Analyse af Langston Hughes' 'Coffee break'

Tale of Simple: Coffee break is a short story written by Langston Hughes in 1965. The main theme in the story is discrimination of black and white men. In the short story, we meet the self, Simple and his boss. Simples boss is a white man who means that all The Negro are identical, and he wants to know what The Negro want. Simple is the main character and he is black. The question is: How do you tell your white boss that black and white people have the same rights?

The story is a conversation between Simple and the self. In the conversation, Simple tells the self about a conversation he had with his boss the previous day. The conversation between Simple and the self is written in present but the conversation between Simple and his boss is written in historical present. We do not know where the location for the present tense and we do not know anything about the self. But we know that the historical present part take place in Harlem in USA. Harlem is a separated district in New York where the majority are black people. The story is written in 1965, and I think it takes place in the same time. But I also think it could go on now in 2017, in some parts of the world.