Langston Hughes - Tambourines to Glory

Langston. Hughes's 1958 novel, Tambourines to Glory, is short, funny, thoughtful, easy to read, and highly provocative - in other words it would be a great choice for a college-level intro to literature, American black literature in particular. The main point of discussion and contention would be how to judge the behavior and accomplishments of the 2 women, Essie and Lauren, who scheme to begin a Harlem street church simply and in order to raise a lot of cash to lift them out of poverty. They succeed, but at what cost? The most sympathetic, to them, interpretation is that even tho they set up the church for cynical reasons they do manage to succeed in bringing peace and a sense of salvation to many of the people who attend. Additionally, they are of course victims of the racism and Jim Crow "laws" in place (setting is late 1940s) and they're no worse in behavior than the mysterious white man from downtown who gets a piece of all of the Harlem action. On the other hand: their scheme is no better than a numbers game or a Ponzi scheme to lift money from those can least afford to give donations. Laura in particular uses the money collected for her own aggrandizement- which in a way makes the devout Essie even worse: tho she purport to wanting to use the $ To help others, including her daughter, she willfully turns a blind eye to the source of her sudden wealth and to the cynicism of those in on the scheme, or scam. Clearly Hughes has much affection for his characters (and his people), but he is neither condescending nor schematic in his depiction of these women and their world

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