Langston’s Big (Day)Break

    

    “Daybreak in Alabama” - Langston Hughes

In the poem “Daybreak in Alabama,” Langston Hughes uses repetition and allusions to nature to describe the theme that just like nature, people can live in harmony even with their differences. In the title and twice more in the piece, Hughes describes his dream of “daybreak in Alabama.” “Daybreak” can mean the sun rising, and this signals new beginnings. The setting of Alabama in the time period of the Harlem Renaissance, a place with many black people, was deliberate in creating the idea that he wants new beginnings for black people in America. With his allusions to nature in phrases such as “poppy colored faces,” “field daisy eyes,” and “red clay earth hands,” Hughes draws the comparison to people and nature. Just as nature is pure, he argues that people’s relations should be as well; it should be “natural” for people to come together despite their differences. Just like “field daisies” and “poppies” are different, they still come together beautifully; likewise, people should live harmoniously and stick together with the “red clay” Hughes repeatedly references in his piece. When describing “the field daisy eyes / Of black and white black white black people,” Hughes uses repetition not only to give rhythm to the “music” he describes previously, but also to mix everyone up together. Since everyone is the same, they can be mixed together, and can “touch[ing] everybody with kind fingers.” For the fingers to be “kind” shows that the new beginning he dreams of for black people is one of kindness and unity. At the beginning and end of the piece, Hughes describes how “when [he] gets to be a colored composer / And write about daybreak / In Alabama.” However, between these two sections, he has already composed a poem full of people and nature and dreams. Hughes isn’t “gonna” be a composer, he already is, and has demonstrated it throughout his piece. The time he actually “gets” to be a composer will come when the unity he describes is achieved; he not only dreams of becoming a composer, but dreams of unity, so both must occur together for all his hopes to become a reality.