has left what are now primarily black neighborhoods in a state of "unmitigated disaster" (135). When Baldwin experienced this his initial thoughts were ". The boy performed exceedingly well, even earning extra wages and a position for his mother. In a weak attempt to discuss the problem, Hughes describes how the problem gets "wined and dined" as white men chat about these issues, "Murmuring gently/ Over fraises du bois/ I'm so ashamed of being white" (3,13-14). Hughes captures the carelessness with which this important subject is handled, describing how the rich white men discuss this matter in their Park Avenue apartments over a lobster dinner.
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