The Ravene By Langston Hughes

The short story Volar by Judith Ortiz Cofer, and the poem Harlem by Langston Hughes share a common theme which is the elusive American dream, thus, compared to a pot of gold for migrants. There are several ideas that pertain to elusive American dream of both the short story and the poem. First, in Volar, a family migrated from Puerto Rico to New Jersey to seek opportunities and better life conditions. Similarly, in Harlem, it speaks about African-Americans who migrated from the South to the North for better working conditions. Secondly, in Volar, the reality of how hard to attain the American dream is evident as the story described the living conditions in their tiny apartment. In a like manner, the poem Harlem expresses the devastation in the truth that American dream of African-Americans is unattainable. Lastly, both the short story and the poem have a message of hardship contrary to their expectations once settled in the place of what they thought to be the end of the rainbow.

My people is one of Langston Hughes’ poems which is about working class black African American people. In this poem, he compared the beauty of nature to the beauty of his people. My people is a very short poem, built in three stanzas which consist of two lines in each stanza. This poem was written in simple language, therefore, the readers can easily understand what he is trying to convey. I believe, beneath its simple words, this poem depicts the beauty of working class black African American people that go beyond the beauty of physical appearance.

Edgar Allan Poe was highly criticized throughout his life whether it was for his high achievements or his downfalls; he always seemed to be talked about. Poe was born in January 19, 1809; his mother died shortly after being abandoned by his father leaving him and his brothers’ orphans at an early age. Poe was taken by John and Francis Allan. With the help of his foster parents he was later able to attend the University of Virginia where he studied French, Spanish, Italian, and Latin, and had an excellent scholastic record. He soon was not able to pay for tuition and started gambling and drinking. His foster father would not pay his “debts of

The two poems “White Lies” by Natasha Trethewey and “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes were written to express racial dilemmas that the authors went through. Thematically, they represent the American Dream. In “White Lies” we see that Trethewey went through some racial identity issues. She felt as if she had to lie to blend in with the rest of the whites, which was easy for her because she was mixed. To understand the full meaning of this poem, one assumes that Trethewey was the product of an interracial marriage. This type of thing was frowned upon during the time she grew up. In the poem “Theme for English B” Hughes seems to accept the fact that he is different. Hughes does not seem to have a problem with expressing his difference. He looks at as his individuality and strives to let everyone know that he is proud of who he is. The two poems have many similarities and differences.

When researching the phrase “self-awareness”, one definition seems to be very common. That is, “an awareness of one's own personality or individuality”(Merriam Webster). One day the class was put to the task of coming up with our own definition of self-awareness, and I had completely drawn a blank, and could not seem to come up with anything. After class, that assignment really intrigued me, and I wanted to think what self-awareness meant to me. Some time had passed but it finally came to me; to me, self awareness is when someone knows their worth as a person, as well as knowing where they stand in society. It is when they realize who they are, how they got to be where they are, where they belong, and they are conscious of their feelings. All throughout multiple works by Langston Hughes, multiple characters’ success at achieving self-awareness is evident through different quotations.

The death of a loved one leaves a void in a person. The narrator of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe experiences this void after the loss of his love Lenore. The narrator is isolated from the world until a raven appears before him. The events and dialogue that follow are what makes The Raven such a legendary piece of literature. The gothic poem The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe is an example of repetition and shift.

“I swear to the Lord I still can 't see Why Democracy means Everybody but me..” This is a quote from a well-known poet by the name of Langston Hughes who served as a prominent figure in African American history and is known for maintaining a significant role in one of the most culturally influential periods for African Americans -The Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance describes a significant era in time where hundreds or artists, writers and musicians living in Harlem came together to form a vibrant, creative community. Hughes along with many other talented and innovative African American creators and politicians such as Marcus Garvey, Zora Neal Hurston and Jean Toomer used their voices, words, instruments and paint brushes from

The most important idea I have learned about this semester has to be about segregation of the blacks. This topic struck my interest because have you ever thought about how it would be if they were still treated as poorly as they were during these times? Well the person that was in this chapter was Langston Hughes, which was a poet that wrote about the black community and what they struggled with in their everyday lives. He would even compare the lives of African Americans to the lives of the whites. During the times of his poems, slavery was over but the mistreating of the blacks wasn’t. Hughes talked about the dream the African Americans had and how the whites were putting it off. As this chapter continued, we learned about a man named Martin Luther King Jr. He was a man that always stuck to what he believed in and never gave into the thoughts of other people. He uses his “I Have a Dream” speech to show how he felt about this problem they were having. In this speech he repeats “I have a Dream” many times to let the reader know that this is his main goal for the black community. He wants the blacks to be free and have the freedoms the whites have on a daily basis. He says “I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as

Langston Hughes’ poem Theme for English B, and Alice Walker’s essay In the Closet of the Soul, although written from different views, can be linked by equality and identity. They are fighting for a world, in which, the set of characteristics a person possess would not affect their status, rights, or opportunities. The following will give reason for the connection between Hughes’ poem and Walker’s essay.

Many people often dislike hearing scary noises in a desolated place where there is no one around. Any noise can be very frightful to the mind and to the heart. Our mind can sometimes create an image that does not exist and would essentially make anybody go crazy at the moment of hearing those scary noises. Edgar’s Poem, “The Raven’’, basically tells the story of a man that has lost everything including his beloved wife who he misses very much to the point of having hallucinations of the wind calling her name “Lenore“. He experiences realism and fantasy with a raven that shows up in his chamber door. The person in the story appears to be alone in his house and depressed about the loss of his wife Lenore. Then, standing at the chamber door, a raven will respond to the narrator’s arguments with the word “Nevermore” making the story more allusive and suspenseful as it develops. Each time, the raven becomes more mysterious and it is scary to hear the raven say the word “nevermore”.

“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” This poem, Harlem, created a whole play based on one line (Hughes, 1055-1056). Langston Hughes wrote the poem Harlem due to his major role in the Harlem Renaissance. A Raisin in the Sun was concocted by Hughes one line, this play tells the story of an African American family living in the slums during a time when racial dilemmas were at an all time high. The family receives money from Mama’s husband passing away, but the family has disputes on how the money should be spent (Hansberry, 443-512). Throughout the play the title has significance by Hughes poem Harlem, African American lives in the 1950s, and the different dreams of the family members.

In Langston Hughes’ Harlem Renaissance poem “The Weary Blues,” a man remembers the night he heard a soulful blues player in the streets of Harlem. In the first five lines, Langston depicts a beautiful night with passionate music in the air. The speaker is recalling the night he was “down on Lenox Avenue” and heard a “Negro play[ing]” (5, 6). In the poem Hughes “recaptures the […] experience” to demonstrate “the power of blues” on the speaker and the blues player himself (Bouchard). Beginning in line 13, Hughes illustrates the movement of the man.

n the discussions of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven,” one issue has been the explanation of the bird and it’s presence in the poem. Majority agrees that the feathered creature does have a symbolic meaning of the conscious mind of the speaker in the poem. The agreement usually ends with how we communicate with our selves. Some focus more on who or what a person is talking to with their conscious while others direct their attention to how we can better understand our conscious conversations with our selves.

The main character is Ella she is the other twin, Ella has changed tremendously throughout the course of the novel. Ella is a good student, she makes very good grades and she passes all her AP classes. Ella doesn’t go out and party like her sister, she doesn’t have a boyfriend like her sister, she’s a very artistic individual. Ella changes through the novel whenever her and Maddy get into an accident that Ella caused. Ella’s life is then changed forever when an ambulance asks her for her name and while she is being asked she is looking at her dead sister “Maddy” being taken away. As she is being taken off Ella says her name Maddy and the ambulance then thinks her name is Maddy. Ella was so shaken that she couldn’t disagree with the ambulance.

The theme in “Life is Fine,” by Langston Hughes is that we can not simply give life away, we should cherish it. This theme is proven in multiple ways in the poem. The first example is when Hughes is at the river and tries to take his life twice but he “came up once and hollered!/ I came up twice and cried!/ If that water hadn’t a-been so cold/