Warmth of Other Suns: An Earth Song and The New Negro

The history of the characters provided in The Warmth of Other Suns is something I feel to be pivotal component in truly understanding what lead them to make certain choices later on in their lives that they did. One that I found to be most interesting was the story of Ida Mae Gladney, and more specifically, the short relationship that she had with her father before he passed away. We are told that due to his sudden death at a relatively young age, Ida Mae was greatly affected. Though but a brief description is given of her father, what we do learn of him is that he did at least own a small piece of land to plant cotton (while also tending to hogs) and the land he was provided with was not necessarily the best piece of land and was rather, in fact, "the more difficult birthing pains", but he still did his job to take care of his family. Through this information, we can conclude that Ida Mae's father was indeed a provider, who loved his family, and despite having land that almost seemed to have no potential, still worked hard at it to ensure that cotton would grow.

When looking in The New Negro for a poem or short story that I felt related to one of the stories in The Warmth of Other Suns, one particular poem that seemed to stick out to me was An Earth Song by Langston Hughes. Though this poem is speaking of waiting for the arrival of Spring for planting, just as Isabel Wilkerson documents when telling the story of Ida Mae's father and his land, I see stark differences between the two and the mood that each passage emits. An Earth Song has more so of a redeeming, tone overall, giving the feeling that Spring was something to wait for and look forward to. Not only is this displayed in the title, having the nostalgic title Earth Song, but in the way that Hughes decides to refer to the event. He says, "And I've been waiting long for an earth song. It's a spring song", as if to say this is the time that I've been waiting for. The spring, when one is able to plant their seed for whatever crop they hope to grow, ensuring their profit later on in the year when they have something to harvest and pick. The term strong is used multiple times as well. Strong as the shoots of a new plant. Strong as the bursting of new buds. Strong as the coming of the first child from its mothers womb. This seems to depict waiting for the inevitable spring to finally come, so planting can be done, and crops can be grown in order to support one's family.

When I consider Ida Mae's father and the land he was given to toil, it seems that it is filled with more despair and uncertainty of a positive outcome than does An Earth Song. Already knowing that he attained a piece of land that was not necessarily the best to plant in, he did so despite the circumstances because he had no choice. Wilkerson states that The land that colored men managed to get was usually scratch land that nobody wanted. Still, he courted the land every spring. After reading the poem by Langston Hughes, and the strength that comes through the poem and certainty of witnessing the earth song come spring, a difference is seen in the perception of the land of Ida Mae's father. Rather than having certainty that the land would be kind to their planting in Spring, there was rather a feeling of not knowing what exactly to expect, but doing everything possible to make it work. Trying to conjure rain, chopping unwanted leaves, still courting the land every spring.

Ultimately, although both brief passages seem to have a different tone, the commonality is that either way, when spring came, whether working with good land or bad, families were planting their crops to ensure their survival. I feel that these differences speak to the various families and the different experiences that they had with sharecropping. For some it was something they waited long for, and could hopefully anticipate positive results from. For others, not so much. But either way, the soil was being toiled and regardless of conditions, men and their families were doing whatever it took to make sure that their families were provided for.