Brittney Sterling
Professor Christine Warrington
English 102
18 November 2014
Topic: How was African American writer Langston Hughes influenced by the Harlem Renaissance?
Langston Hughes once said, “We Negro Writes, just by being black, have been on the blacklist all our lives. Censorship for us begins at the color line.” To me I believe his writing was expressing African Americans in his time. Many of them felt just by the color of their skin, they had to be constantly aware of their survival, rights and freedom to express themselves through their abilities. When I’m writing, I often take from my surroundings, my research sources, my life experiences or the experiences of others. All of which together as one form my writer’s style. I believe Langston Hughes used illustrative words and
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In the poem “Harlem”, Hughes expresses the overall position of African Americans during the 1900's. America, which is known as the “land of opportunity”, where dreams are suppose to come true; was not the case for African Americans during that time. Even though they we’re obviously "free," poverty, racism and other social injustices still existed; making it difficult and also impossible to actually reach those dreams—therefore, their dreams had been "deferred". In this poem Hughes really expresses the frustration of African Americans at that time, and allows me to relate buy giving me reactions of having my opportunities in life possibly robbed from me. The poem raises various questions to me like what happens to our dreams if we put them on hold? Do we give up? Do we become angry? Do we become complacent? To me, the last line is very powerful, because it indicates the fact that people can only be held down so long before they revolt, rebel or even
Langston Hughes is a well-known African-American writer who emerged from the Harlem Renaissance, which is also known as the turning point for African-American culture and literature. Because he is identified as such a prominent writer, he became honored as “Shakespeare of Harlem.” At an early age, Hughes wished to voice and represent his African-American culture through writing. Because Hughes had a range of styles and genres, he managed to write and publish sixteen volumes of poetry, ten collections of short fiction, two novels, two volumes of autobiography, nine books for children, and over a dozen works for the stage. His remarkable works are based on the rhythms of African-American music that combine elements from the old and new worlds of America. In his poetry, he expresses racial pride to African-American literature during enslavement, and he reveals the self-respect and inner strengths of blacks during the twentieth century. In his autobiography Hughes states that the folk stories he heard from his mentor and grandmother greatly influenced him as a writer. Hughes was also extremely passionate about the blues, and he was one of the few to take it as achievements and expressions of black culture. His desire for the blues acted as a stimulus to the productive reaction that makes his collections so influential.
Langston Hughes was a successful African-American poet of the Harlem renaissance in the 20th century. Hughes' had a simple and cultured writing style. "Harlem" is filled with rhythm, jazz, blues, imagery, and evokes vivid images within the mind. The poem focuses on what could happen to deferred dreams. Hughes' aim is to make it clear that if you postpone your dreams you might not get another chance to attain it--so take those dreams and run. Each question associates with negative effects of deferred dreams. The imagery from the poem causes the reader to be pulled in by the writer's words.
Langston Hughes is an extremely successful and well known black writer who emerged from the Harlem Renaissance (“Langston Hughes” 792). He is recognized for his poetry and like many other writers from the Harlem Renaissance, lived most of his life outside of Harlem (“Langston Hughes” 792). His personal experiences and opinions inspire his writing intricately. Unlike other writers of his time, Hughes expresses his discontent with black oppression and focuses on the hardships of his people. Hughes’ heartfelt concern for his people’s struggle evokes the reader’s emotion. His appreciation for black music and culture is evident in his work as well. Langston Hughes is a complex poet whose profound works provide insight into all aspects of black
Hughes wrote a series of history texts” (Brucker 5). Determined to earn his living as a writer and further his education, “Hughes used a Rosenwald Fund grant to tour black colleges in the South” (Brucker 5). After traveling and expanding his knowledge, Langston became a famous poet all around the world. One big task Langston faced while writing was deciding if he would “strive to represent his race in poetry, and be a self-consciously black poet, or would he reject a racial poetic identity” (Wasley 3). Langston overcame complications and worries like the one above by being observant and developing an ear for superior instruction.
Langston Hughes’ short poetry is popular work with so much on it in the media, but so much of it has only been vaguely analyzed. This analysis is one of thousands, but from a much different point of view. “Harlem” by Langston Hughes presents analogies based on his and his people's’ life struggles, which can be interpreted using historical context clues, and he uses powerful symbolism, as well as uses a theme very common in poetry.
Langston Hughes was a poet with many artistic abilities. His writing and drawings established the lifestyles of many African Americans during this time. In a poem called “I, Too” Hughes express his feelings as an African American, a brother, and someone who deserves to fit in society. He states “I, too sing America” (1039). Hughes saw himself as an individual who has a voice in America even though his skin is a little darker. In a poem called “Democracy” Hughes states: “I have as much right as the other fellow has to stand on my own two feet and own the land” (1043). Hughes was speaking for every African American whom were still dealing with segregation, racism, and freedom.
Langston Hughes is by fare the most important writers of the Harlem Renaissance which was the artistic movement of African Americans in the 1920's that celebrated African American life and culture in New York. Hughes's creative genius was influenced by his life in New York City's Harlem, a primarily African American neighborhood. Like other active members of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes had a strong sense of racial pride and through his poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children's books; he promoted equality, condemned racism and injustice, and celebrated African American culture. Most of his poems were influential during this time period.in this essay, I will be talking about five of Langton Hughes famous poems that speak of race, segregation and the effects it has on African Americans. “Theme for English B”, “The Negro speaks of river”, “I Too”, "I Look at the World", and “ Merry- Go- Round.” In his poetry Langston Hughes uses jazz and Black folk rhythms in his work, ignoring classical forms in favor of the oral and improvisational traditions of the Black culture. To fully understand the poems of Langston Hughes, you must first understand his background. As an black African American and arguable the best writer during the Harlem renaissance, who wrote about the ignorance of race and segregation.
When reading poetry, it can often be difficult to interpret the exact meaning of the poem the author was trying to transmit. A reader must learn to construe a poem without getting confused on what the author was trying to convey. We must scrutinize the work so that we may understand it better. In Langston Hughes “Harlem,” to analyze what this poem is trying to interpret we must understand line for line. The poem has eleven lines and all but one is asking a question. In each line except line seven, the last syllable stressed. Six of the seven sentences in the poem are questions. All of the sentences except the first and the last contain similes using like. Line three rhymes with line five; line six rhymes with line eight; line ten rhymes with line eleven. Lines four, seven, and eleven begin with or. Lines three, eight, and ten begin with like. The narrator is asking these questions to have the reader envision the lurid analogies to evoke the illusion of a postponed dream. One must also uncover the hidden meanings that stated in this poem. Written in 1951, Harlem addresses one of the most common themes of the time, inadequacies of the American Dreams of African Americans.
Langston Hughes is a well-known African American poet that was around during the Harlem Renaissance. Growing up, he understood that, at the time, living in America was very different if you were an African American or a white person. African Americans were being discriminated against and are being oppressed. Hughes believed that African Americans deserved equality, and he showed this through his poems. The characters presented in these four poems know of their difficulties – from racism to poverty and everything in between.
But what of those who cannot escape the shoulds? What of those who let go of their dreams and let them drift away? In his poem, “Harlem,” Langston Hughes explores the repression of a much more difficult aspiration, the reality of the black American Dream in the 1950’s. Hughes focuses on bringing a tangible image to his audience.
One of Hughes most famous poems, “Harlem(Dream Deferred)” had a great impact by posing lots of questioning. According to critic Tom Hanson, this poem is just that simple because it gives a bunch of undesirable answers to the same question, “What happens to a dream deferred?” Hanson also says how this poem refers almost completely to an unsolved problem (Hanson, Harlem). The poem gives four rather unpleasant interrogatives and one declarative answer followed by the sixth possibility, “Or does it explode?” which is supposed to be a question to make a reader really think. There are several ways to interpret the meaning of the final line, and the most sensible explanation is, the African American community is “deferring dreams” and in doing so their dreams explode in terms of the chance to act is gone. Some may say Hughes presented an unattractive view
In a time of great violence, great racial intolerance, injustice, and inequality in America at the time the writing of this poem was a real turning point as you see here Hughes addressed the point quickly by “Very quickly, very directly, Hughes moved beyond anger and resentment to expose the isolation that was the real tragedy of the mulatto in a racist society (Gale 2003). Also Hughes found and recognized when he was young were and why all this racism was happening here he says how he found out : “As Hughes developed his portrayal of the black lower classes and their ghetto environment, he became more and more preoccupied with the question of the Negro's racial identity. Hughes had begun his search for the meaning of the racial experience in America shortly after he graduated from high school (Gale 2003). In his first mature poem, "A Negros peaks of Rivers," he found an analogy between the river that flowed through his native Midwest and the ancient rivers that watered the lands where his race was born (Gale 2003). Even when the Blacks had no voice or any type of glow in the predominantly white society his voice and his poem somehow became the voice of all Blacks and the unofficial leader in the Harlem Renaissance he also backs this quote up by saying “African civilizations, and an "I" who speaks for the race, Hughes argues for the depth, wisdom, and endurance of the African soul (Gale 2003).
In his poem, “Harlem” this issue is addressed. He wonders what happens to dreams that are postponed. He feels that how long one must still dream of something that seems like it will never come. The African American people have been waiting to be seen as equal for several years, yet it still seems as though it will not happen. In “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” a young Negro poet said, “I want to be a poet-not a Negro poet.”[6] It also describes how many middle class blacks tried to be more like a “white” person. To disown their heritage in a way and become part of white America, which wasn’t right. He talks about how they should learn to appreciate their diversity and their culture. The
Mr. Hughes, an African American poet, played an important role during the early twenties and thirties due to segregation. As his poetry portrayed the lifestyles of African men and women he eventually promoted the ideal message that African Americans were just the same as the whites that deserved to live the American Dream just as everyone else. In addition to this, Mr. Hughes’s poems represent the idealistic thoughts about these African Americans versus the actual situations they have to face to be realistic in order to reach what is to believe the “American Dream.” Regarding that the whites would immediately judge others by the color of their race rejecting the rights they wanted from the whites when all along African Americans were just as similar to the whites and strived for the same goal as everyone else not caring what race they were from. With that being said, Hughes made a huge impact towards the movement in his writings creating conflict and true experiences in his life he had to face that can relate to every African American born into the segregation era.
The entire Harlem is trademarked the structure of talk. The speaker of the verse is a dull-skilled worker. Diminished individuals were given the fantasies of noteworthy worth and correspondence. In any case, these fantasies never worked out. Despite credible, political and social accord to cross out the politically-supported racial separation, dull individuals could never encounter the unpredictable culture. In different universes, their fantasy never worked out obviously. Blacks are guaranteed longs for esteem, opportunity, strange quality, yet not satisfied. They are surrendered, yielded and conceded. Just a promissory note had been given however was never been brought into reality (Harden and Jackson, 2012). Through this poem of praise Langston Hughes looks conceivable and impacts were made by the fantasy, when they are continually yielded. Right when the fantasies are continually surrendered, or when dreams are perpetually put off and yielded