Comparing The Negro Artist And The Racial Mountain

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

Langston Hughes was the leading voice of African American people in his time, speaking through his poetry to represent blacks. His Influence through his poems are seen widely not just by blacks but by those who enjoy poetry in other races and social classes. Hughes poems, Harlem, The Negro speaks of rivers, Theme for English B, and Negro are great examples of his output for the racial inequality between the blacks and whites. The relationship between whites and blacks are rooted in America's history for the good and the bad. Hughes poems bring the history at large and present them in a proud manner. The injustice that blacks face because of their history of once being in bondage is something they are constantly reminded and ridiculed for but must overcome and bring to light that the thoughts of slavery and inequality will be a lesson and something to remember for a different future where that kind of prejudice is not found so widely.

“The history for Blacks in America starts at slavery,” the further I ponder this statement from my friend Joe, a navy veteran, the more I do not believe it to be true. Today many Blacks in America do not remember stories of their African heritage. Although, they may not know their African history, it does exist, and they did originate from Africa. So, their history does not start at slavery. In a recorded interview, Langston Hughes says he wrote the poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” in 1920, after he completed high school. Hughes also credits his source of inspiration to the Mississippi river which he passed, while on the train, to visit his father in Mexico. He acknowledged what the Mississippi symbolized to Negro people and how it was linked

Langston Hughes was known for his poems of black activity in America since the 1920’s to the 1960’s, which was the time of the Harlem Renaissance. “My writing has been largely concerned with the depicting of Negro life in America.” Throughout Langston’s life he has seen and experienced racism. He used these experiences to give him ideas of things he could write about. Back then white people were the majority in Harlem, but then once the blacks started to come they dispersed. “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too.” Langston knew that blacks should express themselves no matter what color they are and not be ashamed of it. Some white people may like that they are expressing themselves, on the other hand, some white people may not accept that the

The Negros Art Hokum and The Negros Artist and the Racial Mountain are well-known article written by George S. Schuyler and Langston Hughes and both of the articles were published in 1926. George Schuyler and Langston Hughes both argue about Negros art in their article. George Schuyler argues that Negro art doesn’t exist on his article The Negro Art Hokum, while Langston Hughes disagrees with Schuyler’s article and writes a response to his article and argues that everyone has right to be them self and everyone has their own beauty.

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural and social movement that occurred due to black migration to the north increasing the social and economic boom. Langston Hughes is one of the influential African Americans that contributed to the Harlem Renaissance, by writing about events and his surroundings, his work was able to help struggling African Americans. Langston Hughes was born in February 1, in 1902 in Missouri. He began writing poetry while living in Lincoln, Illinois and years later he launched his literary career with his poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”. Most of his writings were influenced by his upbringing in New York City’s Harlem, which was a predominantly black community.

James Mercer Langston Hughes also was known as Langston Hughes, is an American writer who was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance and made the African American experience the subject of his writings, which ranged from poetry and plays to novels and newspaper columns. That same year, he received the Witter Bynner Undergraduate Poetry Award, and he published The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain in The Nation, a manifesto in which he called for a confident, uniquely black literature: We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. By the time Hughes received his degree in 1929, he had helped launch the influential magazine Fire!!, in 1926, and he had also published a second collection of poetry, Fine Clothes to the Jew, which was criticized by some for its title and for its

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

The Harlem Renaissance was a time where creativity flourished throughout the African American community. At the time many African Americans were treated as second class citizens. The Harlem Renaissance acted as artistic and cultural outlet for the African-American community. The Harlem Renaissance, otherwise known as “The New Negro Movement” was an unexpected outburst of creative activity among African Americans In the poems Harlem by Langston Hughes, America by Claude McKay, and Incident by Countee Cullen all use frustration and hope as reoccurring themes to help empower the African-American population and realize the injustices they face day to day. The Harlem Renaissance was a period marked by great change and forever altered the

From the 1920’s to the mid 1930’s a literary, intellectual, and artistic movement occurred that kindled the African Americans a new cultural identity. This movement became known as the Harlem Renaissance, which is also known as the “New Negro Movement”. With this movement, African Americans sought out to challenge the “Negro” stereotype that they had received from others while developing innovation and great cultural activity. The Harlem Renaissance became an artistic explosion in the creative arts. Thus, many African Americans turned to writing, art, music, and theatrics to express their selves.

In Langston Hughes' poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", he examines some of the roles that blacks have played throughout history. Ultimately, the poem asserts that in every one of these aspects the black people have been exploited and made to suffer, mostly at the hands of white people. The poem is written entirely in first person, so there is a very personal tone, even though the speaker symbolizes the entire black race. The examples of each role cited in the poem are very specific, but they allude to greater indignities, relying on the readers' general knowledge of world history. To convey the injustice that has taken place, Hughes utilizes the symbolism of the

Hughes story, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”, veers away from the conventions of Du Bois’s essay as rather than focusing on the value of black art as a key in social movements, it involves black artists who would rather neglect their blackness and rather took on the culture of whites. The speaker claims he enjoys being white more than being an African American, and Hughes describes this as “the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America-this urge within the race towards whiteness…”. Much like Du Bois, Hughes writes about the “beauty” of Negro art, and aims to uplift the appeal of negro language and culture as he examines African American artists who stayed true to their roots and culture whose works are amongst those that are still heavily praised even decades later.

“The Harlem Renaissance was a time where the Afro-American came of age; he became self-assertive and racially conscious… he proclaimed himself to be a man and deserving respect. Those Afro-Americans who were part of that time period saw themselves as principals in that moment of transformation from old to new” (Huggins 3). African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers to seek better lives than in the South as the northern economy was booming and industrial jobs were numerous. This movement brought new ideas and talents that shifted the culture forever. Black writers, such as Langston Hughes, used their work to claim a place for themselves and to demand self-respect in society. Poems that Langston Hughes wrote captured the essence of the complexity of a life that mixes joy and frustration of black American life through the incorporation of jazz and blues in order to examine the paradox of being black in mostly white America, the land of the not quite free.

In Langston Hughes’ “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” used rivers to describe African American people and I agree he described them to be equal, using metaphors, similes, and allusions. Langston Hughes wrote this poem in 1921 when racial issues between Caucasian and African American people were a significant problem. The poem is written in “free verse” and uses anaphora to give the reader the effect that he is the one telling the poem. The poem gives the reader the understanding that African American people have been around for as long as Caucasian people and are equally intelligent. The rivers give us a great meaning to the history of African American people and the narrator has known their struggle. There is a feeling of death towards the end of the poem. This gives the reader the impression that we are still struggling to be equal and it has withered him until his death.

The Harlem Renaissance sought to revitalize African American culture with a focus on arts and literature and creating socioeconomic opportunities (Harlem Renaissance). This temporal setting, predominantly the influence of the Harlem Renaissance, of Hughes’s life explains the purpose of Hughes’s writing: to express the oppression of African Americans and the imperfections of Hughes’s America and to heighten African American morale during his life through his writing.