19 pages • 38 minutes read
High to Low
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Background
Literary Context: “High to Low” Versus “Low to High”
Content Warning: This section of the guide features discussions of slavery and racism.
The reader can understand and analyze “High to Low” as an autonomous poem. At the same time, the companion poem, “Low to High,” adds another layer to “High to Low.” As the title of the former poem indicates, the speaker and addressee switch positions, with the Black person from the less affluent socioeconomic class speaking to the Black person from the monied class. Like “High to Low,” “Low to High” features the same literary devices, including juxtaposition and repetition. Three times, the speaker asks the addressee, “How can you forget me?” (Hughes, Langston. “Low to High.” 1949. West-Linn Wilsonville School District. Lines 1, 7, 16). Put in conversation with “High to Low,” the speaker in “Low to High” realizes that the wealthy Black person hasn’t forgotten. They’re painfully aware of the Black person from the “low” socioeconomic class, and the “High to Low” speaker blames them for failing “to uphold the race” (Line 21).
Together, the two poems illustrate the complexity of class within the Black community. The “Low to High” speaker feels erased and marginalized, while the “High to Low” speaker claims the “Low to High” speaker is thwarting the progress of the entire Black race. The “Low to High” speaker makes the “High to Low” speaker an unreliable narrator. The latter tells the former, “[Y]ou talk too loud / cuss too loud” (Lines 4-5). While the “Low to High” speaker uses exclamation points and “damn” (“Low to High.” Line 14), neither is excessive, and the “Low to High” speaker comes across as more reasonable than the well-to-do, cultured “High to Low” speaker.
Sociohistorical Context: Socioeconomic Class Within the Black Community
The class tension displayed in “High to Low” reflects a history of division within the Black community. In Black Theology and Black Power (Harper & Row, 1969), the scholar James Cone argues the abolition of slavery exacerbated class conflicts. During slavery, Black preachers focused on the evil of the institution. Afterward, Black preachers, reflecting the position of the speaker in “High to Low,” blamed certain Black people—not the prevalence of violent, deadly racist laws—for the Black people’s ongoing struggles. The Black people held responsible by the preachers are similar to the Black person the speaker lectures in “High to Low,” with the preachers adding smoking, drinking, and dancing to the list of behaviors that kept Black people from prosperity.
Hughes’s literary conflicts in the mid-20th century replicate the class divide. Arguably, Hughes made a socioeconomic choice to distance himself from communism. To protect his career and the status it conferred, he developed a less radical outlook. Though people like James Baldwin countered Hughes and claimed to represent the “too black” (Line 6), they, too, had fame and weren’t part of a lower, mostly invisible class.
Contemporary discourse features class fragmentation within the Black community. In 2008, American voters made Barack Obama the first Black president. The contemporary philosopher Cornel West thought of Obama as the condescending speaker in “High to Low.” West argued Obama’s policies didn’t benefit Black people unconditionally but mostly people (Black or otherwise) from the “high” class. During the 2024 election, more people criticized Obama for claiming Black men weren’t showing suitable support for the Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. The Ohio politician and media personality Nina Turner wondered, “Why are Black men being lectured to? Why are Black men being belittled in ways that no other voting group?” (Daniels, Cheyanne M. “Obama Faces Backlash for Comments Toward Black Men.” The Hill, 2024). “Belittle[ment]” accurately characterizes the attitude of the speaker in “High to Low.”
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