Langston Hughes' "Aunt Sue's Stories"

Langston Hughes' "Aunt Sue's Stories" is simplistic and resonating, because of the significance that each word and each image carry. In my opinion, Hughes did not characterize Aunt Sue to be anyone specific, did not use any physical description to paint her into our minds. However, this is probably why the poem is so resonating. Aunt Sue, then, is not just one person, but has become symbolic. Most of us grew up with a family member, whether an aunt, a grandmother, or a grandfather, who carries history, and not just their own, within themselves. Aunt Sue in this poem embodies exactly that family member. She's the one standing within the flow of history, connecting her generation to the next by the stories of herself and her community. The second stanza develops this idea particularly well with specific yet encompassing descriptions: "Black slaves/ Working in the hot sun," "Walking in the dewy night," and "singing sorrow songs on the banks of a mighty river." The image of them "[mingling] [...] softly/ in the flow of old Aunt Sue's voice" is definitely resonating for me, and it further signifies Aunt Sue's important role in educating the younger generation the history that they themselves never had to go through. The fact that the kids listening to Aunt Sue's stories are described more physically and specifically: "a brown-faced child," "the dark-haired child," and "the dark-faced child" while Aunt Sue is described more vaguely and abstractly: "a head full of stories" and "a whole heart full of stories" definitely furthers the idea that Aunt Sue is a symbolic character. Langdon Hughes' characterization of Aunt Sue is resonating because his use of abstract imagery to describe a concrete person has made "Aunt Sue" symbolic and spiritual, has turned her into a character that connects the present and the past, a character to whom most of us can relate our lives.

~Huong T.