Langston Hughes takes us through a journey of the experience of a queer person of color. Not only do we see the alienation of Marcel in the story, but Hughes puts us into the position as the reader. The reader serves as a third party, we view the story from the outside. Near the end, we hear the story almost from another room. The question of ‘why’ is unknown. We were limited in what we can see and know about each person, just as Marcel is limited in his knowledge of who these people are. Through the story we see the idea of respect through the lens of critical race theory and gender/queer theory. We are forced to participate in a dance that we are not a part of.
In the beginning, we are introduced to a scene of dance. The feelings of excitement and freedom are bottlenecked the farther we go into the story. We first are disconnected from the dance when we learn that he is not hosting for the purpose of meeting new people, but for the purpose of making rent. Marcel inherently feels disconnected from the dance because of this, and because of his unexpressed preference for men. One of the central tenets of Critical Race Theory is the idea that race is not just a matter of individual prejudice, but a fundamental aspect of social and institutional organization (Delgado & Stefancic, 63). This dance could be representative of the effort to free and allow mixed race, but it is still shadowed with a veil of disconnect and unease in Marcel’s place, as demonstrated by the hard ‘rubber-ball’ laughs. Marcel’s queerness, like his race, is rendered invisible in the context of the dance.
Marcel’s alienation is further compounded by his queer identity. In queer theory, scholars emphasize how queer people often experience the world through a lens of invisibility, both socially and politically (Butler, 1990). In Lois Tyson’s Critical Theory today, he proposes that being gay in the twenty-first century heterosexist culture comes with the feeling of difference and alternativity from the mainstream (322-341). Marcel is not openly navigating his queerness, nor is his identity fully embraced by those around him. He is not participating in the dance of self-expression and connection; rather, he is distanced from it by his financial needs.
Every step of the story we take we see the limitations put on this dance that is meant to support Marcel. A dance that served as an expression of freedom and diversity. We see the alienation of Marcel from this dance because of his identity. We see the separation between of the people in the dance because of skin tone and bias. We see that the basis of the dance was not built on connection and happiness but a need for financial support. Hughes in a way mocks these ideas of sexuality, race, and materialism with the abrupt end of the story and the needless fight and end of the dance. The dance could have gone on and could have been put to ease of expression was more uniform throughout the crowd. In all, Hughes tells us of the limits of American expression. He tells us that it is not safe to express yourself in modern America because of the repercussions. He also allows us to see the ‘respect’ that minorities often receive and how it can be dangerous to have this outlet of false respect.
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