Compare And Contrast Langston Hughes And African Americans

During the early 1930s many black writers begin to produce works that helped to shape and define the Civil Rights movement. Among them was Langston Hughes whose poems and writing contributed directly to the rhetoric of the day and inspired many African-Americans, both in and out of the Civil Rights movement. Much of this grew out of what was called the Harlem Renaissance, which emerged during turbulent times for the world, the United States, and black Americans. World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 had left the world in disorder and stimulated anti-colonial movements throughout the third world. In America, twenty years of progressive reform ended with the red scare, race riots, and isolationism throughout 1919 and led to

Both Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman are regarded as some of the finest poets in a long list of excellent American poets. Hughes, a poet during the Harlem Renaissance era of American poetry, often wrote of the struggles of African Americans in his poetry. A common theme of Harlem Renaissance poetry was discussing the struggles and advancements of African Americans in terms of social justice. Walt Whitman wrote his poetry in the period of transition from transcendentalism and realism. His works can be seen to incorporate elements of both styles. Walt Whitman was also a humanist, and this can also be readily seen in his many works. Both Langston Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again” and Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” tackle the idea of oneself within a larger collective group. However, Hughes speaks from the African American viewpoint at the time. Hughes relies on more specific imagery, while Whitman incorporates imagery that is more generalized. Each of the authors uses imagery in similar yet individually effective ways, covers a similar theme with respective viewpoints, and uses different tones to cover how an individual effectively fits into a collective.

Langston Hughes was one of the first black men to express the spirit of blues and jazz

Claude McKay and Langston Hughes were both prominent African American Men in the Harlem Renaissance of the early 1900s. As such, they have received their fair share of the racism prevalent during this time period. Their concerns with this issue are addressed in McKay’s “America” and Hughes’ “I, Too, Sing America.” Both poets show disregard for the treatment they receive but still desire for an America in which African American prejudice does not exist. However, McKay conveys his vision of a bleak, foreboding fate for blacks while Hughes displays his confidence that America will have a hopeful future in which he is treated as an equal.

I am that girl in the back of the room who will never be described as an outgoing individual. My presence does not come off as that of the most popular kid. I can walk into a room and no one will notice I am there. I was an average kid in high school: I got decent grades, watched the same shows as my peers, celebrated the same holidays, etc. I seemed to fit in on the outside that which makes me different was unnoticeable. Both Langston Hughes and I are different from our peers, we are considered outsiders. Hughes is considered an outsider because of his race. I was an outsider because of my legal status and lack of social security number. Hughes’ status as an outsider is made evident through his daily route to from school. My status as an outsider was evident through the process of applying for college.

during this time he quickly became a part of the Harlem Renaissance. Four years later,

    The 1920’s is known as the pop culture era that lead to changes within America’s popular culture caused by the growth of new ideas. Many artists, writers and musicians thrived during this era. For example Langston Hughes, a reputable poet from the 1920’s that described not only the hardships of African Americans during this time but also the inequality that divided blacks from whites in the 1900’s. Langston Hughes contributed to Harlem Renaissance which gave a voice to those who have experience in songs, writing, and plays within the African American community. The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic movement that promoted a new African American cultural identity in which political, social, and cultural aspects advanced in the city of Harlem.

Langston Hughes’ “I, too America” and Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s “Learning to Love America” are both poems that happen to describe their American experience and finding their sense of personal identity. The diction of both poems not only helps describe the transitioning of Hughes and Lim’s lives but also helps the reader get a feel and understand the tone as well. If we were to discuss the similarities and differences in tone of the two poems, we would find that in “Learning to Love” there is an explanation on why Lim should love America. While the speaker in “I, too” already loves America he just has to get America to love him.

Langston Hughes inspired others to reach their true potential in their work by using their own life as a catalyst:

Langston Hughes was one of the most significant writers and scholars of the Harlem Renaissance, which was the African American artistic movement in the 1920s that celebrated black life and culture. Hughes's creative brilliance was swayed by his life in New York City's Harlem, a mainly African American region. His historical works helped form American literature and politics. Hughes just like others active in the Harlem Renaissance had a robust sense of racial vanity. Through his poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children's books, he endorsed equality, convicted racism and prejudice, and celebrated African American principles, humor, and holiness. Hughes took a diverse and flamboyant background to his writing. Before he was twelve years old he had lived in six different American cities. When his first book was published, he had already been a truck farmer, cook, waiter, college graduate,

When African American slaves were released from slavery following the American Civil War, the ethnic group was now able to control their own lives, and the U.S had to acknowledge their freedoms and rights as American citizens. However, despite bold beliefs from the war, many white Americans still continued to deny equality to those of color. In addition, African Americans had not expressed their true potential as a cultural and ethnic group. Many years of growing racial tension revolving around civil rights and segregation passed before laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1965 heavily limited the segregation and racism of the country (Alvah). However, this period of hostility helped develop the African American society into a wide, more approachable culture with variety. The Harlem Renaissance, a period of cultural growth and popularity of the African American culture, showcased the different talents and traits African Americans valued as a community. More importantly, it allowed African Americans to express their struggles and desires for acceptance as American citizens. One poet, Langston Hughes, used his poetry to help define and develop this cultural era, and show the various identities of the African American society. Langston Hughes displayed the unprecedented identities of African Americans in the early 20th century by embodying the

In many countries, marital rape either remains outside the criminal law, or is illegal but widely tolerated. Marital rape in the United States law, also known as spousal rape, is nonconsensual sex in which the perpetrator is the victim's spouse. Racism is a discrimination directed against someone of a different race. Freedom is hard to have in some places, therefore marital rape and race issues are similar because neither have the amount of closer needed.

There is no doubt World War I was tragic occasion in the history of the world as well as for the literary area. The war’s life-threatening violence leads to express its concern and impacts through interwar period and reappeared during the twentieth century. The poem appeals a strong image on the roots through the veins, rivers, trees and provides a sense of object permanence readers. In addition, through their use of language and images, the writer is able to generate two meanings, which are deep roots like trees in the historical as well as roots in familial sense. This has begun to realize the complexity of the poem through these images, details and obvious statement theme larger than simply the river or human veins in African history, which are thrived alongside rivers through, gave life and indorsed human veins and secure historic origins.

According to Biography, James Mercer Langston Hughes is considered to be an African American poet who is college educated and comes from a middle-class family (Langston Hughes Biography). He attended college in New York City and became influential during the Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes Biography). Although Hughes was a talented writer, he faced some challenges early on and it was stated that his “early work was roundly criticized by many black intellectuals for portraying what they thought to be an unattractive view of black life” (Langston Hughes. American Poet). They believed that his work helps the spread the stereotypes of African Americans. “Hughes, more than any other black poet or writer, recorded faithfully the nuances of black life and its frustrations” (Langston Hughes. American Poet). Langston Hughes’s poems “The Negro Mother”, “Let America be America Again” and “The Weary Blues” were influenced by his life during the Harlem Renaissance and the racial inequality experienced in the late 1920s through the 1960s.

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement and the enlightenment of black minds as a whole. This movement sparked the minds of many leaders such as Marcus Garvey, W.E.B Dubois, and Langston Hughes, these men would also come to be known as the earliest Civil Rights activists. While Garvey and Dubois expressed their views in speeches and rallies Hughes had a different approach and chose to articulate his thoughts and views through literature more specifically poetry. Through his poetry, Hughes became a world renown poet for such works as “Let America Be America Again”, “Harlem” and “I Too” taken from his first book “The Weary Blues.” These poems while written and inspired by the everyday struggles of being an African-American were arguably targeted at white Americans. Hughes wrote a majority of his work during the Harlem Renaissance and as a result focused on “injustice” and “change” in the hopes that society would recognize their mistake and reconcile, but in order for this to happen he would have to target the right audience.