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Bibliography essay on langston hughes
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Influences of the Harlem Renaissance
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Langston Hughes was a large influence on the African-American population of America. Some of the ways he did this was how his poetry influenced Martin Luther King Jr. and the Harlem Renaissance. These caused the civil rights movement that resulted in African-Americans getting the rights that they deserved in the United States. Hughes was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was young and his grandmother raised him. She got him into literature and education; she was one of the most important influences on him. He moved around a lot when he was young, due to his parents divorce, but remained a good student and graduated high school. After this he traveled the world and worked in different places, all the things he saw in his travels influenced him. In 1924 he settled down in Harlem where he became one of the important figures in the Harlem Renaissance. He enjoyed listening to blues and jazz in clubs while he wrote his poetry. The music that he enjoyed greatly influenced the style and rhythm of his poetry. The poem “Dream Variations” by Hughes is about an average African-American who dreams of a world where African-Americans are not looked at or treated differently and they can rest peacefully. Yet in real life this was not so, black people and white people were not equal. And the world was not as forgiving and nice as in their dream. This poem is a good example of Hughes writing because it is typical of three things. The first is the common theme of the average life of an African-American and their struggles. Secondly, the style of his writing which is based on the rhythm of jazz and blues- he uses a lot of imagery and similes. Lastly, his influences which are his lonely childhood and growing up as an Afric... ... middle of paper ... ...Academy of American Poets, 1997. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. . Campbell, Mrs. "What Literary Elements Does Langston Hughes Frequently Use? - Homework Help - ENotes.com." Enotes.com. Enotes.com, 28 Apr. 2009. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. . "Langston Hughes – Dream Variations." Poetry Genius. Poetry Genius, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. . "Langston Hughes." Scholastic Teachers. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. . Rampersad, Arnold. "Hughes's Life and Career--by Arnold Rampersad." Hughes's Life and Career--by Arnold Rampersad. Oxford University Press, 1997. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. .
Langston Hughes- Pessimism Thesis Statement: In the poems “Weary Blues”, “Song for a Dark Girl” and “Harlem” the author Langston Hughes uses the theme of pessimism through the loss of faith, dreams and hope. First, one can look at the theme of pessimism and the correlation to the loss of faith. One can see that in “Song for a Dark Girl” an African American girl is sadden by the loss of her love. For this young and innocent girl to have to lose someone she loved so young.
Dream Variations, also by Langston Hughes, is a strong poem that conveys his cultural identity. In this poem, Hughes uses the light and dark hours of the day to represent the cultures of white and black people. Hughes says, “To fling my arms wide in some place of the sun. To whirl and to dance till the white day is done. Then rest at cool evening beneath a tall tree while night comes on gently, Dark like me-That is my dream!” Hughes compares the daytime to the white man 's work day and correlates the night to himself and his race. This poem clearly conveys Hughes cultural
Poetry was a big part of the Harlem Renaissance, especially black poetry. Poetry helped people get their emotions out and provided an outlet for many new and old African-Americans, and for Africans just arriving in the United States in Harlem. The Renaissance was filled with great poets including the great Langston Hughes. Hughes is the author of his own book The Weary Blues and the writer of the poems Not without Laughter and The Way of the White Folks. He believed in the beauty of the Africans, as stated on Shmoop “Hughes knew that black was beautiful.” He won the Harlem gold medal for literature for his literary work and helped shape the artists of the Harlem Renaissances contributions to the movement. Hughes was also the founder of three theaters meant as outlets for black actors and dramatists. The names of these theaters are the New Negro Theater, Langston Hughes Preforming Arts, and Black Arts (“Langston Hughes Founded Theaters”). Langston Hughes was a very popular and
... a recurring theme of the dream of equality. Hughes composed many poems and plays during the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Era, and his legacy continues to be evident throughout American culture. His words inspired many, and showcased the plight of African-Americans in that era. Hughes’ impact was memorable because he lead African-Americans into writing, much like other distinguished African-American authors of the Harlem Renaissance period. His voice was heard above most other authors of the 1920’s and 30’s, and he expressed his wishes for improved treatment of the black race and the eradication of segregation in the United States with lyrical, thought-provoking poetry and symbolic dramas. Hughes inspired many writers and social activists after him, and continues to be a prominent figure in the general and literary achievements in African-American history.
Langston Hughes (James Mercer Langston Hughes) was a poet, columnist, dramatist, essayist, lyricist, and novelist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry. Hughes, like others, was active in the Harlem Renaissance, and he had a strong sense of racial pride. Through his poem, novels, short stories, plays, and kids books, he promoted equality, condemned racism, and injustice, and celebrated African American culture, and humor. (Illinois).
Langston Hughes (1902-1967) absorbed America. In doing so, he wrote about many issues critical to his time period, including The Renaissance, The Depression, World War II, the civil rights movement, the Black Power movement, Jazz, Blues, and Spirituality. Just as Hughes absorbed America, America absorbed the black poet in just about the only way its mindset allowed it to: by absorbing a black writer with all of the patronizing self-consciousness that that entails.
Langston Hughes (1902-1967), one of the most prominent figures in the world of Harlem, has come to be an African American poet as well as a legend of a variety of fields such as music, children's literature and journalism. Through his poetry, plays, short stories, novels, autobiographies, children's books, newspaper columns, Negro histories, edited anthologies, and other works, Hughes is considered a voice of the African-American people and a prime example of the magnificence of the Harlem Renaissance who promoted equality, condemned racism and injustice that the Negro society endured, and left behind a precious literary and enduring legacy for the future generations. In an endeavor to explore why and to what extent his poetry has still been read and used in modern days, I've found no African American writer has ever been an extreme inspiration to all audiences of every ethnic society as much as Langston Hughes was. More than 30 years after his death, the works of Hughes continue to appear, extensively used in the world of literature, education, filming and music, and is still relevant as an evidence of his nationwide and worldwide popularity in the present days.
“I dream a world where… love will bless the earth and peace its paths adorn.” -- Langston Hughes
During the 1920's and 30’s, America went through a period of astonishing artistic creativity, the majority of which was concentrated in one neighborhood of New York City, Harlem. The creators of this period of growth in the arts were African-American writers and other artists. Langston Hughes is considered to be one of the most influential writers of the period know as the Harlem Renaissance. With the use of blues and jazz Hughes managed to express a range of different themes all revolving around the Negro. He played a major role in the Harlem Renaissance, helping to create and express black culture. He also wrote of political views and ideas, racial inequality and his opinion on religion. I believe that Langston Hughes’ poetry helps to capture the era know as the Harlem Renaissance.
During his lifetime, he was known as "the poet laureate of Harlem." What this meant, is that he was worthy of honor and he excelled in poetry. In addition, he worked as a journalist, dramatist, essayist, novelist, playwright, lyricist, and children's author during his life. This man’s name is Langston Hughes, however his full name is James Langston Hughes.
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. The poems “Visitors to the Black Belt”, “Note on Commercial Theatre”, “Democracy”, and “Theme for English B” by Hughes all illustrate the theme of staying true to one’s cultural identity and refusing to compromise it despite the constant daily struggle it meant to be black in an Anglo centric society.
Langston Hughes was one of the first black men to express the spirit of blues and jazz
Hughes, who claimed Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman as his primary influences, is particularly known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties. He wrote novels, short stories and plays, as well as poetry, and is also known for his engagement with the world of jazz and the influence it had on his writing, as in "Montage of a Dream Deferred." His life and work were enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Unlike other notable black poets of the period—Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, and Countee Cullen—Hughes refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience of black America. He wanted to tell the stories of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language itself.
Langston Hughes is regarded as one of the most significant American authors of the twentieth century. Foremost a poet, he was the first African-American to earn a living solely from his writings after he became established. Over a forty-year career beginning in the 1920s until his death in 1967, Hughes produced poetry, plays, novels, and a variety of nonfiction. He is perhaps best known for his creation of the fictional character, Jesse B. Semple, which first appeared in a Chicago Defender newspaper column in 1943. Hughes’ writings focused mainly on the lives of plain black people and show their beauty, wisdom, and strength to overcome social and economic injustice.
Langston Hughes was an influential leader toward many African American men, woman, and children in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Langston Hughes may not be as well-known for the civil rights movement as Martin Luther King Jr. was, but Hughes was capable of placing an everlasting impact on black culture during this period of civil rights unrest in the United States. Martin Luther King Jr. was an advocate for allowing the rights of African American people to have the same privileges and opportunities as the whites did, similarly, Langston Hughes portrayed this desire for social change through his writings and other works. He played an immeasurable role in the Harlem Renaissance period, and was looked up to by many writers as a voice to their own experiences. Hughes used everyday people and their everyday life struggles as a theme in his writings in order to touch the readers he had acquired. It is said that Langston Hughes was known as a legacy when it came to inspiring others to express themselves artistically. This legacy included: singing, writing, painting, or drawing. Langston Hughes was a master artistically, and enjoyed showing his passion for the arts to his fellow people. Langston was well known for the way he used art as motivation for social change in the United States. Langston Hughes focused many of his poems of the importance of African Americans, their culture, and the emotion blacks felt during the age of racism in the United State...