How far would you go to fit in or feel like you were part of the “crowd’’ ? Some people will go as far as having suicidal thoughts. Turning to something so harmful for love, is insane to me because there’s no benefit from it. The author of this short story I will be introducing is Langston Hughes; the title of this story is The Gun. Langston Hughes is one of the most famous African- American writer and poet. It appears that The Gun is a short story that represents being happy with yourself and forgetting about wanting to be apart of something when your constantly being rejected.
It seems as if the three themes that stick out the most in this short story are grief, isolation and rejection. Flora Belle was never happy, she was always miserable. She lived her
...life in grief. In particular, in this short story it affirms that, “she was just a big, homely silent woman whose desire for friends never got pass that lugubrious look in her wistful eyes and that silence that frightened folks away. ” With this in mind, you see that Flora Belle was misunderstood. People didn’t understand her. Flora Belle was always shy to speak up so that made the situation worst.
In fact, the story says, “fighting against shyness and strangeness, but never making much of an impression on folks. Thus, Flora Belle was never analyzed since no one paid her any mind. Consequently, Flora Belle used isolation to run away from her issues. When Flora Belle was younger she lived in a little town of Tall Rock, Montana. She was the only Negro child in
a small city. She thought of herself as an outcast in the house she lived in. Flora Belle was insulted by the white children. Shortly after Flora Belle’s mom passed away her and her father moved to Butte.
Eventhough there were very few Negroes in Butte, she made friends with none of them. “Flora Belle had set her mind on one of the big cities of the coast, where there would be lots of nice colored people she could make friends with. ” Here we see that she moves again and this time to Seattle. Although Flora Belle enjoyed the big city, still she wasn’t acknowledged. In Butte, they thought of her as “a funny looking, stuck – up, ugly old girl. ” Flora Belle was rejected and also misunderstood.
To demonstrate, the story states that “they took her shyness to mean conceit. Since she never really said much they thought she was anti-social. Flora Belle never wanted to make that impression, all she ever wanted was to fit in. To conclude, Flora Belle never really became part of the crowd. She had suicidal thoughts. Flora Belle looked to a gun for compassion and comfort. She was sure this time that it wouldn’t let her down. Everyone else never accepted her and even turned their backs on her. She was sure that she can sleep at night knowing that if she wanted to end all the grief, isolation and rejection she could. So would you still go thus far to fit in?
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