Langston Hughes Experiences to Poetry

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Langston Hughes is a famous poet from the 1900’s. “[He] is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance” (“Biography”). Langston’s life experiences with discrimination against blacks, own ethnic background, poverty, and dreaming of peace contributed to the making of countless poems.
Hughes was born in a time where black individuals did not have the same rights as white people. This struggle with discrimination contributed to several of Hughes poems such as “Democracy” where he talks about wanting freedom just as the white people have (“Democracy” 20-21). He states that democracy won’t come soon enough, and he can’t keep waiting until he’s dead (“Democracy” 1-14). Hughes strongly dreams of having the same rights and freedom as everyone else.
Hughes struggled with the fact that his parents were both mixed raced. Both his mother and father were half white and half black (“Langston”). This made Hughes mixed raced just as his mother and father, but he struggled to find himself because he wasn’t fully white or black.
Langston Hughes did not have a good relationship with his father (“Biography”). Hughes’s father hated black people even though he was of mixed race and was partially black himself. He hated his own people. He saw his black half to be shameful, and he wanted to be seen as completely white.
“Hughes's mother came from a distinguished family of respected black educators and activists” (“Langston”). She was not ashamed of her ethnicity to be a person of color. She left Hughes with his maternal grandmother so she could find work. His grandmother was his main caretaker from that point on, and as she raised him she talked about and instilled a lifelong sense of racial pride within Hughes (“Biography”).
This diff...

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...And joy, like a pearl, / Attends the needs of all mankind- / Of such I dream, my world!” (“I Dream A World” 13-16). Hughes says that everyone will be happier in he’s dream world.

Works Cited

“Langston Hughes: Childhood.” Langston Hughes. Shmoop University, 2014. Web. 1 Apr. 2014 < http://www.shmoop.com/langston-hughes/childhood.html>.
“Biography of Langston Hughes” PoemHunter.com. N/A, 1 Apr. 2014. Web. 1 Apr. 2014 .
Hughes, Langston. “Democracy.” PoemHunter.com. PoemHunter.Com, n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2014 .
Hughes, Langston. “Cross.” PoemHunter.com. PoemHunter.Com, n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2014 .
Hughes, Langston. “Brass Spittoons.” PoemHunter.com. PoemHunter.Com, n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2014 .

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