Final Goodbyes

I wave Ruth out of the room and am left standing in the empty apartment alone. The apartment is stripped bare of almost all the furniture, with only the faded floral wallpaper left. I look down at my plant sitting on the table; it is in full bloom, ready to thrive in a lush bed of soil. I have nurtured it for what seems like a lifetime. Looking from those bright, healthy leaves to the tired walls and floors of the apartment, I can imagine my husband coming in after a long day of work, taking off his hat and still managing a smile. This place is adorned with his memory. To be leaving here for good - the thought forces up "a great heaving thing," (Hansberry 151) from my heart, and I suppress it with a fist to the mouth. I take one final glance around the apartment and go on my way, pulling on a coat as I leave. As I reach the staircase outside, I suddenly remember my plant, which is still sitting on the table, and quickly turn back to collect it. Leaving the apartment for the final time, I clutch the plant to my chest, deciding that my husband will always be with us.

Puzzle Paragraph

While others might say it is impossible to relate outer space, the fates, and The Glass Castle to poetry by Langston Hughes, it is actually completely possible. The Glass Castle, a novel by Jeannette Walls, contains a scene that conveys the message of Hughes's poem, 'I, Too', perfectly. The poem asks for equality between black and white people, and this equality is shown when Jeannette goes swimming with her friend Dinitia, who is black. Jeannette explains that "all the black people swam in the morning,"(Walls 190) and is at first nervous, however she is able to fit in right away. She and Dinitia swim all morning, with no racial barriers between them. After getting out of the pool, Jeannette observes that her eyes were "red and stinging from the chlorine," (Walls 192), as if the chemicals, like fire, had burned her; similarly, the experience of swimming with Dinitia in harmony burned away Jeannette's racism.
The fates can also relate to Hughes's poetry, specifically 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers'. The poem's narrator makes allusions to important historical events and places, such as "the Euphrates...the Congo...the Nile...the Mississippi," (Hughes lines 5-8) and also raising the pyramids and the civil war. The fates, who decide the destiny of humanity, have a similar omnipresence, knowing the "ancient, dusky rivers," (Hughes line 12) of time, just like the narrator.
Finally, 'The Weary Blues', another one of Hughes's poems, centers around a "musical fool," (Hughes line 13) who plays the piano as skillfully as Jimi Hendrix plays guitar. The pianist plays until the "stars went out and so did the moon," (Hughes 32), leaving the world dark and hopeless. This hopeless state is reinforced by the reference to objects in outer space - the stars and moon - that are millions of miles away from earth. African Americans believed at this time that racial equality was equally as distant.
In this way, it is in fact possible to relate seemingly random things to Langston Hughes's poetry.