31 pages • 1 hour read
Langston HughesCora Unashamed
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1933A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Perception of Black Dependence on White Society
“Cora Unashamed” explores the interdependent relationship between a Black woman and a white employer and confronts the perception that Black survival requires dependence on white society and cooperation with an unjust economic system. Hughes’s personal life and economic views provide contextual layers to the story’s message about this relationship. Though he denied being a communist, his sympathy for communist philosophy suggests a critical view of America’s segregated capitalist system. He portrays the lack of economic opportunity for African Americans through Cora Jenkins, whose character arc reflects this thematic message.
In the initial stage of Cora’s character arc, she believes she has no better option than to work for a white employer who treats her terribly. The narrator states, “She worked for the Studevants, who treated her like a dog. She stood it. Had to stand it; or work for poorer white folks who would treat her worse; or go jobless” (3-4). Because of this belief, Cora responds to their abuse with meekness and docility, answering always, “Yes, ma’m” (4). The Studevants take the belief even further; they see the relationship as one of ownership. The narrator states, “The Studevants thought they owned her, and they were perfectly right: they did” (4).
In Part I, Cora’s perceived dependence on the Studevants is mainly financial. She takes the job to meet her family’s basic needs: food on the table and a roof over their heads. Her choice to enter this relationship is immediately reinforced: “In the eighth grade she quit school and went to work with the Studevants. After that, she ate better” (5). Financial needs keep arising—the mortgage, the horse dying, Pa’s bail money—and being able to meet these needs with her income only bolsters Cora’s sense of reliance on the Studevants. She gains additional economic benefits by wearing the Studevants’ old clothes and eating their leftover food. It’s easy to imagine how she could see this source of employment as necessary.
In Part II, Cora’s perceived dependence on the Studevants revolves more around her emotional needs. Her family is the only Black family in town, denying her an opportunity to marry—the father of her child leaves town after finding out she is pregnant. When her only child dies, helping raise Jessie—an opportunity dependent on her relationship with the Studevants—becomes the source of purpose in her life. She thinks back on “years and years of going home to nobody but Ma and Pa; little Josephine dead; only Jessie to keep her heart warm” (14). Cora develops a genuine relationship with Jessie, the only one in the story, and her death means the loss of the only thing Cora still values in her relationship with the Studevants. It marks the turning point in her character arc, pushing her to finally reject that relationship. The story’s resolution reveals Cora managing to get along despite severing her ties to the Studevants, representing the possibility of Black autonomy and the thematic rejection of Black dependence on white society.
Motherhood and Abortion
The story’s exploration of motherhood and abortion supports a comparison of the value placed on human life by Black communities versus white communities in the context of reproductive justice in the 1920s. As detailed in the Background section, controlling Black women’s bodies and pregnancies was an intrinsic part of white supremacy, ranging from forced pregnancy and rape during slavery to eugenics policies that forcibly sterilized nonwhite women or terminated their pregnancies against their will. Additionally, abortion was historically used to maintain racial boundaries by terminating pregnancies from interracial relationships. In “Cora Unashamed,” Jessie’s pregnancy results from her relationship with a Greek man, which motivates her mother to force her into having an abortion. Throughout the story, Hughes uses abortion and motherhood as lenses for examining morality in his characters, stressing the importance of reproductive autonomy and wanted pregnancies.
Hughes draws a connection between devaluing the lives of children—born and unborn—and devaluing the lives of African Americans. This is accomplished by comparing how Cora and the Studevants value others’ lives, beginning with Cora’s pregnancy and how Josephine is treated. Cora is unashamed of her pregnancy, even after the baby’s father leaves her, and she tries to raise her child as an equal to Mrs. Studevant’s children. By bringing Josephine to work with her, Cora is able to both work and care for her child, but Mrs. Studevant does not want a Black child around her children. This rejection is implicitly linked to Josephine’s death when the narrator notes, “But in a little while they didn't need to tell Cora to leave her child at home, for Josephine died of whooping cough” (8). While the Studevants are not directly responsible, Hughes creates this link to emphasize the way racist societies devalue Black life.
By contrast, Cora expresses a high regard for human life, not only through her love and mourning for Josephine but by caring for others. Despite having to sacrifice her childhood and future opportunities to care for seven siblings, she finds her life’s purpose in raising children. Likewise, she does not see any shame in Jessie’s pregnancy, even though she is not married. When she breaks the news about Jessie to Mrs. Studevant, the narrator says Cora “would have gone on humbly and shamelessly talking about the little unborn…” (11), using language that equates the fetus with a human life, thus imbuing it with value. While Mrs. Studevant becomes hysterical when thinking about having a mixed-race grandchild, Cora affirms that wanted pregnancies are inherently valuable: “No trouble having a baby you want” (6). With this, Cora affirms the value of reproductive autonomy; Jessie should be able to have this child she wants, which was created out of love.
The Studevants, who represent white society, may claim to place a high value on their child’s life, but their actions don’t support this. Mr. Studevant has no bond with Jessie, and Mrs. Studevant is ashamed of her and speaks of her in ways that diminish her value: “Poor Jessie! She looks healthy, but she’s never been a strong child. She’s one of the worries of my life” (14). The hymn they choose for her funeral offers a fitting metaphor for motherhood as it speaks of gathering the young lambs with care, carrying them safe in the bosom, and sheltering them tenderly. This emphasizes, by contrast, the lack of maternal care Mrs. Studevant gives her daughter and the lack of value she attributes to motherhood and the lives of others. With this, Cora becomes a foil for Mrs. Studevant, representing the virtues of true motherhood.
In the story’s climax, Cora accuses the Studevants of complicity in Jessie’s death, stating, “They killed you, honey. They killed you and your child. I told ’em you loved it, but they didn’t care. They killed it before it was…” (17). This language condemns abortion, but it also condemns the Studevants’ disregard for Jessie’s desires and autonomy—her loving the child did not prevent her parents from forcing her into an abortion. With this, Hughes contrasts reproductive autonomy with reproductive coercion, highlighting the deadly effects of not controlling one’s own body. This is shown through both forced abortion and rape resulting in pregnancy; when Hughes writes “there was something about the cream-and-tan Jenkins girls that attracted the white farmhands” (6), it implies sexual relations beyond the girls’ control or consent. Each of these girls’ pregnancies results in them being cast out “in disgrace,” a similarly dire result of lacking reproductive autonomy. Through this lens, “Cora Unashamed” condemns the way white society devalues the lives of others, especially African Americans.
Shame as a Weapon
Through Cora’s interactions with the Studevant family, Hughes portrays how white society uses shame as an informal mechanism to preserve segregation and maintain privilege and control over Black communities. The thematic importance of shame in the story is implied by its title, but an awareness of Hughes’s goals as an author and the recurring themes in his oeuvre help illuminate his underlying message about shame. Much of his writing, geared toward strengthening Black communities, manifests and encourages pride in African American culture and identity. In “Cora Unashamed,” white society uses the opposing force—shame—to weaken Black communities and maintain their own privileged status.
Many formal mechanisms enforced segregation and discouraged the blurring of racial boundaries in the 20th century. Black codes and Jim Crow laws, which legalized discrimination and anti-Black violence—are prime examples. However, social values like shame allowed families, neighbors, and peers to police their communities as well. For example, Mrs. Studevant is ashamed of Jessie’s pregnancy not only because Jessie is unmarried but also because the baby’s father is a foreigner. The effect of shame on Mrs. Studevant is so powerful that she resorts to terminating the pregnancy, thereby buttressing ethnic and racial demarcations. In this case, shame overpowers Mrs. Studevant’s care for her children, forcing Jessie into a dangerous situation that ultimately kills her. With this, Hughes asserts that shame is a deadly force.
Shame can also be used to whitewash acts of violence toward Black citizens, creating an atmosphere of hostility in which any act of defiance is deemed too risky. For example, Cora’s sisters are said to have left home, one by one, mostly in disgrace. Connotations of the term “disgrace” and the comment “There was something about the cream-and-tan Jenkins girls that attracted the white farmhands” (6) indicate that they were impregnated by these white farmhands. Further details are left to the reader’s imagination. The possibility that they were raped or sexually exploited cannot be ruled out, given the context of race relations at the time. Rape, too, is a weapon of control. With Pa’s reaction, shame becomes another method for controlling others. Society has convinced the girls’ own father that they are at fault and a source of shame. The cursory way this is addressed—in just four euphemistic sentences—signifies how powerless they are to effect change.
Using shame as a weapon has unintended consequences for white society, too. Jessie’s untimely death epitomizes the repercussions of society prioritizing shame over love. Ultimately, Cora’s rejection of shame’s power, portrayed as heroic, defines Hughes’s attitude toward shame. Society tells Cora and her family that it’s shameful to have interracial relationships. Society also says it’s shameful to have children outside of wedlock, but it prohibits Cora from marrying a white man. The influence of cultural shame is so potent that it controls everyone in the story, except Cora. While Mrs. Studevant’s shame kills her daughter, Cora’s compassion and excitement over Jessie’s pregnancy present a new way of relating, offering hope for a future without shame and racism as methods of social control. A woman unashamed is so rare and noteworthy that it earns Cora the story’s title, elevating her enlightened state of mind above all else on the page.
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