a very unique way of describing the different types of people who inhabit the city of Harlem. Because of his unique style this poem is "known widely and cherished among blacks for . . . [its] special insight into the African American condition" (Rampersad 200). Something that adds to Hughes's uniqueness is his "almost ruthless exclusion of extraneous embellishments, resulting in a lean, spare, and uncluttered style" (Jemie 220). Another reason that Hughes has stayed so popular is that his work

Poetry Project at the University of Kansas , Hughes reached that level of prominence because all his works appeal to audiences of all generations, races and nations, and interest in his work cuts across socioeconomic lines. With the same idea, Arnold Rampersad, Langston Hughes biographer and cognizant dean of humanities at Stanford University, wrote in The Collected Works of Langston Hughes : “These volume of the work of Langston Hughes are to be published with the same goal that Hughes pursued throughout

it has been agreed by many academics and biographers that Hughes was homosexual and included gay codes into many of his poems, as did Walt Whitman, whose work Hughes cited as an influence, most directly in the short story “Blessed Assurance.”. Arnold Rampersad, Hughes’ principal biographer, wrote: “Hughes found some young men, especially dark-skinned men, appealing and sexually fascinating. (Both in his various artistic representations, in fiction especially…) Virile young men of very dark complexion

Analysis of Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes Dreams are the driving force of America today. Every person has some sort of dreams and or goals. Although in life everyone has dreams and goals, there are obviously more struggles for some ethnic groups than for others. The poem, "Dream Deferred," by Langston Hughes, is one man's expression of his dreams during a difficult time period. As a black man in a time period where African-Americans were considered an inferior group of people,dreams and

Ralph Waldo Ellison was born on March 1, 1914 in Oklahoma City Oklahoma. Growing up Ellison loved to read and write due to the perhaps DNA inheritance of his father who liked to read so much he couldn’t wait to read his next saga. Ellison’s mother had a passion for bringing home books and magazines from houses she cleaned, at her one of many jobs she had to make end meet as single mother/widowed. Soon after his father died from a work related accident. Ellison was only three years old and his mother

In a house with five people, everyone has different dreams. With a ten thousand dollar life insurance check on its way, which dream will come true? Due to so many different dreams and ideas, tensions are high in the Younger household. Everyone wants he money to go towards their dream. Along with the power to crush a dream, Mama has the power to choose whose dream will "dry up like a raisin in the sun" (Hughes 2-3). Mama has the power to choose if she will honor what her husband, Big Walter, wanted

but relatable: in order to overcome the hurdles of life, a person must possess courage and determination. Works Cited "The Poetry of Langston Hughes." SIRS Renaissance. 19 May 2004: n.p. SIRS Renaissance. Web. 6 Mar 2012. Bass, Ramona and Arnold Rampersad ed. The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. 1. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2001. Print. ---. The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. 3. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2001. Print. Grimes, Linda Sue.

NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984. Margolies, Edward. The Art of Richard Wright. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1969. Miller, Eugene E. Voice of a Native Son: The Poetics of Richard Wright. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990. Rampersad, Arnold, ed. Richard Wright: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995.

This is a discussion of the lives and times of Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison; three Black, American writers whose individual as well as collective literary influence helped to shape the face of this great nation. Though separately unique, these three men shared a number of commonalities. This discussion will explore their individual literary success and themes. It will also expose how each of their early backgrounds affected the writings of this intellectually large, pioneering

Ellison had an “inveterate suspicion of sociology,” Rampersad reports. “To him, sociology typically reduces, compresses, and distorts knowledge. Intrinsically it lacked what it claimed to possess, a capacity for deep human understanding.” (429) (Cain 2) During those times white people had an inclination to