Point of view refers to the perspective from which the narrator tells the story or a speaker presents his thoughts in a poem. In this poem, Langston Hughes has adopted a first-person perspective. This means the speaker assumes a subjective stance and presents what he thinks of a particular situation, event, or idea.
In "Genius Child," Hughes' perception regarding the treatment of individuals who are seen as geniuses is that they are much maligned and even feared by society. He might be speaking about his own experiences and applies this to, what he believes, are the experiences of geniuses (especially in childhood) worldwide. This does not necessarily make his perspective true.
The speaker is clearly bitter and resentful about the manner in which society supposedly treats such children and shockingly suggests that the genius child should be killed because, in death, the child's soul can "run wild." The intimation is obvious. In life, such a child is restricted and not given the opportunity to exercise his or her genius. Since society cannot bear the open and free nature of such children, it purposely and forcefully binds them and hampers their development. Hughes feels death is the only thing that will free them from such bondage.
The poem clearly suggests that genius children are seen as a threat, for even the song, which the poem is, should be sung softly.
It is also evident that the speaker believes such children cannot be loved. He compares them to eagles and rhetorically asks if such a creature can be loved. It is significant that he chooses an eagle because they are seen as symbols of freedom, courage, and strength—admirable qualities—but he questions whether they can be loved. It is as if Hughes is mocking society's short-sighted attitude to child geniuses. Genius children possess all these qualities but are shunned, restricted, and ill-treated because society has an irrational fear of them. They are seen as monsters who generate fear at the mere mention of their names.
The repetition of the line "Nobody loves a genius child,"and its separation from the general text, emphasizes the speaker's sentiment that genius children are treated with disdain. The word 'nobody' powerfully suggests that such children are not even loved by their immediate families. This sentiment, more than anything else, indicates the poet's subjective perspective, as his claim definitely cannot be seen as a universal truth.
Sunday, January 8, 2017
What is the point of view in the poem "Genius Child" by Langston Hughes?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Summarize the major research findings of "Toward an experimental ecology of human development."
Based on findings of prior research, the author, Bronfenbrenner proposes that methods for natural observation research have been applied in ...
-
One way to support this thesis is to explain how these great men changed the world. Indeed, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) was the quintes...
-
Polysyndeton refers to using several conjunctions in a row to achieve a dramatic effect. That can be seen in this sentence about the child: ...
-
Both boys are very charismatic and use their charisma to persuade others to follow them. The key difference of course is that Ralph uses his...
-
At the most basic level, thunderstorms and blizzards are specific weather phenomena that occur most frequently within particular seasonal cl...
-
Equation of a tangent line to the graph of function f at point (x_0,y_0) is given by y=y_0+f'(x_0)(x-x_0). The first step to finding eq...
-
Population policy is any kind of government policy that is designed to somehow regulate or control the rate of population growth. It include...
-
Gulliver cooperates with the Lilliputians because he is so interested in them. He could, obviously, squash them underfoot, but he seems to b...
No comments:
Post a Comment