The stanza in
which Hughes relates the aunt’s stories is beautiful, poignant in its
repetition and in the simplistic yet intense images that fill the aunt’s mind. “Black
slaves/ Working in the hot sun,/ And black slaves/ Walking in the dewy night,/
And black slaves/ Singing sorrow songs on the banks of a mighty river/ Mingle
themselves softly/ In the flow of Aunt Sue’s voice,” (6-13). The figures of
Aunt Sue’s past comes alive in these images, and so too does Aunt Sue herself. I see the ghosts she carries within her and her
power as she brings them back to life.
I love this poem
because though it is made up of so little, it carries the weight of so much. The
character that Hughes creates in Aunt Sue holds within her a multitude of other
characters and lives. I loved her because Hughes allowed me to see into her, to
see her strength in her ability to share a painful past, to give it to the
future. Hughes creates an instant of
reality, an exchange between two people, in which they both become known, in
which their stories make them anew and bring them to life. For it is not only
Aunt Sue we come to know through her stories, but the child through his. The
narrator has taken up the burden and the blessing, telling a story of his own
that allows us to come to know him as well. This poem contains stories within
stories, characters within characters, and I love finding new depth each time I
look at it.
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