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How Did Langston Hughes Influenced By The Harlem Renaissance?

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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 …show more content…

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

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