Perspective

As the title "The Big Sea: an Autobiography by Langston Hughes" indicates, the book is told by Langston, the first-person narrator. For the most part, the narrator knows only what Langston himself knew at the time, although he wrote it ten years later. Thus, he often remarks on the status of certain people ten years later, which provides an interesting comparison to what the characters expect to happen. Langston undeniably has an African-American perspective, although when the book was written, people usually said "Negro" or "colored." Langston experiences what it is like to be black in America, what it is like to be mistaken for a Mexican near the border of Mexico, how it feels to be called white in Africa, and how to get along with any old race on the beaches of Italy. Because of his light skin tone and mixed racial heritage, groups of people...