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Comparing Langston Hughes And Maya Angelou's Poetry

458 Words2 Pages

Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou were African Americans alive during the period in American history when minority groups were fighting hard for their rights and respect among the country. These two authors used their writing skill to shed light on how African Americans felt throughout this period of time, opening many people’s eyes to how the oppressed truly felt. The civil rights movement could have had an entirely different outcome if it weren’t outspoken individuals such as these two. In Hughes’s well known poem “I, Too,” Hughes talks about how the people that mistreat him will soon regret everything they’ve done and will realize the true potential of him and everyone like him. This viewpoint is very confident for the future and seems to allude to Hughes knowing that one day African Americans will be seen as equal to everyone else. Maya Angelou also has a well-known poem titled “Still I Rise” in which she talks about how even with everything going against her and all African Americans, they still overcome it all and stand strong. This poem is confident as well, but in a different way than Hughes’s poem. Hughes’s poem is confident that people will one day see him for who he is, but Angelou’s poem is confident because it accuses …show more content…

Both poems shed light on the true feelings of African Americans everywhere and show that these people are tired of being treated differently and that these people know that things will change. Hughes’s poem has a laid back approach, almost expecting things to get better on their own. But Angelou’s poem is a bit more attacking. Instead of accepting that things are the way they are and that they’ll get better, Angelou tries to make her oppressors seem less oppressive to her and more scared of her by saying things such as “Do you want to see me broken” and “Does my sexiness offend

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Comparing Langston Hughes And Maya Angelou

456 Words | 2 Pages

Many things about Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou are the same but many things are different between them also like how they went through life with the jobs they got and things they did. This essay is to compare the two so you can learn many things about them. We’ll start with things about Mr. Hughes. Langston Hughes grew up with his mom but she was gone most of the time so he was raised by his grandmother until he was 12 years old. Some things about his family is the fact that his father left his mother at a early age and moved to Mexico although he left Langston still had a relationship with him although a very bad one, after high school his father wanted him to go to college for engineering instead of poetry

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African Americans During The Harlem Renaissance

470 Words | 2 Pages

The Harlem Renaissance For African Americans during the early 1900’s was a scary place. . People were filled with racism and hate towards those who are black. Ever thought of how much power a group of people have if they all unite for a similar purpose? The Harlem Renaissance shows exactly that.

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How Did Langston Hughes Influence Society

1205 Words | 5 Pages

James Mercer Langston Hughes was the first African American to achieve national prominence, and the figure of such stature in the black community. His influence and ideas were inescapable, as he saw himself as a poet for an entire nation. Hughes role model, Walt Whitman helped to give him the ideas of the optimistic vision of America and how to achieve and accomplish some of the things he did in his life. Langston Hughes inspired many people and expressed the African American spirt and soul in his works.

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Let America Be America Again By Langston Hughes

744 Words | 3 Pages

This provides the reader with the ultimate message of the poem that Langston Hughes tries to get to the world. Langston Hughes claims that “There’s never been equality” in America, that it lacks freedom in this so-called homeland of the free (Hughes, Line 16). This goes back to Hughes' message on how African Americans had endured inequality by Hughes telling that they never had equality. The use of connotations in the poem allows readers to hold the feeling of appeal to the poem and to add more personal feelings to words. The topic that African Americans do not have equality affects readers by making them reflect on how lucky they do not have to deal with inequality.

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Langston Hughes Personification Summary

1077 Words | 5 Pages

In addition, the parallels present in the history of past Africans and African Americans with modern African Americans further enhances this unity under one connected heritage. This poem was created in the 1920s, an era of racial tension and discrimination, so the personified narrator also assisted in highlighting unity among the African Americans of the era of segregation. Langston Hughes successfully crafted a poem that unifies modern African Americans with their ancestors under one heritage and

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Langston Hughes I Too Analysis

858 Words | 4 Pages

In the poem “I, Too”, the author Langston Hughes illustrates the key aspect of racial discrimination faces against the African Americans to further appeals the people to challenge white supremacy. He conveys the idea that black Americans are as important in the society. Frist, Hughes utilizes the shift of tones to indicate the thrive of African American power. In the first stanza, the speaker shows the sense of nation pride through the use of patriotic tone. The first line of the poem, “I, too, sing America” states the speaker’s state of mind.

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Maya Angelou And Langston Hughes Comparison

514 Words | 3 Pages

Maya Angelou wrote the poem “Still, I rise.” These two poems both have their own meaning but are still similar in many ways. To begin, Hughes poem was about how African Americans were looked at as differently. The poem was about how blacks were segregated from whites. They were treated different and not looked at as human beings.

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We Have Tomorrow Like A Flame By Langston Hughes Analysis

1179 Words | 5 Pages

It talks about how yesterday was a thing of the past and that it cannot be changed. He talks about how each day, African Americans must march on towards their dreams. Despite prejudice, oppression, and poverty that African Americans faced at this time, Hughes points to a positive in that the only way their dreams will come true is if they focus on the present day and what they can do to fix things. They cannot be looking at the past and what has happened. His message to the audience in this poem is towards the youth, in particular African-Americans.

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Naomi Shihab Nye's Kindness

757 Words | 4 Pages

Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Maya Angelou, and Naomi Shihab Nye are three examples of many poets who used their compositions to advocate for an ability to adapt and consider different viewpoints in order to help reform a somewhat discriminatory system of conventional thinking. Now just because a certain aspect of society has remained for so long, it doesn’t mean that it is necessarily warranted, such as the lack of solidarity that has scarred our humanity ever since the dawn of man. Throughout all 4 poems, the 4 authors share the common theme that being open to growth requires one to be willing to express themselves by attending to the divine mandate that is fellowship. These pieces of poetry matters because in a world that likes to have things quickly, these works’ poignant words remind us that even the power of words takes time to be dissected and integrated in the folds of society. What stands in the way of humanity achieving this goal at this point is whether or not the society is willing to concede to the fact that even the great intellectual in our world cannot hope the reasons for problems in inter/intrapersonal relations.

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Compare And Contrast Angelou And Paul Laurence Dunbar

535 Words | 3 Pages

His poem Sympathy is just one example of how he felt trapped like a caged bird in his life. Even though the Civil War was over, African Americans still did not have as many privileges and opportunities as most White people had. Most of Dunbar’s writing showed his perspective of life and the struggles that came with it. Maya Angelou was born in 1928 and suffered a hard childhood that later on affected her writing. When she was eight years old, Maya was sexually abused and raped by her mother’s boyfriend.

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The Negro Speaks Of Rivers Analysis

1409 Words | 6 Pages

Langston Hughes poems “Harlem” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” are two poems that have a deeper meaning than a reader may notice. Hughes 's poem “Harlem” incorporates the use of similes to make a reader focus on the point Hughes is trying to make. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Hughes shows how close he was to the rivers on a personal level. With those two main focuses highlighted throughout each poem, it creates an intriguing idea for a reader to comprehend. In these particular poems, Hughes’s use of an allusion, imagery, and symbolism in each poem paints a clear picture of what Hughes wants a reader to realize.

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Three Major Themes In Langston Hughes's Poetry

1089 Words | 5 Pages

Langston Hughes was an American poem born in the early nineteen hundreds, who became known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He published many poems that brought light to the life of people of color in the twentieth century. There are three poems that the speakers are used to portray three major themes of each poem. Racism, the American Dream, and Hopes are all the major themes that Hughes uses to highlight the average life of a person of color. Theme for English B,” “Harlem,” and “Let America Be America Again” were three of Hughes’s poems that was selected to underline the themes.

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Rhetorical Devices In The Negro Speaks Of Rivers By Langston Hughes

1413 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout much of his poetry, Langston Hughes wrestles with complex notations of African American dreams, racism, and discrimination during the Harlem Renaissance. Through various poems, Hughes uses rhetorical devices to state his point of view. He tends to use metaphors, similes, imagery, and connotation abundantly to illustrate in what he strongly believes. Discrimination and racism were very popular during the time when Langston Hughes began to develop and publish his poems, so therefore his poems are mostly based on racism and discrimination, and the desire of an African American to live the American dream. Langston Hughes poems served as a voice for all African Americans greatly throughout his living life, and even after his death.

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I Too Sing America Analysis

997 Words | 4 Pages

In the poem, Langston Hughes outlines the African American, as not being recognized as having a place within society, and being an oppressed group of people. This is shown in the first line of the poem when he says “I, too, sing America. ”(Hughes, 1) By saying, “I, too, sing America,”(Hughes, 1) the audience can interpret that, Langston Hughes sees society as a choir, all ‘singing’ together. This is saying that he, is also part of that ‘choir,’ and has an equal voice within this society. The audience can also see how he is not equal, as he is

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Comparing Poems By Maya Angelou And Phenomenal Woman By Nikki Giovanni

1281 Words | 6 Pages

The poems in this essay both talk about being a woman. “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou is about more of a confident woman while “Woman” by Nikki Giovanni is about a woman who wants a man to change for her. The poems though very different, are also similar because they both talk about confidence as a woman. By the end of both poems the narrators both know that they are women who are strong and do not need anyone else 's acceptance but their own. They know their own self worth and that is enough for them.

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