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more directly political direction. The gulf between rich and poor can only be bridged by revolution and the poem ends on such a note: "Listen, Mary, Mother of God, wrap your new born / babe in the red flag of revolution: The
Waldorf-Astoria's the best manger we've got." Surrounding the two-page poem the illustration appears to be a faithful depiction of an advertisement with bold, creative headings, but the caricatures in the large hotel in the center of the poem show people drinking and carousing while a car driving through the picture appears to be riding on a street made of the faces and bodies of other people.
114:. In his essay "The Adventures of a Social Poet" James Smethurst argues that "one of the most noted features of Popular Front aesthetics is a conscious mixing of genres and media – of 'high' and 'low,' of 'popular' and 'literary,' of Whitman and Eliot, of folk culture and mass culture, of literary and nonliterary documents." Hughes' use of vernacular mixed with high-brow cultural elements within "Advertisement..." reflects those ideals.
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Critics have argued that by parodying a high-priced advertisement for an even higher-priced hotel and juxtaposing those images with the most economically disadvantaged and those who would never be able to take advantage of the amenities offered by the hotel that Hughes was writing with the ideals of
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and describes the
Waldorf with a sarcastic awe. "Everybody," the penultimate section of poem, continues with details about amount of carpets used and addresses directly the very people unable to experience any of the luxuries of the Waldorf. The last section, "Christmas Card," takes the poem in a
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furthered that economic hardship along racial lines. Hughes said of the poem: "The hotel opened at the very time when people were sleeping on newspapers in doorways, because they had no place to go. But suites in the
Waldorf ran into thousands a year, and dinner in the Sert Room was ten dollars!
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The poem was composed in response to a multi-page advertisement for the new $ 28 million hotel
Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York. The Great Depression had begun to hit New Yorkers and disproportionately affected minorities in the city. The disparity between the rich and poor was widening at the
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The poem is viewed as a response to the economic milieu as well as cultural, racial, and class issues. "Advertisement for the
Waldorf Astoria" is frequently grouped together with Hughes's other radical leftist writings of the 1930s. When Hughes first submitted his manuscript for
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The first of six sections entitled "Listen Hungry Ones!" sets up the poem by taking quotes from the Vanity Fair advertisement and addressing those statements to poor people of New York. The second section, "Roomers" gives a description of the menu found at the
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found that "Advertisement for the
Waldorf-Astoria" was "bad economics and bad poetry" but he nonetheless encouraged its inclusion in the collection stating that it was a part of Hughes's "essential history".
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wrote of the poem that it exemplified the toughness of Hughes that he could approach even the solidarity he feels with the working class with "humor, urbanity, and objectivity".
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to those accustomed to flop-houses and soup-lines. Next in "Evicted
Families" the $ 10,000-a-year apartments are described. The fourth section "Negroes" is written in
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worker rights in mind that would later form the basis for the political and social ideals collectively referred to as the
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77:(Negroes, even if they had the money, couldn't eat there. So naturally, I didn't care much for the Waldorf-Astoria.)"
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180:. October 28, 1941. Reprinted in Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and K. A. Appiah (eds),
27:, accompanied by illustrations by Walter Steinhilber, which takes the form of a
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Smethurst, James. "The
Adventures of a Social Poet", in Steven C. Tracy (ed.),
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in
December 1931 and later in Hughes's autobiography of that time period,
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Hughes, Langston. "Come to the
Waldorf-Astoria!" in Pau Lautner (ed.),
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The Life of Langston Hughes Volume 1: 1902-1941. I, Too, Sing America.
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41:. The poem is considered one of Hughes' most direct indictments of
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of a magazine advertisement. The poem was first published in
167:. 2001. University of Illinois. 2001. Web. October 23, 2011.
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vol. D. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage, 2010. 1553. Print.
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Langston Hughes: Critical Perspectives Past and Present
524:Works originally published in political magazines
197:, New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.
519:Works originally published in American magazines
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150:New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Print.
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132:The Heath Anthology of American Literature.
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195:A Historical Guide to Langston Hughes
21:Advertisement for the Waldorf-Astoria
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184:, New York: Harper, 2000. Print.
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161:The Big Sea: An Autobiography
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292:Let America be America Again
72:onset of the Depression and
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347:Montage of a Dream Deferred
285:Come to the Waldorf Astoria
60:African-American vernacular
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433:The Sweet Flypaper of Life
299:Note on Commercial Theatre
250:The Negro Speaks of Rivers
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514:Poetry by Langston Hughes
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98:When it was published in
23:" is a two-page poem by
529:African-American poetry
488:Langston Hughes Society
339:The Ways of White Folks
331:Fine Clothes to the Jew
16:Poem by Langston Hughes
476:Charles Henry Langston
470:Carrie Langston Hughes
165:Modern American Poetry
342:(short stories, 1934)
56:Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
482:John Mercer Langston
425:Not Without Laughter
390:Tambourines to Glory
178:A Journal of Opinion
146:Rampersad, Arnold,
43:economic inequality
159:Hughes, Langston,
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176:Wright, Richard.
81:Critical response
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323:Collections
100:The Big Sea
88:The Big Sea
39:The Big Sea
509:1931 poems
503:Categories
118:References
366:Mule Bone
49:Structure
472:(mother)
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102:in 1940
463:Related
374:Mulatto
278:Pierrot
67:Context
455:(1939)
436:(1955)
428:(1930)
417:Novels
409:(1964)
401:(1961)
393:(1956)
385:(1947)
377:(1935)
369:(1931)
306:Harlem
264:I, Too
29:parody
444:Films
358:Plays
242:Poems
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