The Ballad of the Landlord: Theme and Analysis

The text that I have chosen and will be analyzing in this essay “The Ballad of the Landlord: Theme and Analysis” is called 'The Ballad of the Landlord' by Langston Hughes. The poem is about discrimination toward black people. There is an African American that is currently renting out a place and it begins to have problems. A leak occurs in his ceiling and the stairs are broken. He asks the landlord if they can be repaired and about a week later, none of the damages have been fixed. Because he refuses to repair any of the damages, the tenant refuses to continue paying rent. Even after the tenant stops paying rent, the landlord still decides not to fix any of the problems and starts threatening the tenant with eviction orders, cutting of the heat from his place, and throwing his furniture out on the street if the tenant doesn't continue paying rent, so the tenant responds with his own threats, threatening to punch the landlord in the face. The landlord retaliates by calling the police to get the tenant jailed and they do so, he's sent to the station, jailed then is later sent to court, sentenced to '90 days in county jail' by the judge.

Reference social justice issue

In the poem, the social justice issue would be racial discrimination against the African American people during the 1900s. For example, in the first 3 stanzas, the landlord was aware of the issues the tenant had with his place but ignored it and still expected rent every time he would come up to collect it. After the tenant began to refuse rent, he threatened the tenant with eviction and so he threatened to punch him. The landlord called the police and the tenant was sent straight to the station. He was shortly sent to court and the judge sentenced him to 90 days in county jail. The tenant was unfairly treated by the landlord and the authorities because the tenant was African American. The authorities should have properly reviewed the situation but everything seemed to escalate pretty quickly. The media even is on the side of the landlord, saying that the tenant was jailed for threatening the landlord and also not covering what happened on the side of the tenant.

How a poem conveys meaning

The poem has 8 stanzas. The first 6 stanzas are quatrains as they have 4 lines and they involve rhyming inside of them. The last 2 stanzas are tercets, they are made up of three lines also involving some rhyming in them. All stanzas help set an image in your mind of where the tenant is situated throughout the poem, from his rented place to the precinct stations jail, to court then ending off being sent to the county jail by the judge. The stanzas are also of different perspectives. The first 5 stanzas are of the perspective of the tenant, the sixth stanza is of the landlord himself and the last 2 are from the police and media.

Cultural assumptions etc.

It was wrong for the landlord to decide not to have of the damages to the property repaired just because the tenant was African American. From the poem, it looks like the tenant had no problems with the landlord and always paid his rent when expected from the landlord. The tenant only stopped paying rent in protest of the landlord simply ignoring the requests to fix the problems. This was a fair response by the tenant as leaving these problems as they were would make living conditions poor. The leak in the roof would begin to grow mold and result in the tenant becoming very sick while the broken stairs could actually pose more of a threat to both the landlord and the tenant. Instead of threatening the landlord, it may have been a better decision to actually take the landlord to court. What he should have done is sent a letter to the landlord of what repairs have to be made, with a copy for himself so that the tenant could have provided evidence for the judge of when the problems occurred. He then should have had his house examined by an official building inspector and obtained a report from him. Also, have the money present that was held on to during this time. He could of used these to put it in his favor as without proper evidence, everything would be in favor of the landlord as the tenant was an African American and the landlord was white. It was also wrong by the police and the judge for not fairly review the situation first before acting as like they did. I was actually unaware of the fact that the tenant was black, not until it was revealed at the end of the poem, where the media says 'JUDGE GIVES NEGRO 90 DAYS IN COUNTY JAIL!', then I sort of understand why the tenant had been mistreated throughout the whole poem.