He begins this poem by describing jazz as music for all social classes and professions and ends it by commenting on its universal language and ability to bring people together in spite of their differences. The heart of the poem lies in these two lines and yet if read too quickly one might miss the significance of these lines. The seemingly happy music that strikes a universal cord is shadowed by the oppression faced by black people. The paradoxical laughter seen in many of Hughes's poems plays the same role in jazz music. Laughter was the only way black Americans could deal with their frustrations and because of this the laughter became much more than a joyful expression.
Jazz has the same two-dimensional quality.
On the surface it functions as entertainment, but the heart of the words of the music are filled with sadness and despair. The prose that Langston Hughes wrote after the Harlem Renaissance illustrates and supports the arguments for laughter as a paradox of emotion in the black community. Understanding the paradoxical nature of humor and laughter that Jessie Fauset writes about allows for a much deeper reading of the meaning in much of Hughes's literature. In prose, Hughes's humorous character Jessie B. Semple was developed as a way for Hughes to address this and other issues of concern to the black audience. Harper believes all people have felt oppressed at some time and this is what makes the Semple character universal.