Langston Hughes Ballad Of The Landlord

The poem I picked to analyze is entitled “The Ballad of the Landlord” by Langston Hughes. I believe that Langston Hughes wrote this poem to express sorrow about the way African-American tenants were treated by their landlords during the early 1900’s. I believe the tenants were African-American based on the speech they were using such as “Well, that's Ten Bucks more'n I'l pay you. Till you fix this house up new.” To me, this statement tells me that the tenant either had a southern accent or was probably African-American. After reading some more information on Langston Hughes, I have discovered that he was a leader of the Harlem Renaissance movement which most likely indicates that that tenant was African-American and that this story most likely took place somewhere in New York where rent was expensive. I do believe that the poet was trying to send a message to the world, and that message was “do the right thing and honor your word. The reason I believe this is the message is because the tenant is struggling to get his landlord to pay for a basic repair when it is most likely the landlord’s responsibility. That is the way that renting works. I believe that Mr. Hughes is urging this landlord to live up to his end of the deal (contract) and make the repair so that
I believe that almost all humans want to avoid responsibility when they can, because doing so would result in less work for them. Most people nowadays are extremely busy and do not have the time to deal with more problems. In the first stanza, the tenant lets the reader know that he asked his landlord to fix his roof a week ago and hasn’t heard back. The actual text states “Landlord, landlord, My roof has sprung a leak. Don't you 'member I told you about it Way last week?” I believe that this problem should have been taken care of when the tenant first requested