The Use of Laughter in Poetry by Langston Hughes
Jessie Fauset explains in her essay The Gift of Laughter that black comedy developed not as a method for blacks to make people laugh, but as a necessary emotional outlet for black people to express their struggles and hardships. The "funny man" took on a much more serious emotion than appeared on the surface level. Comedy was one of the few means black people had available to them to express themselves. The paradoxical definition of laughter is applicable to all human beings; the limited means of expression is unique to those in an inferior place in society, such as the black Americans of the Harlem Renaissance. In a sense, what makes the struggles represented by the black comedian comic is the white audience member's ability "to retain mastery over himself and the situation" (Swabey 184). The white audience can laugh at the struggles and hardships on stage because of their refusal to accept the role they have played in the oppressions that caused them. Marie Collins Swabey also writes in her book Comic Laughter that "By uncovering neglected hypocrisies, illusions, vanities, and deceptions in the behavior of persons and societies...while making us laugh, also removes in part our blindness with regard to certain factual and moral weaknesses in mankind" (11). Generally speaking, comedy makes us aware of certain character flaws. Fauset entertains this idea in her essay by wondering, "...if this picture of the black American as a living comic supplement has not been painted in order to camouflage the real feeling and knowledge of his white compatriot" (161). Whether or not the black comedy of the Harlem Renaissance caused an epiphany for the white audience is not cl...
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In my own experience leadership is not just about one person telling others what to do; it’s about more than just giving orders. It is about getting a group of people to work together towards a common goal with more than just the goal in mind. It is also not just about setting goals for the group but also setting personal goals for the individual, guiding and supporting them all
Langston Hughes was probably the most well-known literary force during the Harlem Renaissance. He was one of the first known black artists to stress a need for his contemporaries to embrace the black jazz culture of the 1920s, as well as the cultural roots in Africa and not-so-distant memory of enslavement in the United States. In formal aspects, Hughes was innovative in that other writers of the Harlem Renaissance stuck with existing literary conventions, while Hughes wrote several poems and stories inspired by the improvised, oral traditions of black culture (Baym, 2221). Proud of his cultural identity, but saddened and angry about racial injustice, the content of much of Hughes’ work is filled with conflict between simply doing as one is told as a black member of society and standing up for injustice and being proud of one’s identity. This relates to a common theme in many of Hughes’ poems: that dignity is something that has to be fought for by those who are held back by segregation, poverty, and racial bigotry.
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Using the above definition, in my humble opinion leaders are made not born. If one has the desire and willpower, they can become a leader. As stated by Warren Bennis in his book on becoming a leader, leaders develop through a never-ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience. It is therefore impossible to be born with all the leadership abilities. A leader can only become a good leader if he or she has the humility and the will power to understand he/her-self and transform to be able to have followers.
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Leadership is the ability of a person to influence other people to perform certain tasks or behave in a certain manner in order to achieve a certain goal. A good leader should thus assess the different situations to determine what approach to get desired things done. Effective leaders are not usually born; they are made. This means no one is automatically a leader even with formal authority; learning how to deal with followers is what makes an effective leader. Any organization or group requires good leadership to succeed in achieving its goals. Leaders play the role of unifying all efforts by different individuals towards a common goal. The ability to make followers willingly forego and drop their personal goals and interests for the attainment of the common organizational goals is a key skill which effective leaders must posses. Effective leadership means getting out the best from the followers.
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Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge in "Organizational Behavior", 12th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 2005, p. 407