Life and Work of Langston Hughes Essay

While Hughes attended grammar school in Lincoln, he was elected class poet. Pretty impressive at as Black Student to be recognized with something like that. Hughes stated that in retrospect he thought it was because of the stereotype that African Americans have rhythm. What some didn't know is that Hughes was a victim of stereotype. In his English teacher class Hughes and another nergo were the only two in the classroom, plus the teacher always pointed out how rhythm is important in their culture. So since Hughes knew that all negro had rhythm that's why the whole class elected him poet. But if think about it. That moment in class lead him to man he is today written poems to view what African American went through in those

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

Hughes was a great writer with much diversity in his types of writings. His poetry was a way for us to see a picture of urban life during the Harlem Renaissance, the habits, attitudes, and feelings of his oppressed people. These poems did more than reveal the pain of poverty, it also illustrated racial pride and dignity. “His main concern was the uplift of his people, whose strengths, resiliency, courage, and humor he wanted to record as part of the general American experience” (Wikipedia, Langston Hughes). Hughes was not ashamed of his heritage and his main theme, “black is beautiful,” was expressed and shared to the world through his poetry. During the literary movement, music was central to the cultural movement of the Harlem Renaissance, which was a main feature of Hughes’s poetry. He had an important technical influence by his emphasis on folk, jazz, and blues rhythms as the basis of his poetry of racial pride. Hughes used this unique style of writing because it was important to him to have the readers feel and experience what they were reading, “to recognize the covert rhetoric in lyric means to appreciate the overlap between emotive and discursive poetry. Rooted in song, the lyric reestablishes the ritual of human communion” (Miller 52).

The upper-class blacks shunned the lower class viewing them as being “embarrassingly vulgar” (Dickinson 323). Overcoming African-American prejudice was a major focus in most of Hughes’ writing. For example, he wrote about the joys, sorrows and hopes of the black man in America (Dickinson 321). Not all of his writings were so encouraging however. Other themes Hughes wrote about include lynchings, rapes, discrimination, and Jim Crow Laws. He commented that when he felt bad, he wrote a great deal of poetry; when he was happy, he didn’t write any (Dickinson 321).

     In order for a person to really understand how Mr. Hughes’s life shaped his poetry, one must know all about his background. In this paper, I will write a short biography of Hughes’s life and tell how this helped accent his

Novelist and critic Carl Van Vetchen helped Hughes to get his first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, published by Knopf. As shown in The Weary Blues, Hughes addresses the life of urban blacks. In this book, he becomes among one of the first poets to use jazz rhythm. In 1927, Hughes published his second volume of poetry, Fine Clothes to the Jew. Also in 1927, Hughes graduated form Lincoln and earned his Bachelor of the Arts (B.A.) degree. In 1940, Hughes published his autobiography of his life so far, twenty-eight years, The Big Sea. He focuses on his role in the Harlem Renaissance, and his life in

In 1922 Hughes left Columbia University after having taken only a few classes. He moved to Harlem, part of upper Manhattan near the Columbia campus, in November 1924. Harlem was becoming famous for its rich environment for the flowering arts. In 1925 Hughes won first prize in a magazine contest with "Weary Blues," which gained him the attention of many of the writers we now think of as members of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes published his first book of poems, The Weary Blues, in 1926. The work, though early, is signature in many ways, including its fusion of blues and jazz rhythms with people, especially the musicality of the ordinary daily speech of the African-American dialects.

Shortly after his arrival in the City, Hughes sought a position as a page at the Library of Congress, but Washington’s black leaders were unsuccessful in landing him this choice position. Hughes accepted an advertising job at the black weekly, the Washington Sentinel, but quit the paper shortly after because of poor pay. He then took a job at a laundromat. During his leisure hours, he spent time on 7th Street, NW where ordinary black people lived. Along the storefronts, he observed them eating barbecue and fish sandwiches. Seventh Street residents were poor but cherished life. They shot pool and told many tall tales. Here, Hughes saw something else of interest. People sang and played the blues. Although the songs were happy or

Also “While working as a busboy at the Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C., he gave three of his poems to Vachel Lindsay, a famous critic, and through his praise of his works was able to get Hughes an even larger audience” (Hill 26). Vachel publicized that he had discovered a new black poet, and Hughes earlier work began to be published in magazines and organized into his first book of poetry (Biography). In Hughes earl years as a writer, the fact that he could not make enough money to support himself created a feeling of depression deep inside of him. This depression and all the criticism that he faced, because of his race, gave him the inspiration and motivation to continue to write and become successful.

“James Mercer Langston Hughes, known as Langston Hughes was born February 2, 1902 in Missouri, to Carrie Hughes and James Hughes.” Years later his parents separated. Langston’s father moved to Mexico and became very successful, as his for mother, she moved frequently to find better jobs. As a child growing up Langston spent most of his childhood living with his grandmother named Mary Langston in Lawrence, Kansas. Mary Langston was a learned women and a participant in the civil rights Movement. When Langston Hughes was 12 years old his grandmother passed away. Langston then moved in with his mother and stepfather Homer Clark. A few months later, Langston’s mother sent him to live with her mother’s friend “Auntie” and Mr. Reed. In 1915

Langston Hughes is one of the major African American literary figures of the twentieth century. His composition involves poetry, fiction, the short story, autobiography, and criticism. The greater part of Hughes' written work focuses on the account of the black man in America; his delights, distresses, and expectations. The story is told with a sadness for the occasions that have oppressed him however with a feeling of positive thinking for the better world that Hughes knows will come sometime in the not so distant future. Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, on Feb. 1, 1902, and grew up with relatives and family in Lawrence, Kansas, following his parents’ divorce. Be that as it may, he learned lessons in perseverance and pride from his grandma; the stories she told were loaded with deference for the Negro race and for individuals who worked, conspired, and battled. From this experience, as Hughes said in his auto-account, he took in the futility of crying. In 1915, Hughes rejoined his mom in Lincoln, Illinois, where he was chosen class artist in the language structure school. The respect was presented, as Hughes clarifies, because white individuals think Negroes have mood and since a sonnet has cadence, Negroes must have the capacity to compose verse. The next year Hughes moved to Cleveland, where his stepfather worked in the steel factories and his mom functioned as a server. Here Hughes composed lyrics in the way of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Carl Sandburg and contributed

Within the 1920s to the mid- 1930s, the Harlem Renaissance kindled a new Black cultural identity for African Americans that was known for its literary, artistic, and intellectual movement (History, 1). During this time the cultural concentration had brought numerous African Americans “writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars” to display their talent freely (Wormser,1). Many of these individuals had come from the South, escaping the caste system against them in hopes that they could freely express who they were (Wormser, 1). There were many noteworthy individuals during this time such as “Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen and Arna Bontemps” to name a few (Wormser, 1). Langston Hughes poems gives an illusion of simplicity, but in reality it is more than it appears to be. In which he speaks through his poems making Blacks the forefront, but speaking to everyone as a whole.

Born February 1, 1902 in Joplin Missouri, Langston Hughes was a prominent poet during the 1920s in Harlem, New York. Hughes’ childhood consisted of troubling times including his parent’s divorce and the effect it caused. Moving around, he grew up in different Midwestern towns, the longest lasting one being his grandmother’s home in Lawrence, Kansas, where he moved to after the divorce. His father moved to avoid racial segregation and it wasn’t until later that he restored their relationship. During his stay at his grandmother’s, his love of literature blossomed due to the isolation and loneliness of the town as well as pride of his African roots which were instilled into him by his grandma.

Langston Hughes was a man of wisdom and an inspirational writer who wrote mainly about the black man in America. He was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri “He mainly wrote poetry, fiction, short story, autobiography, and criticism” (Dickson). His famous poem was “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” which he wrote at the age of 18. He made many poems that still live forever. He was a black poet who wanted to express what was going on Americans. His main mission was to get his message across . poetry gave him the opportunity to do that However, there are many differences and similarities in the poem “Negro”, and “the Negro speaks of rivers”, in how Hughes discusses blacks’ pain and suffering, pride in their heritage, and contribution to civilization.

Politics can be the graveyard of the poet. And only poetry can be his resurrection. Dubbed the laureate of Harlem, Langston Hughes through his literary works had played a critical role in recognising and capturing the authenticity of the African American experience. The opening quote echoes Hughes internal turbulence that had plagued his artistic career, as he was attempting to disseminate if art was a form of poetry or political propaganda during this cultural outburst known as the Harlem Renascence. This paper shall examine the poetic writings of Hughes as a primary source to explore the realistic portrayals of African American culture, encapsulating their passions for recognition and cultural individuality as well as their ongoing sufferings. The two poems by Hughes, one being The Weary Blues 1926, and the other Montage of a Dream Differed 1951, can be used simultaneously to explore the conflicting depictions of Harlem, as being either a cultural hub during the renaissance or the existence of a ramshackle ghetto hidden under the mists of this boisterous period Ultimately, this gives rise to the issue of Harlem renaissance artists roles; as either being social protestors with their aim to meld within mainstream culture, or as the path that Hughes was travelling down, which embraced the freedom of expression in staying true to African American ideals.