The United States : Paragon Of Postmodernism Or Prematurely

The Harlem Renaissance was like a dream come true for many African American writers. Even though there were several obstacles designed to hinder their progress, these pioneers diligently pressed forward, gaining their independence from what was expected of them and creating a world that allowed them to artistically express their African American pride. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was the torch that symbolized the beginning of change within the black community, the Harlem Renaissance was the gasoline that set the entire community in a blaze of glory. In this essay, I am going to discuss African American literature before and during the Harlem Renaissance and the impact Langston Hughes had on African American literature after the Harlem Renaissance.

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 one of the great writers of his time. He was named the “most renowned African American poet of the 20th century” (McLaren). Through his writing he made many contributions to following generations by writing about African American issues in creative ways including the use of blues and jazz. Langston Hughes captured the scene of Harlem life in the early 20th century significantly influencing American Literature. He once explained that his writing was an attempt to “explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America” (Daniel 760). To fulfill this task, he wrote 15 volumes of poetry, six novels, three books, 11 plays, and a variety of non-fiction work (Daniel 760). He also edited over 50 books in his time (McKay).

The Harlem Renaissance is an important time in American literature. There were writers at this time like Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes wrote many poems such as the “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “The Weary Blues.”

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.

That shows that even though the past may have not been the best, people can get the chance to redeem themselves. Langston Hughes articulates the belief that African Americans should not be ashamed of their heritage, and that they are just as American and righteous as any other American(Doc. B). Charles Lindbergh, due to his humility and his technological, appealed to traditional and contemporary values. Therefore he was able to at least temporarily bridge the 1920s cultural gap(Doc. C). The cultural gap was also closed by the Harlem Renaissance, which was the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that thook place after WWI in Harlem. Harlem was a cultural center, drawing black writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars. Jazz music, first thought of as unsophisticated, became extremely intelligent, and sparked up new beginnings and hopes(Doc.

The Harlem Renaissance was a time of great commotion spanning the 1920s, also known as the “New Negro Movement.” One of the more well-known movers and shakers of the Harlem Renaissance is Langston Hughes. He amongst other artist brought new forms of black cultural expressions into urban areas that had been affected by The Great Migration. Harlem was the largest area affected by said Great Migration. Though the Harlem Renaissance was centered in Harlem the power and strength contained in the words of artist such as Langston Hughes reached Paris and even the Caribbean. Langston Hughes was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance movement. His vast amounts of work are what brought attention to the struggles and realities of the time

Langston Hughes was a successful African-American poet of the Harlem renaissance in the 20th century. Hughes' had a simple and cultured writing style. "Harlem" is filled with rhythm, jazz, blues, imagery, and evokes vivid images within the mind. The poem focuses on what could happen to deferred dreams. Hughes' aim is to make it clear that if you postpone your dreams you might not get another chance to attain it--so take those dreams and run. Each question associates with negative effects of deferred dreams. The imagery from the poem causes the reader to be pulled in by the writer's words.

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

Langston Hughes was an American poet whose African American themes made him an important contributor to the Harlem Renaissance. In his poems, “I, Too” and “Dream Variations” Hughes expresses his feelings about racial segregation and discrimination during his lifetime. The Harlem Renaissance was a period of poor treatment and hope of African Americans in the 1920’s; Langston’s poems tell his story and opinion on this certain time of his life.

Jazz was a flourishing art form that Hughes often liked to write about. It is easy to see why most of his poems of this period (1921-1930) would be festive and cheerful. Unfortunately, the party didn¹t last into the next decade and the country fell into a deep depression. The period between 1931 and 1940 was a dark period for Hughes, and for African-Americans in general. On top of the financial difficulties the depression brought, widespread racism re-surfaced in the North. The celebration in Harlem was replaced by angry whites who were anxious to put blame on someone for their troubles. ³White Man² is a direct attack on the white man¹s violations against the African-Americans. Like the earlier poem ³Harlem Night Club,² it is a fast-paced, dynamic piece. However, its tone reflects pure anger and frustration. ³White Man! White Man! / Let Louis Armstrong play it­ / And you copyright it / And make the money. / You¹re the smart guy, White Man! / You got everything!² Its intensity makes the reader frantic just from reading it. The line about Louis Armstrong refers to the great jazz trumpet player, the first black man to be recognized as a successful jazz artist by a white audience. Only now, ten years later, we see that it is the whites who profit from his talent. Hughes is desperate not to forget the accomplishments of the 20¹s, and not to let those accomplishments

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.

In the book The Post-American World, by Fareed Zakaria, he spoke of the three economical shifts in the world throughout history. Each one of these shifts has changed the world drastically, with political, culture, and of course, economical differences in every country in the world. What Zakaria had brought to my attention very early in the book was that we are currently living through the third economical shift right now. To be honest, I had never really thought about where the world was heading, and if I hadn’t read this book, I would’ve thought that the United States would remain the main superpower in the world and the rest of the world would sort of stay at their current status. Poor countries would remain poor, and every developed country

The 1960s-1970s, the Peace Movement, the Hippie Movement, the Antiwar Movement, the Protest Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, the Postmodern and Contemporary period; These names, periods, epochs, eras, and movements all have different meanings, however they refer to the same time in history and the emotions related to it. For these purposes it will simply be called the Postmodern and Contemporary period in the United States. This epoch was one of peace, individualism, spiritualism, unity, change, progress, mass harmonic assemblies, war, death, destruction, discontent, fear, hope, expression, free speech, questioning, and development of the arts. The emotions of the period are now trapped in the literature and art we see today.

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement and the enlightenment of black minds as a whole. This movement sparked the minds of many leaders such as Marcus Garvey, W.E.B Dubois, and Langston Hughes, these men would also come to be known as the earliest Civil Rights activists. While Garvey and Dubois expressed their views in speeches and rallies Hughes had a different approach and chose to articulate his thoughts and views through literature more specifically poetry. Through his poetry, Hughes became a world renown poet for such works as “Let America Be America Again”, “Harlem” and “I Too” taken from his first book “The Weary Blues.” These poems while written and inspired by the everyday struggles of being an African-American were arguably targeted at white Americans. Hughes wrote a majority of his work during the Harlem Renaissance and as a result focused on “injustice” and “change” in the hopes that society would recognize their mistake and reconcile, but in order for this to happen he would have to target the right audience.