The Langston Blues

  In "The Weary Blues", Hughes creatively uses various forms of wordplay and strong defining diction to emphasize the theme of the story; how white-controlled society oppresses and suppresses black people, and that despite black people's attempts to remain happy in the face of such abuse and mistreatment, the suppression is too much and leave black people miserable and hopeless.

    Right at the start, Hughes uses the word "syncopated" to describe the singer's song. By using such a distinct and unique word, Hughes draws the audience's attention to this line specifically, which is important, as syncopated describes something displaced or off-beat, almost conflicted or harsh in some way. This is very fitting for the theme as it matches how black people are made to feel displaced or out-of-place in society, making them feel conflicted about themselves and how they fit into society, struggling with their happiness or sense of hope. While yes, Hughes is using the word "syncopated" to describe the song, he's also using "syncopated" to describe the singer themselves, and to a larger extent, black people in general, all to fit into the theme better and emphasize the position of black people in society.

    Hughes also refers to the singer's song as a "croon", meaning a very quiet or soft singing. This helps to fit into the ideas that black people are suppressed or pushed down by society, making them soft and quiet due to their voices being silenced by the suppression they face on a daily basis, causing black people to be both figuratively quiet and repressed, but also literally singing quieter and being physically more quiet. Hughes smartly uses the distinct word of "croon" to add further detail into the description and representation of how black people are suppressed in society. 

    And considering how while at the time of writing this poem in 1926, black people weren't enslaved as commonly as before, but were still stuck as indentured servants, Hughes referring to the black singer as "ebony" is very telling. Hughes is calling the man "ebony" both as the color, but also the material as in ebony wood, calling the man an object and literally referring to him as a material or good of some kind, something that is traded. This deliberate word choice illustrates how black people in society, while not being slaves anymore, are still viewed as objects or materials, making them feel lesser and oppressed in society, fitting into the theme that Hughes is pushing of black people being suppressed, partly though being seen as materials or objects, which Hughes's careful diction reflects.

    Hughes also sometimes uses various types of wordplay to draw the audience's attention to certain words or phrases, placing special emphasis on those sections to focus on what the words there mean. For example, Hughes mixes the devices of alliteration and consonance with "pale dull pallor", using the two devices together to create a very engaging and interesting collection of words that draws the audience attention, emphasizing the dull and pale light of the setting and how lifeless and sterile the environment is, painting a picture of the type of the environment that black people usually live in. Through this use of wordplay, Hughes is once again describing how black people are suppressed and beaten down by society by talking about how they grow up in dull and dirty and lifeless places, another reason for their sadness and another sign of how society mistreats them. And by using wordplay when describing it, Hughes places special focus on these specific sets of words, emphasizing and focusing on their meaning especially.

    Overall, through his repeated use of carefully-thought and unique word choice and diction, along with some slight inclusion of various literary devices that create wordplay, Hughes manages to not only describe how black people are suppressed and mistreated by society in great detail, but draws the audience's specific attention on the parts where he describes such details due to how distinct and unique these cases of diction and wordplay are, all to fully add to his theme of how due to this suppression, black people are miserable and suicidal, despite their fruitful attempts at happiness.