Le Blanc has taught at the University of Michigan and is currently an editor and freelance writer. In the following essay, she discusses the subtle ways in which Hughes conveys his social message in the story.

When in 1932 Langston Hughes first found himself interested in writing short fiction again, he was visiting the Soviet Union on a film-making project with some other artists. Like many other Americans at the time, Hughes believed that socialism could help in the search for social justice. He personally had been involved with left-wing organizations at least since his first year of college. However, the trend in fiction of the period was not to convey a social message but rather to emphasize aesthetic technique and experimentation, a concentration on the art itself or on psychological detail. Critics generally agree that it wasn't until Hughes read in the Soviet Union a book of...