Research Paper on:
'Father and Son' and 'Mother and Child' by Langston Hughes

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
many different heritages. Langston came from a line of individuals who were not of one culture but many. In his short stories "Mother and Child" and "Father and Son" we  are given the story of mulattos who have no place in the world, and of the conflict imbedded in the parents of these individuals as they seek to find a  place in the society. In the following paper we first examine the position of Langston Hughes as it involves being of many cultures. The paper then discusses "Mother and Child"  and "Father and Son," examining the similarities and differences. Langston Hughes "Langston Hughes was profoundly affected not only by his childhood memories of Lawrence, but also by the  extremely significant influence of his Kansas family....Langstons maternal great-grandfather was Ralph Quarles, the white owner of a large plantation in Louisa county, Virginia. On an unknown date, Quarles accepted a  slave, Lucy Langston, as collateral for an unspecified loan" (Scott). We note that her surname had Indian origins. "Of Indian extraction, she was possessed of slight proportion of Negro blood;  and yet, she and her mother, a full-blooded Indian woman, who was brought upon the plantation and remained there up to her death, were loved and honored by their fellow-slaves  of every class" (Scott). Lucy eventually "became the planters own slave, and sometime thereafter gave birth to his daughter, Maria. In 1806 Quarles emancipated both mother and child," after which  she bore him three sons. "Because of Virginias antimiscegenation laws, Quarless children were given their mothers surname. Nonetheless, Ralph Quarles treated Lucy Langston and his mulatto children with much consideration"  (Scott). In the year 1834 both "Quarles and Lucy Langston died and, as he requested, were buried next to each other on his Virginia plantation. In his last will