Oppression of the Black Community as Depicted in Langston Hughes' Poem, Freedom Train The poem, "Freedom Train" not only demonstrates the state of oppression the black community faced in 1947 but uses historical events and movements of the era. Langston Hughes wrote this poem in response to the train called Freedom Train that carried historical documents across country on September 17, 1947. On board the train was the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and a draft of the Constitution. The reader gathers from the poem, the setting takes place in the South during the recent announcement of the Freedom Train's departure. The narrator is a black man who has just heard about the Freedom Train. Immediately a visual came to mind of …show more content…
He expresses throughout the poem so many questions and concerns regarding the Freedom Train. The main concern of the narrator is the true meaning of "freedom" behind the Freedom Train. He questions whether or not this freedom is meant for him or if it's the freedom of the white man. He says in stance thirty, "What shall I tell my children?...You tell me-Cause freedom ain't freedom when a man ain't free". Personally, I believe this to be most profound statement in the entire poem. From the narrator's perspective, a man isn't truly free if he doesn't have the same rights as a man with white skin. He continues to question who the Freedom Train is really coming for. Will the blacks be sincerely welcome on this train? He ask in stance twenty: "When it stops in Mississippi will it be made plain Everybody's got a right to board the Freedom Train? After reading the poem a few times, I concluded that the narrator really wants freedom for all, which will not happen unless there is racial equality. The statement made in stance fifty and sixty backs this idea up because he states: "For the Freedom Train will be yours and mine!", "Black men and white men will
Slowly she asked "Is anyone there?" as she walked down the dark deserted road. When she heard a loud sound she turned abruptly trying again "Hello?" Met with only silence she picked up here pace almost running down the dirt road. Her nerves had just began to calm when she heard "WRRRREEENNNNNRRRRRRR" as a chainsaw started behind her. Running she started looking behind her hoping that whoever it was, wouldn’t catch her. With her lack of concentration she tripped over her high heels and face plants into the dirt, giving the murderer a chance to catch up. Slowly he lowered the chainsaw and began cutting --CUT -- This is a common plot used in horror movies today. Movies have changed over the years. They were different five years ago, fifty years ago, and even a almost a century ago. Technologies have unthinkable things possible. They have allowed us to re-sink "the unsinkable ship." They have allowed us to see dinosaurs in all their brutal glory. We have seen imaginary creatures, only ever mentioned in stories brought to life. Movies have moved so far from the 1920's and 1930's. They have developed ideals, rules and even standards; but where did they begin? Did movies just fall out of the sky? Did they just come into being? No they began slowly, silently moving towards a new era, the era we today call "Pre-code Hollywood"
...ash, chemical spill and the advancing, life-threatening black cloud, simulated evacuation, drug dealings, dangerous side effects of the drugs, killings and sex, rampart consumerism, underground conspiracies and human-made disasters etc. Such topics represent the concept of zombie culture.
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.
Even though they seem unrealistic, zombies can be created and are realistic due to these several things that can happen in the brain that can cause a person to act like a them. Parasites and viruses can cause these things, however, viruses are the closest to realism due to how they can spread. Everything wrong with a zombie is likely caused by their brain because of the way they behave. However to understand all this you need to understand how viruses work.
The four poems by Langston Hughes, “Negro,” “Harlem,” “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” and “Theme for English B” are all powerful poems and moving poems! Taken all together they speak to the very founding of relations of whites and blacks all the way down through history. The speaker in the poem the, “Negro” and also, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” tells the tale of freedom and enslavement that his people have endured, and it heralds their wisdom and strength. The poems “Harlem” and “Theme for English B” speaks to the continuous unfair treatment that the blacks have received at the hands of white people throughout the years.
To conclude, Langston Hughes uses race in his poems as a way to break down the racial barriers that are placed on society. It is seen in his poem, Let America be America Again, that he doesn’t only want racial equality for African Americans but for all races. It is also important to point out that some of his poems use race as a way to describe the struggles of slaves or the oppression on slaves. He does this to provide an insight into how African American’s view slavery and how they feel about it. The poems that Hughes writes can relate to today’s time period as well as his, although racial issues aren’t as severe as they were in his time there are still issues in 2014 that can be made more equal to all races. A great thing about his poetry is that many of the poems that have a theme of race also result in a subsiding theme of h
Individuals may believe this new exposure of political debates and facts about the candidates would help the public make an educated decision of their president. However, all of that television has done is turn the presidential debates into a popularity contest. Elections were based on image, charm and how the networks wish to have the candidates perceived. Televisions’ contribution to political debates only emphasized personality, visual image and emotion rather than ideas, issues and reason.
Racism has been a problem in society for decades and even though people have taken stands for equality, racism is still present. People who felt on the outside during their life tried in any way to be heard since their own thoughts were valuable when taking steps closer to equality. Speeches, art, music, and literature were all valuable sources when African Americans spoke their minds. The Harlem Renaissance and personal experiences, being main inspirations, motivated Hughes to take new and creative approaches such as folk and jazz poetry. Langston Hughes was a voice that got across the unfair treatment and limited opportunities that many African Americans experienced throughout their lifetime.
In contrast to the zombie of the past, these new ones are born of a different circumstance. It is not always clear just what caused the zombie infestation, often not even being told within the story. The fact that more than just one person is a zombie is a large change. In modern media it is often portrayed that the main characters are part of the surviving few who aren’t zombies. This craze started in Ramiro’s “Dawn of the Dead”, having a group of survivors fight to live through a zombie attack. Zombies changed from normal people being controlled by dark magic to undead creatures, shambling around, looking for human flesh to devour. The fear inspired by them was not that they were a dangerous enemy, but that they were an endless horde, an inevitable demise.
Through the use of personification, Langston Hughes shows that learning is important is this story, the professor just teaches but langston is also teaching the professor that different races are equally important and that we are all the same. People in this time period were rude to black people back then then and they treated them like they were different, but Langston is trying to teach his professor that everyone is the same and know one deserves to be treated badly just from the color of their skin.”You are white--yet a part of me,as I am part of you. That's American”.This quote is langston saying that we are all the same and we are all american and nothing else is different. As a conclusion hughes was making a good point in the fact of
“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” (Martin Luther King Jr., “I had a dream speech”). Racism, a strong weapon used against equality. Langston Hughes portrayed his view of societal racism in poetry and songs. Quite a strong soldier in the war against prejudice, his train of thought was precisely what society needs, yet fears. Racism should be distinguished, but is as strong as ever. The end of its reign would enhance the ability of minorities in terms of jobs, societal acceptance, and life in general. Langston Hughes communicates his theme of racism and overcoming it through his use of Symbolism, Tone, and Anthropomorphism.
At first glance, modern zombie movie seem to be about the fear of disease. The zombie movies today feature the “infected” type of zombie being used as the most common, but what threat the zombies really show in the movies are not about the zombies infecting everyone, but the sheer numbers of them. Today’s biggest problem is overpopulation, people are reproducing so fast and so much that overcrowding is starting to appear. People are starting to leave the idea that the world is going to look like a desolate wasteland behind. Instead the end of the world is going to look like most zombie movies do, hordes of people mindlessly swarming everywhere. Even in the old zombie movies the fear that zombies represented was fear of the masses or mobs, than they were about disease, though that was part of it. People know that the world is overcrowded and it is almost like everyone is on their tiptoes waiting for a zombie-like disease to break out. The Scariest thing about zombies is that they mob you, when they attack. Again representing this fear of overpopulation for the modern ear, and the mindless mobs of the earlier
Pop culture always puts a spin on things, from modern art to the end of the world. Even though the concept of the zombie has become modernized and is now a large part of our culture, it’s really cool to learn where it all came from and where its roots in mythology actually began. We have all heard the modern day myth of the dead coming back to life and roaming the earth. But when we learn that the modern day concept came from myths created thousands of years ago have shaped the modern day culture that we live in it surprises everyone. The zombie has been a myth that is present in many cultures for thousands of years and will probably shape a modern myth of the future.
Zombies have established a hold on the people of the twenty-first century. There are books, movies, TV shows, and video games about zombies. AMC’s “The Walking Dead” is a TV show about a group of people trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. While fans of the show may already love zombies, some fans watch the show with little knowledge on what zombies really are. Matt Mogk’s “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies” is a book that is written to inform readers on everything they would want to know about zombies. According to Mogk, zombies need a new definition in the dictionary because the modern zombies are more than just corpses brought back to life through witchcraft. Mogk wrote the book for a wide audience, it was meant be interesting to fans of zombies, and informative to the general population while also educating people at the same time. While it is very difficult to write a book for such a large audience, Mogk effectively appealed to his wide audience through the use of evidence and analysis for everything about zombies.
There is very little left to the imagination when reading Langston Hughes "Freedom Train". His ideas of being free are apparent from the beginning of his poem. However, although he spells everything out, he still leaves a couple of things for his readers to figure out.