Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes wrote the poem "The Ballad of the Landlord" in 1940, a time of immense discrimination against people of African origin. The poem details the account of a tenant, later discovered to be an African American, who is dissatisfied with his rental property. The tenant politely asks the owner to make necessary repairs to the property, but instead the owner asks to be paid. The tenant refuses to pay the rent and the police are called after a threat made to the landlord. The police arrest the tenant; he is jailed for ninety days without bail. “Ballad of the Landlord” by Langston Hughes is a striking poem that highlights the discrimination that African Americans faced in the 1940s by illustrating an account of an African American tenant's problems with a Caucasian landlord through the use of themes, dialects, tones. and more talking. Racism and discrimination are problems that many African Americans faced in the 1940s; Hughes uses this aspect as a main theme in his poem "Ballad of the Landlord". It is clear that the tenant is discriminated against by the owner, the police and the newspapers. For example, the newspaper shows only one aspect of the issue especially in the headline: “MAN THREATENES OWNER” (31). The tenant's reasons for threatening the landlord were valid, if not legal, because the landlord treated the tenant unfairly by not repairing the home the tenant was renting. The tenant was angry, as expected, because the owner was prejudiced against him and refused to change his living conditions. The owner might have fixed up the house if the tenant had been white, and all the problems could have been avoided if the racial issues had not been... middle of paper... contains a short 33-line poem that simply shows the barriers between races in the period when racism was still openly practiced through segregation and discrimination. The poem captures the African American tenant's frustrations with the landlord as well as the racism displayed by the landlord. The poem is a great example of the time period and shows how relevant discrimination was in everyday life in the 1940s. It is important that the author uses the selected literary devices to better illustrate his point. Every literary device in the poem helps exemplify the author's intent: to raise awareness of racism in society during that time period. Works Cited Hughes, Langston. “Landlord's ball”. An introduction to literature. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, William Burto and William E. Cain. 16th ed. New York: Longman, 2011. 765-766. Press.