Summary In the book, When the Negro was in Vogue from The Big Sea by Langston Hughes, Hughes starts off by discussing the “White people” that have now begun to fill the Harlem streets. Years before coming to Harlem, they had their own separate club, The Cotton Club, where few Negros were allowed. Now that the whites have begun to fill the cabarets and bars that were at one point only filled by African Americans, the author goes on a rant. He becomes infuriated by the fact that whites only come to the bar to watch the African Americans, as if they were “amusing animals in a zoo.” The author ends with the analogy of a woman, Miss Bentley moving on to bigger things and leaving the bar she worked for, after it became too well known to Harlem losing its “shine” once the location became “commercial, planned for the downtown tourist trade, and therefore dull.” The purpose of this article could have been to either entertain or inform, depending …show more content…
To know that descendants of mine were treated this way upsets me deeply. • Ethos: “The Negroes said: “We can’t go downtown and sit and stare at you in your clubs. You won’t even let us in your clubs.” But they didn’t say it out loud—for Negroes are practically never rude to white people.” - This phrase showed the ethical side of the African Americans. Even though the African Americans had differences with the whites, they were never rude. It showed they had respect for all individuals, no matter the situation. • Syntax: “The ‘20s are gone and lots of fine things in Harlem night life have disappeared like snow in the sun—since it became utterly commercial, planned for the downtown tourist trade, and therefore