Langston Hughes Influences

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Introduction
Many writers are influenced by people they idolize, and they are influenced in a positive way. Langston Hughes was differently influenced. Many may think that he was influenced by other African American writers, but he actually was not. According to a biography of Langston Hughes, “He was inversely influenced by his father-- who, frustrated by being the object of scorn in his native land, rejected his own people” (“Langston Hughes” Web). He was not influenced by other African American writers, as believed by many. He was possibly influenced in the opposition of his father’s beliefs. His father did not get along well with his own race while Langston was totally different. He got along with his people, and actually wrote poems about …show more content…

O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home— For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came To build a “homeland of the free.”
(Hughes).
Hughes quotes “homeland of the free” because he doesn’t believe it is the homeland of the free, as America is believed to be by many. He also showed what he, and his ancestors had to give up in order to build this thing that never became a reality. Hughes talks about a very big topics in current events throughout most of his poems, and students will most likely enjoy that aspect of his writing. …show more content…

His poems often include words that point to jazz music, and also has topics that are important at the moment explained in his point of view. According to Robert O’Brien Hokanson, “It could be argued that no other African-American writer is quite so central to an understanding of how jazz dynamics might operate in poetry....” (Web). As a result of his music-themed poetry, students will most likely be intrigued to read more works of his, and hopefully enjoy the works. They will also most likely experimentally listen to jazz music because how it is used in his poetry, and will try to connect the music to his

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