The Weary Blues
The Weary Blues
by Langston Hughes

The Weary Blues Themes

Little Words, Big Ideas

Language and Communication

Both the speaker and the musician in "The Weary Blues" are trying to communicate their feelings to an audience. The speaker wants to share his experience with his audience. He uses vivid language t...

Suffering

The doctor starts checking down the list, "Dissatisfaction? Yes. Sad? Check. Suffering? You bet." The diagnosis: "You've got the blues." The musician in "The Weary Blues" sings "Got the Weary Blues...

Race

One aspect of the Harlem Renaissance is the effort by African Americans to define what it meant to be an American of African descent. This means pointing out cultural traditions like the blues, but...

Art and Culture

The relationship between art and culture is a messy one. "The Weary Blues" can be read as a defense of blues music as art, but it is also a defense of itself as art. Langston Hughes spent a lot of...