In the poem “Negro” by Langston Hughes the speakers goes into deep thought as he reflects on the different hats African Americans have worn throughout history. The speaker is very proud to be an African American as he celebrates the achievements African Americans have made throughout history although faced with adversity. The “Negro” was written by Langston Hughes who was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. He grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, but also lived in Illinois, Ohio, and Mexico. The first poem he wrote was “The Negro Speaks of Rivers" in the Crisis, which was edited by his mentor W E. B. Du Bois. That poem was written while he attended Columbia University in New York. After college he was able to travel abroad. He went to the west coast of Africa while he worked on a freighter. He also lived In Paris for several months before returning to the United States late in 1924. When he returned back to his country he was already well known in the African American literary circles as a gifted young poet. He was dedicated to African American music and held a special interest for jazz and the blues. Hughes was notability one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance. His worked has not only shaped literature but help to change political views. Hughes loved being a “Negro” with a strong sense of racial pride. He’s written a lot of poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children's books, promoting racial equality, and condemned racism and injustice. He celebrated African American culture, humor, and spirituality. (Andrew, Foster and Harris) In the poem “Nego by Langston Hughes the speaker immediately identifies himself as a “Negro” and by doing so he shows the audience that he takes pride in being an A... ... middle of paper ... ...st buildings in the world at the time. The speaker refers to himself as a singer all the way from Africa to Georgia; he’s acknowledging the spirits of his ancestors. Although he carried sorrow because of oppression he still made time to cheer up and dance during ragtime. Even though he’s been victimize, hands cut off by the Belgians in the Congo he pressed on. He’s risen even with his self-esteem and spirits put to death back Mississippi. (Kirszner and Mandell) This poem represents the resiliency of the African American spirit, Although African Americans were enslaved, overworked and victimize the speaker is still proud to be a “Negro.” The speaker wanted to be the voice that represented all the unfair and injustice experience African American endured. Most importantly he wanted to end the poem they way he started the poem… Proud to be a “Negro.” .
Because of that, his writing seems to manifest a greater meaning. He is part of the African-American race that is expressed in his writing. He writes about how he is currently oppressed, but this does not diminish his hope and will to become the equal man. Because he speaks from the point of view of an oppressed African-American, the poem’s struggles and future changes seem to be of greater importance than they ordinarily would. The point of view of being the oppressed African American is clearly evident in Langston Hughes’s writing.
Pinckney, Darryl. “Black Identity in Langston Hughes.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, And Drama. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 3rd Compact ed. New York: Longman 2003. 772-773.
The Harlem Renaissance gave a voice to many gifted artists, writers, and poets. Perhaps, for the first time, people were using the arts on a broad scale to give national and international voice to the long-silenced personal and political struggles of America’s ethnic other, specifically the African-American. Among the many gifted poets of the movement, Langston Hughes is, easily, one of the most recognizable and influential. Although his poems are lyrically beautiful, many of them also admonish a mythologized, free America as little more than a quaint, and for many, wholly unattainable model. Two of Hughes’ best known works, “Let American Be America Again” and “I, Too” speak directly to the grotesque imbalance of freedoms and rights in the U.S.. Using a number of literary devices, Hughes creates poems that are as poetically striking as they are politically and socially defiant. Through precise word choice, metaphor, and physical structure, Hughes creates multi-dimensional speakers who address two separate and unequal audiences. In these anthem-like poems, the speakers expound on their overwhelming desire for equality, unity, and freedom by addressing the short-comings of a capitalist system that makes commodities out of oppressed individuals and populations. Hughes’s poems focus on the American dream, a fantasy that is off-limits to anyone on the wrong side of the color line or income gap; however, despite their scathing criticisms, a patriotic hopefulness resides at the core of these two poems.
James Nathaniel Langston Hughes has a very significant role in the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance, also called the New Negro Movement, was a literary movement of the African Americans in the 1920s and 1930s. Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902 and he is not only a poet, but he is also a social activist, playwright, and novelist. His works are mainly influenced by his life in Harlem and he is often considered as the “Poem Laureate of the Harlem Renaissance.” Also, Langston Hughes’ “literary works helped shape American literature and politics” (“Langston Hughes”). Some of his role during the Harlem Renaissance was to promote racial equality, celebrate the life of black people, and encourage his fellow African Americans.
Johnson, Patricia A., and Walter C. Farrell. "How Langston Hughes Used the Blues." Melus Oppression and Ethnic Literature 6.1 55-63. The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS). www.jstor.org. (1971):
During the early to mid-twentieth century Langston Hughes contributed vastly to a very significant cultural movement later to be named the “Harlem Renaissance.” At the time it was named the “New Negro Movement,” which involved African Americans in creating and expressing their words through literature and art. Hughes contributed in a variety of different aspects including plays, poems, short stories, novels and even jazz. He was even different from other notable black poets at the time in the way that he shared personal experiences rather than the ordinary everyday experiences of black America. His racial pride helped mold American politics and literature into what it is today.
His overall poem envisions a day in which black and whites will eat “at the table” together, as equal Americans with the same human and civil rights. His poem contains two major themes of patriotism and equality. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker declares that he too can “sing America”, meaning that the speaker has the right to openly feel patriotic towards the American country. Even though the speaker is a different, darker skin color, and is not allowed to sit at the table and has to eat in the kitchen, he should still be able to appreciate and celebrate the country he resides in. If he wanted to be patriotic, he argues that it’s unnecessary to care about race when there’s commonality in country and patriotic attitude. There’s a hopeful tone to this poem, as the speaker shows that African Americans are a valuable part in the American country and he foresees a future with a racially equal society. African Americans at the time, like Hughes, suffered from common racial segregation practices and were forced to face constant discrimination in their everyday lives, and with that, equality is the second theme that he addresses in this
The history of African American discrimination is a despicable part of the United States’ past. Inequality among Black Americans prompts these individuals to overcome the hardships. This endurance is valued by African Americans and people all around the world. However, the ability to strive and maintain positivity in a difficult or prejudiced situation proves to be tremendously challenging. When people give up in tough times, they deny their opportunity to succeed and grow stronger. This paper examines the techniques that manifest the struggles of racism and the importance of conquering obstacles in the following poems: Dream Deferred, I, Too and Mother to Son.
Hughes speaks about black oppression in a full range of representation. The blacks that Hughes focuses most of his writing on are the “most burdened and oppressed of the black underclass, and people who have the most reason to despair but show the least evidence of it” (Bloom, “Thematic Analysis of the ‘Weary Blues’” 14). He tells the story of their life and times to voice his displeasure with the oppression of blacks (“Langston Hughes” 792). His work opens the public’s eye about what it is like to be black in America (“Langston Hughes” 792). In Hughes’ short poem “Harlem,” the speaker of the poem questions how the African American dream of equal opportunity is being constantly deferred and suppressed by white society (Niemi 1). Hughes wants his work to illuminate the fact that blacks miss opportunities due to their oppression.
Within the works of Langston Hughes the theme of prejudiceness is portrayed in many pieces (Ed 2). Growing up as an African American boy there were situations where people prejudged him just because of his skin tone, of course the situations were hurtful, but it later on helped build a powerful story or poem (Ed 2). For this reason, Langston Hughes often narrowed in on the African American working class (Williams 2). Coupled with the African American working class, an individual 's race created a separation between people (Sundquist 2). The separation of individuals for no other reason but their skin tone infuriated Hughes and he took it to pen and paper to express the differences and opposing treatment of civilians (Sundquist 2). When it came to Langston Hughes the achievement of being the best was not his goal, rather it was to get his words across and let people relate or realize what he is telling. Along with the process of seeking awareness, Hughes worked with the categories “racial insights and national attitudes” (Emanuel 119). In addition to the way African Americans were treated, the chances of working and education were also unequal. The opening for a job tended to be much easier for a white citizen to get when being compared to someone with darker skin (MacNicholas 318). White citizens also believed they were superior and that African Americans were outsiders, therefore African Americans education wasn’t taken as seriously or wasn’t available to them (MacNicholas 318). Keeping the focus of racial prejudiceness in mind, Langston Hughes’ works pinpointed mainly cities and when being interviewed about what his goal in his writings is “Hughes replied “I explain and illuminate the Negro working condition in America. This applies to 90 percent of my work” (Emanuel 68-69). Langston Hughes, being an African
Langston Hughes, a remarkable and talented social activist, poet, and writer, displays the realistic internal struggles of African Americans through his writing. Hughes wrote during an era where social inequality weighed heavily on the American nation. Hughes was able to display the internal conflicts of frustrated African Americans, in regards to their goals and dreams, in his poem, “Harlem”. Utilizing poetic devices, Hughes is able to successfully display the emotional conflicts of the frustrations that African Americans faced in regards to their goals and dreams during the 1950’s.
The title of this paper was inspired by the famous black poet, Langston Hughes’, poem Negro, which is included in the book The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes’ works are world renowned classics years after the start of his career. Hughes’ works were very influential in the age of the Harlem Renaissance. They are some of the greatest and most eye-opening works of that time. The research undertaken in this paper will include some aspects of his personal life, educational background, important works, the difference in his writing styles and the achievements that he acquired during his career.
James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri (Otfinoski). His mother wrote poetry and his father wanted to be a lawyer, but he was rejected by an all-white examination board to take a bar exam (Otfinoski). When he was young, his parents separated and his father moved to Mexico to escape the racism, so Hughes “wandered from place to place” with his mother and grandmother (Otfinoski). His grandmother’s second husband, Hughes’s grandfather, Charles Harold Langston, was a committed abolitionist and Virginia’s first black congressman (Otfinoski). As Hughes grew up, his grandmother enrolled him at Harrison Street School, where he encountered his first experience with white people, and it taught him “not to hate all white people” (Otfinoski). Hughes tried to achieve his goal throughout high school and college, until he finally stumbled upon a major turning point in his life when he met a poet, Vachel Lindsay, as a “tall, black busboy” (Otfinoski). Hughes made...
For many years, African Americans were forced to live without a voice and many accepted the fact that they were seen as inferior to the white race. Although they were excluded from being a part of society, built up emotions constructed beautiful pieces of poetry that have become important aspects of today’s literature. Langston Hughes’, “ I Too, Sing America” and Claude Mckay’s, “The White House” will be looked at closely to determine how each poem portrays emotional discontent and conflicted emotional states.
Langston Hughes poems reflect the cultural expectation and limitation of being an African American in the mid 1900’s. Poems like “Harlem” and “dreams” reflect how the African American community too had dreams. But due their societal position, they were faced with a dilemma. The dilemma of going against the strong white opposing force or succumb and leave their dreams to “dry up like a raisin in the sun”.