Analysis of "Cross"

Thesis: The multiple denotations behind the title of the poem "Cross" lead to progressively deeper interpretations of the poem that illustrate a more and more dangerous world for the speaker.

• One meaning behind the title is that the speaker is a cross-breed of different races.
• His father is "a white old man" whereas his "old mother's black" (1-2).
• This would imply at best a difficult life any time prior to or within the lifetime of Langston Hughes.
• This interpretation of "Cross," being the simplest interpretation, tells us the least about the nature of the poem, and similarly only illustrates the danger of being half white, half black to a minimal extent.
• A deeper  meaning would be that the speaker is cross at his parents for creating him as a biracial creature.
• The speaker discusses how "if [he] ever cursed" his mother and father, then he would redact his statements (3, 5).
• This illustrates the emotional strife associated with being biracial: he does not have an inherent internal association with either race, and so he does not know which race he should choose to live as.
• This is a deeper interpretation of "Cross," and gives us a deeper understanding of the speaker; it allows us to understand the internal struggle that the speaker must live with every day.
• Finally, "Cross" is an answer to the final rhetorical question in the poem.
• The final stanza asks, "I wonder where I'm gonna die / being neither white nor black?" (11-12).
• Under this interpretation, Hughes is implying that the speaker is going to end his life by being crucified - an understandable fear for blacks if the speaker lives in the time of the KKK, when the idea of the amalgamation of the races terrified many whites.
• This is both the deepest and darkest interpretation of the title, elaborating on how being a biracial person in a time when racial mixing was feared is physically dangerous and could easily lead to the speaker's painful death.