Langston Hughes Research Paper

The well known poet Langston Hughes was an inspiring character during the Harlem Renaissance to provide a push for the black communities to fight for the rights they deserved. Hughes wrote his poetry to deliver important messages and provide support to the movements. When he was at a young age a teacher introduced him to poets Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, and they inspired him to start his own. Being a “darker brother,” as he called blacks, he experienced and wanted his rights, and that inspired him. Although literary critics felt that Langston Hughes portrayed an unattractive view of black life, the poems demonstrate reality. Hughes used the Blues and Jazz to add effect to his work as well as his extravagant word use and literary

This freedom of expression offered by poetry has changed literature as a whole and affected whole communities, such as that of Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance. Langston Hughes’s upbringing in a family that valued and preserved their black culture, influenced his poetry and the way he gave a voice to the struggles and racial oppression of the black people.

Langston Hughes is regarded as one of the most significant American authors of the twentieth century. Foremost a poet, he was the first African-American to earn a living solely from his writings after he became established. Over a forty-year career beginning in the 1920s until his death in 1967, Hughes produced poetry, plays, novels, and a variety of nonfiction. He is perhaps best known for his creation of the fictional character, Jesse B. Semple, which first appeared in a Chicago Defender newspaper column in 1943. Hughes’ writings focused mainly on the lives of plain black people and show their beauty, wisdom, and strength to overcome social and economic injustice.

Cleanliness was a main symptom of Hughes's OCD. Every time Hughes would wash his hands in public, he had to use his own black soap that was kept with him at all times. He would wash his hands for a lengthy period, sometimes to the extent of bleeding from applied pressure. After washing hands, touching the door was not an option, either the door would be opened with a towel or somebody else had to open the door. Another cleanliness related symptom was food and how it was cooked. When Hughes attended a family dinner at his girlfriend's house, the steak was served rare. Hughes would poke the steak with his fork, yet refused to eat it. When Hughes was invited to eat dinner at the Senators house, brook trout was the main dish, a bite was taken,

James Langston Hughes, Joplin, 1902 - New York, 1967 an American writer. He was one of the greatest exponents of the Renaissance Harlem in the twenties and later, the chief representative of the Afro-American culture, which took him not only one of his most brilliant poets but a tireless protagonist and promoter . Through his writings and public appearances he had as main objective the social and civil progress of the black population of the United States. He spent his childhood in Kansas with his maternal grandmother. He lived for a short time with his father in Mexico, but left him because of this disregard for his own race. He traveled by sea and played junior in France and Italy work before making its appearance on the literary scene in Harlem, where he published between 1921 and 1925, in the

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

Langston Hughes was born on February 1st 1902 in Joplin Missouri. His parents divorced while Langston was still young and his father moved to Mexico shortly after. His mother remarried he was taken in by his Grandmother. He was raised up until the age 13 by her. Months after his 13th birthday, Langston moved in with his mother and her husband in Lincoln, Illinois. The family then decided to settle in Cleveland, Ohio. He finished his schooling and graduated from Cleveland High School.

The majority of undergraduates it maybe suggested view the achievement of gaining a First Class Honours Degree as the pinnacle of their academic career. Progression to their chosen industry career follows and it is hoped that through their academic endeavours prospective employers will view their achievement as giving them an advantage over other applicants. However, for others - while the sense of achievement is no less - academia is regarded as their career choice and gaining a First Class Honours Degree furnishes them with the tool that allows progress within their chosen academic field.

Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. Hughes was African American, American-Indian, and Caucasian. Hughes had lived in the Heartland of America until he went to visit his father in Mexico to escape Jim Crow. He made his first book about poems in 1926 called “The Weary Blues”. He was a student at Lincoln University which is where he won the Witter Bynner undergraduate poetry prize in 1929, and graduated that same year. Like all, Hughes suffered from The Great Depression in the early 1930’s and had to find a better paying job. This is when he decided that he would make a living out of writing poems. So in the South, he had organized a public reading which later allowed him to travel around the world. He was traveling because he was making a movie during that time but it had never been produced. Most of his poems that he had made reflected protest and hope. Hughes’s father was in a different

Langston Hughes was an author and poet born on February 1, 1902. Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri and grew up with his mother and grandmother. Langston’s biological mother and father separated shortly after he was born. When he finished elementary school Hughes and his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he graduated in 1920. While he was in high school, he was known as an active kid. He received “an athletic letter in track and held offices in the student council and [as well as the] American Civic Association.” (Hugo, Victor. “Langston Hughes Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2008, www.notablebiographies.com/Ho-Jo/Hughes-Langston.html.) While in high school his passion for poetry started to grow. He was inspired by the poet

The poem “Harlem” by the famous Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes, possesses many different types of figurative language, as well as an emotional reflective tone. In the poem, Hughes questions what becomes of a dream that is put away or delayed, and now wants to know what becomes of the dream is taken over by outside forces? He contemplates that these forgotten dreams could dry, fester, stink, crust, or explode. It is not a very lengthy poem, but it is truly an emotional one with a powerful question longing to be answered. In “Harlem”, Hughes illustrates how “dreams deferred” both punctures and frustrates the American spirit.

Langston Hughes is regarded as one of the "most eloquent of American poets to have sung the wounds of political injustice." While some of his poetry can be classified as non-racial most of it can be categorized as literature of protest. Hughes background and personal beliefs were quite influential in his writing and it is reflected in his tremendous discontent for the "white man's world." Three of his works that that display this feeling and similar theme include "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "Porter," and "Refugee in America."

Furthermore, the first six lines of the poem illustrates how hard the mother’s life was. “It’s had tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor- bare” (Hughes). The mother is talking about her life in this lines and how rough it was, her life has been hard, she had challenges and obstruction in life. She has faced lots of challenges in life and that is why she advises her son, she uses her life as an example in order to let her son know that life is not always going to be easy as she compares her life to a staircase and talks about the obstacles she had to go through as she continued to climb the stairs everyday so that her life could become better. She says, “I’se been a-climbin’ on, and reaching’ Landin’s, and turning’ corners, and sometimes going’ in the dark where there ain’t been no light” (Hughes).

Throughout many of Langston Hughes' poetry, there seems to be a very strong theme of racism. Poems such as "Ballad of the Landlord", "I, Too", and "Dinner Guest: Me" are some good examples of that theme.

On February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri, Carrie and James Hughes had a child by the name James Mercer Langston Hughes. Little did Carrie and James know, their baby boy would one day be a famous american poet, author, playwright, and would play a pivotal role in the Harlem Renaissance. He left a huge impact in the world of american literature, more specifically African American literature. By studding Hughes personal experiences and major life events one can see how he incorporated topics, such as racial inequality, and the illegitimate opportunity structure for America's youth, in his works that seemed to be simple stories or poems.