The second speaker also reshapes the first two lines of the entire poem into a plea to the majority. Beforehand, the first speaker uses those lines as a call for the old American spirit to be revived: “Let America be America again / Let it be the dream it used to be” (1-2). Both speakers change the meaning of the lines to express their thoughts on America. As a result, the poem expresses the desire for everyone to be treated equally in the land of freedom. The readers can relate to the speaker because they wish that everyone has equal rights in the country that proclaims itself to be the symbol of freedom.
America is well known as the land of the free and the home opportunity. Although it is said everyone is equal in every way, that has not always been the case. Langston Hughes is a poet who tried to emphasize the idea of equality among all human beings. Hughes underlined the basis of the American Dream with what is and what should be in the societal era he lived in. In hindsight he believed his poems helped others realize the injustices that all minorities had to face during this era.
Langston Hughes was one the most well known names during the Harlem Renaissance. He was a writer whose pieces ranged from novels, to plays. He wrote short stories, children’s books, translations and anthologies as well. However, his most well known pieces were his poems. Langston's writing reflected the idea that black culture should be celebrated, because it is just as valuable as white culture.
Langston Hughes was a very famous poet but also a dreamer during the 1920s when discrimination and racism were main problems in the society. He was a civil right activist who proposed the idea of equal opportunities between all races by writing poems, books, and playwrights; many of his famous literatures affected Americans in many crucial ways. Hughes’s main idea against the society was equality however he discovered that it is difficult to change people’s “norms” and stereotypes. Therefore, his humorous and serious type of writing effectively appealed to many audiences which eventually played a big role of achieving racial equality and equal opportunities.
Hughes helped to shape American literature and politics with his emotion-filled pieces. In the same fashion, Hughes advocated equality while chastising racism and injustice. Through his works, he was able to celebrate the culture and spirituality of African Americans. Ultimately, this had a very positive change in the lives of Americans by being able to show African Americans in a new light and
Langston Hughes is an African American Poet who is very closely connected to his culture and expresses his feelings very thoroughly through his poetry in a jazz style. Langston Hughes is a modern poet who ignore the classical style of writing poetry and instead, in favor of oral and improve traditions of the Black culture. In majority of Langston’s poetry, many of his audience seems to take away a very strong message that many can apply to themselves or to others or his poems gives you an educational background of what’s going on in the African American community right now. For example, Langston Hughes writes a poetry piece called Afro American Fragment, which gives you a great breakdown of what an everyday African American person goes through considering that their whole history is basically taken away from them. Langston seems to show his audience that in books we never hear much about what contributions a African American person has done except for being brought to America and being a slave. Therefore, the whole theme about this poem is everything is a mystery and a question and it will take years to potentially to find an answer.
It addressed the issues that were faced by African Americans in the United States during that time . Langston Hughes' poem encouraged people not to take the issue of democracy lightly and to fight for their rights. He did not directly talk about race, but a huge part of his work had to do with life for African Americans in the United States. Hughes was often criticized for portraying life in such a negative fashion. However, his writing was politicized, and as such, he sought to produce poems with a message.
There are so many writers and people who do not write also that look up to him. He accepted the challenge of expressing the heart and soul of African Americans. Keenly aware of racism, Hughes visioned a nation where domestic problems could be realized. Hughes in his poetry, expressed his own reactions to incidents in his life and in the world at large. Langston Hughes left such a lasting impression on poetry , black culture, and the people in his life, that he changed the way they lived with the spirit and soul he put into his
Langston was one of the earliest innovators of the new literary from called jazz poetry. He famously wrote about the period “the negro was in vogue’. It was later paraphrased as when Harlem was in vogue. Hughes tried it depict the law life in their art that is the real lives on black in the lower social-economic stanza. His poetry and fiction portrayed the lives of working class blacks in America he portrayed as full of joy laughter and music.
ESSAY 1 Langston Hughes: Social Activist and Writer of the Black Movement It cannot be doubted that Langston Hughes is not just one of the most illustrious Black Writers but also one who had a very strong contribution to the early struggles of the Black Americans against discrimination and segregation in the country. Hughes exceptionally combined the power of his art and his political voice in advancing his stand to the pressing issues of his day, most notable of which was the assertion of the rights of Black Americans and of their stature in the economic, political and cultural spheres of society. This movement was then tagged as the Harlem Renaissance movement owing to the fact that it gained steam in Harlem, New York. In the wake of the
For all his success a poet Hughes was now getting resistance not so much from the white community as he was from his fellow African American artists. These artists, and really any educated black person who had gained a sliver of respect among the white population, hated lower class uneducated black men as much as James Hughes did. Langston Hughes wrote a lot about the everyday struggle of an average African American, and this is why the rest of the educated African American community had disdain for his art. This did not, however, stop his ascension to a top figure of the Harlem renaissance in the 1920’s, as his poems were very popular among much of the American population. Hughes continued to be a very popular poet and today he is one of the great artists of
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.
My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of the earth. (Abraham Lincoln) In the poem "Let America Be America Again," Langston Hughes paints an affecting and diverse stanza, displaying peaceful passages to angry outbursts. His resonance seems confessional, as he is speaking about his own exposure and communicating for all the unheard Americans. Hughes addresses how America considers to be, has shifted to them to think, and could pursue to be again.
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
Biography/Context: Langston Hughes (1902-1967) is widely considered as one of the most successful African-American poets of all time. He was also a columnist, playwright, novelist, and social activist for African-American rights. Consequently, Hughes wrote all sorts of literature about 20th century African-Americans living in Harlem--a major black residential within the Manhattan borough of New York City--and soon became an extremely influential figure in the Harlem Renaissance, which was the rebirth movement of African-American culture in the arts during the 1920s. Hughes also had great admiration for music, and was inspired by a variety of genres/musicians such as boogie, Bach, jazz, and blues. His special love for blues music caused