...Fall 2013 Biographical Research Essay Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri. He was the second child of Caroline Langston and James Hughes. After his parents' divorce his father left the country for Mexico and then Cuba to escape the racism of American society. After his divorce his mother traveled looking for work leaving Langston to be raised by his Grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. Langston Hughes later lived with his mother again along with his new step-father in Cleveland, Ohio where he attended high school. In high school Hughes was elected to be the class poet. he felt that he was only chosen because he was African-American. "I was the victim of a stereotype. there were only two of us negro kids in the whole class and our English teacher was always stressing the importance of rhythm in poetry well, everyone knows, except us, that all negroes have rhythm, so they elected me as class poet." Hughes grew up and lived in an extremely racist time. he came from a long line of ant-slavery and also very politically active people on his mother's side. Hughes also had his own opinions on politics. like many black writers and artists of this time Hughes was drawn to the idea of communism rather than segregated America and lots of his work reflected that. his poetry was often published in the CPUSA newspaper. he was involved in many communist led organizations though was more of a sympathizer than an active participant. Hughes was accused by many of being a communist on...
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...Evolution of Langston Hughes Poetry “Life dosent frighten me at all.” -Langston Hughes Fear can be the enemy of creativity if one cannot overcome it. Some of the most well known people like John Milton and William Shakespeare overcame their past fears and learned to turn it into something they could express, like writing. Well-known Poets do not just make up poems as they go in life hoping they make it big. Most poets make poems on how they feel and what their passionate about. Langston Hughes is a great example of a writer who not only overcame his fears, but also learned how to express them through poetry. People who want to study the underlining meaning in Hughes work should first analyze what caused him to write his poems, by researching...
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...Shatika M. Gaines American Literature ANALYZING AND COMPARING PHILLIS WHEATLEY AND LANGSTON HUGHES February 25, 2012 ANALYZING AND COMPARING PHILLIS WHEATLEY AND LANGSTON HUGHES Abstract: The aim of this text is to analyze two completely different poets (Phillis Wheatley and Langston Hughes) who lived in several times, however who shared constant theme in the analyzed works. Our intention is to indicate how society has not developed when it concerns the position of negroes: either as voters or persons. Through two selected poems and their analyses, it's supposed to indicate how the tones may change, however the theme remains the same. 1. Introduction Many things may inspire somebody to write down – be it poetry or prose. it has been like this since communication established itself, through generations and throughout time the writings have had a very important role. for some folks writing is also solely how to establish communication, as newspapers and magazines. For some others, it's an inner pleasure to share feelings and concepts, like in journals and theories. However, for others it is an instrument for additional definite purposes, like awareness regarding movements or a personal catharsis – Sylvia Plath’s poetry, for example. Therefore, the power of words helped mankind to change the globe. Bearing in mind this concept that literature may renew and reinforce a belief or an idea, the theme of the analysis...
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...“I want to be a poet—not a Negro poet” (Hughes 348). In his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Langston Hughes covers many important points but his hook is one to mention. This hook focuses a lot on the main issue of the essay itself. The issue is that the negro poets want to write like the white poets implying that colored artists want to be white. This then leads to the fact that the white audiences turned to the artists of color and saw them as stereotypical entertainment mainly because these black artists were afraid of being themselves. Langston Hughes’s poem, “The Weary Blues” engages with themes of the Harlem Renaissance and the content of the poem expresses various issues Hughes discussed in “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.” The poem, “The Weary Blues” is a powerful poem because it highlights the cultural traditions of the African American descent during a time of the Harlem Renaissance. The audience is able to...
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...thrived during this time period. Notable poets of this time included Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Claude McKay. These poets not only encouraged African Americans in Harlem and around the world, they also paved the way for many subsequent African American poets. Each poet had a different style of writing and they each wrote about different things. For instance, Langston Hughes’ writing reflected his belief that black culture should be celebrated because it was just as valuable as white culture. Zora Neale Hurston’s writing reflected her belief that her people should be honored. She, like Langston Hughes, believed in celebrating black culture and uplifting the African American society. Lastly, Claude McKay’s writing reflected his belief that black aggression could suppress white supremacy. He wrote fairly militant poems challenging white authority in America. Although these poets each wrote about different topics, their contribution to the African American society will forever be remembered and embraced. To begin with, Langston Hughes embraced the African American community through his work of poetry and writing. In his poetry of “Fine Clothes”, Hughes explained the negative aspects of African American life. It says “If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn't matter either.” (Hughes). In this, he explain that it doesn’t matter what people feel about...
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...Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes. Martin Luther King Jr., made speeches to end segregation, Rosa Parks stood up for her rights as she stayed seated in her seat on a bus, Maya Angelou wrote poems about how beautiful black women are and their strength. Langston Hughes, however, was the most influential leader of them all. He was a leader during the Harlem Renaissance, a leader through his literature, and through his independent thinking in real life situations. On February 1st, 1902, a leader was born. James Mercer ‘Langston Hughes’ was the second of five children and the second child for James Nathaniel Hughes and Caroline Mercer Langston. Soon after his birth, his parents faced many marital differences, which eventually led to their separation.As a result of the separation, his father left the United States and Hughes grew up with little to no contact with his father until his mid-teens and was forced to adjust around different living conditions. Hughes has no permanent place to call home as his mother often traveled, trying to obtain a stable job. The majority of his time and childhood was spent with his grandmother, Mary Patterson Langston. His grandmother was a major influence to his career in literature. After she passed away he went on to live with family friends, James and Mary Reed until he reunited with his mother and her husband. When Hughes started to attend high school, he began to write. He went on to be elected class poet by his teacher...
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...way is to read Langston Hughes’s works. Hughes writes lots of poetry about pursuing an American Spirit which realizes no discrimination, freedom and equality in the entire American society. Hughes hopes all African American can be respected by entire society. African Americans have relatively equal chances to compete with white people and have similar living condition as whites’ families which at least have a house and a car. The two poems of Hughes’ “I, Too” and “Theme for English B” describe Hughes’ desired American Spirit. In these two poems “ I, Too” and Theme for English B”, Hughes shares his experience as African American who lives under basic living condition, in hopes of encouraging more blacks to fight for equal rights. From the poem “I, too”, Hughes writes “I, too, sing America” (ln.1). As a common American people who learn American history and love American culture, although Hughes ’ancestry is African, he was born and grew up in the Unites States. Hughes also writes “I, too, am America” (ln.18). Although white people and black people have different skin color and background in the United States, they are all American. People can learn some idea about equality from Hughes. Hughes says when guests come to their home, white person can eat at the table but darker brother only can eat in the kitchen in the poem “I, Too”. From the poem “Theme for English B”, Hughes writes “Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me” (li.29). Hughes states that a white...
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... Langston Hughes and The Weary Blues Langston Hughes was recognized as a significant literary figure during the 1920s, a period known as the "Harlem Renaissance" because of the number of emerging black writers. After graduating from high school, Hughes went to Mexico to visit his father, in hopes to convince his father that he should pay for his college education at Columbia University in New York City. On his way to Mexico on the train, while thinking about his past and his future, Hughes wrote the famous poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." After arriving in Mexico, the tension between Hughes and his father was strong. Hughes wanted to be a writer; his father wanted him to be an engineer. After Hughes sent some of his poetry to what was known as the “Brownies” Book and “Crisis” magazines, it was accepted. his father was impressed enough to agree to pay for a year at Columbia University. It was there at Columbia University were he begin releasing more poems that he had written. Hughes embraced crafting blues music into his poetry because it expressed the worries of the common man in a simple and direct manner. Blues songs feature heavy repetition, and singers often seem to be laughing and crying at the same time. One of his best works was the poem “The Weary Blues” which came in first place in a section of a literary contest in an Opportunity magazine published in 1925. The title itself gives an example on how Hughes wanted to give the reader an indication on how he crafted...
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...African American writers like Alain Locke or Langston Hughes used their platforms to speak out politically about discrimination of African Americans and racial segregation most of the writers of that time helped lay the foundation of the civil rights movement, it was an eye opener for many African Americans and because of that the community grew and became stronger. And with a stronger community African Americans started to realize who they were as a people. James Weldon Johnson was one of the many African American writers who was influenced by the Harlem Renaissance. In “Harlem: The Culture Capital” writes an about how Harlem was created. He...
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...Blacks World Spotlight: on the International Stage in the 1920s During World War I the United States bought nearly 200,000 African-American soldiers to France. Majority of the African American soldiers were from the southern region of the United States of America. Many Blacks stayed after the war, generating a permanent Black population in France. The ending of the First World War also marked the beginning of the New Negro Movement or Harlem Renaissance in the United States. During this time African Americans emerged as talented, creative intellectuals leaving their footprint on 1920s America. While much focus of the New Negro Movement is centered in the United States, it indeed was an international affair. The purpose of this research is to examine how a number of African Americans launched their creative debut from the international stage of Paris, France. Additional focus will center on black artists turning to Africa as a source and facture in the art. Last but not least, the effort of Author Schomburg to collect and house international works about blacks will be addressed. Utterly intrigued by African Americans and thoroughly consumed with their talents, the French displayed a respect for Blacks unseen in the United States. While a great number of African-American soldiers remain in Paris, many journeyed back to the United States. Those soldiers certainly were not greeted by change. The United States remained the same racially tensed nation. If there was any change, it...
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...In the all black community of Eatonville, Hurston did not know that she was looked-down-on because of her race, until traveling outside her home town, at the age of thirteen. In the article Socioeconomics in Selected Short Stories of Zora Neale Hurston, Laurie Champion states, “she realized that she was black when she was thirteen and left Eatonville to attend school in Jacksonville.” Hurston reassures her readers and the public, in her short essay entitled “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” that she does not have any deep rooted resentment for being colored. She makes an excellent point in saying that the world owes nothing to anyone, and that it is pretty equal in treatment to the strong, regardless of race. Hurston concludes by stating she is far too invested in her goals too have anytime to whine over the darkness of her...
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...groups to incorporate humor into their culture is best explained by T. Cohen when he says, “An absurdity can be and example, a symbol, or even, say, an emblem of incomprehensibility. To laugh at absurdity can be an acceptance of its incomprehensibility.” African American humor has even converged with Jewish humor on many occasions, such as the musical The Jazz Singer, where Jews portray black characters, and even more recently with Jewish comedian Larry David portraying ethnic differences between Blacks and Jews on Curb Your Enthusiasm. We will now examine how two ethnicities with histories of marginalization and disenfranchisement used humor to accept their history and assimilate with the rest of society. The nature of Jewish humor is largely disputed among academics like Freud and Dan Ben-Amos. It is no secret that Jews have had a sense of humor since Biblical times. A great example of this is in 2 Chronicles where a king writes, “Jehoram was thirty-two years old when...
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...been a “slave” (7), beaten to his knees” (8), while others, some who stand around encouraging this inhumane treatment are free. We can only imagine the thoughts that would race through our heads during times of cruel punishment, humiliation and mistreatment: Please KILL me so this Misery will END!? If I take my own life I won’t be subjected to the torture any longer? In contrast, Edwin Arlington’s “Richard Cory” tells us about a wealthy, educated, free, and we are going to assume that Mr. Corey was white. Was Richard Corey living the American Dream? We would argue – yes, yes he was? Did Mr. Douglass, yearning for freedom, civil rights and equality suffer the American Nightmare? Once again, our answer would be “Yes”. Here we have two men in America – one Black, one White at two polar opposite ends of a racial divide; two different worlds in this one world we call “America”. How can one man’s dream be another man’s nightmare? Depending on the source, the answer to this question will vary. Our answers to this question are simple: Race – the color of one’s skin and education. What makes America a great place to live; also can make America a viciously evil place to live? One’s race, national origin, religious beliefs and education will determine which America you are going to experience. Robert Hayden’s “Frederick Douglass” wonders: “When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful and terrible thing, needful to man as air” (1-2). It appears that...
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...As will be argued in this paper, African Americans experienced hardship and significant discrimination after 1877 due to racist laws, social, economic, and educational inequality; however, as laws and cultural sentiments about blacks changed during the Civil Rights Era, African Americans today have more political, economic, and educational opportunities than ever before. On the following pages, this paper will trace the path of African Americans to equality by discussing salient events in African American history from 1877 to the present. Significantly, as the author believes, while progress has been made since the nineteenth century, complete equality remains elusive even today for many African American men and women. The end of slavery did by no means lead to the immediate equality of African Americans in American society. The years after the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era, were characterized by wide-spread discrimination against African Americans. In the South, so-called Jim Crow laws effectively barred African Americans from having very basic civil liberties. Public and social life in the South but also in other places in the United States, was strictly segregated which not only created social and political inequalities but also barred many African Americans from having access to educational and economic opportunities (Mathieu, 2009). It is hence not surprising that many African Americans fled the South and migrated North in search of a better life. Mathieu (2009) maintains...
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...racism of the time and demonstrating that they too experienced universal concepts. Many African-Americans of the time began wondering about their ancestral past, prior to slavery, and looked to Africa for inspiration. Many African-Americans saw Africa as their original homeland and a place where blacks where not discriminated and oppressed. In the poem “Heritage,” Countie Cullen wrote “What is Africa to Me?,” a common question African-Americans were asking at the time. He also describes Africa as having “strong-bronzed men,” creating an image of a place where African-Americans are beautiful and powerful and above all, not slaves. Africa also inspired many artists of the Harlem Renaissance such as Aaron Douglas, whose painting entitled The Negro in an African Setting, shows black people happily dancing and playing instruments in Africa. African-inspired sculptures...
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