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Langston hughes poems for black history
Langston hughes poems for black history
Challenges of the Harlem Renaissance
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Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes wrote the poem “Ballad of the Landlord” in 1940, a time of immense discrimination against people of African descent. The poem details an account of a tenant, later found out to be an African American, who is dissatisfied with his rental property. The tenant is politely asking the landlord to make the needed repairs on the realty, but instead the landlord demands to be paid. The tenant refuses to pay the rent, and the police are called after a threat is made towards the landlord. The police arrest the tenant; he is jailed for ninety days with no bail. Langston Hughes’s “Ballad of the Landlord” is a startling poem that underlines the discrimination African Americans had to cope with in the nineteen-forties by illustrating an account of an African American tenant’s troubles with a Caucasian landlord through the use of theme, dialect, tone and multiple speakers.
Racism and discrimination are problems many African Americans had to face in the 1940s; Hughes uses this aspect as the major theme in his poem “Ballad of the Landlord.” It is apparent that the tenant is discriminated against by the landlord, the police and the newspaper. For example, the newspaper shows only one side of the issue especially in the headline: “MAN THREATENS LANDLORD” (31). The tenant’s reasons for threatening the landlord were valid, although not legal, because the landlord treated the tenant unfairly by not fixing the house the tenant was renting. The tenant was angry, as expected, because the landlord was being prejudice against the tenant and refusing to fix his living conditions. The landlord would possibly have fixed the house if the tenant were white, and all problems could have been avoided had race issues not be...
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...ites a short 33-line poem that simply shows the barriers between races in the time period when racism was still openly practiced through segregation and discrimination. The poem captures the African American tenant’s frustrations towards the landlord as well as the racism shown by the landlord. The poem is a great illustration of the time period, and it shows how relevant discrimination was in everyday life in the nineteen-forties. It is important for the author to use the selected literary devices to help better illustrate his point. Each literary device in the poem helps exemplify the author’s intent: to increase awareness of the racism in the society in the time period.
Works Cited
Hughes, Langston. “Balled of the Landlord”. An Introduction to Literature. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William E. Cain. 16th ed. New York: Longman, 2011. 765-766. Print.
Even if these poems had the same theme of the delayment of a dream, each poet’s vision towards this dream is explored differently, where readers are able to grasp both the effects and potentials of a dream deferred, through the use of imagery. Nonetheless, both poems had fulfilled the role of many distinguished poems during the period; to communicate African-Americans’ desires to live a life of equality and free from prejudice.
To depict the unfair daily lives of African Americans, Martin Luther King begins with an allegory, a boy and a girl representing faultless African Americans in the nation. The readers are able to visualize and smell the vermin-infested apartment houses and the “stench” of garbage in a place where African American kids live. The stench and vermin infested houses metaphorically portray our nation being infested with social injustice. Even the roofs of the houses are “patched-up” of bandages that were placed repeatedly in order to cover a damage. However, these roofs are not fixed completely since America has been pushing racial equality aside as seen in the Plessy v. Ferguson court case in which it ruled that African Americans were “separate but equal”. Ever since the introduction of African Americans into the nation for slavery purposes, the society
Words are commonly used to separate people by the color of their skin, but they can also be used to bring people together, no matter what their skin color was. Using words improperly was a common problem in America when our parents were our age, and even way long before that. People have written countless stories about racism, it’s affect of the world, or it’s effect on the person themselves. One of the more well known poems about racism is “‘Race’ Politics”, by Luis J. Rodriguez. The story the poem is based off of took place sometime in the mid 1960’s, so this gives us an insight of what the world was like back then.
The 1930’s were an interesting time for many African-Americans. Even though they had been freed from slavery decades ago, they still felt oppression. Langston Hughes does a fantastic job of describing this oppression in the poem “Ballad of the Landlord”. The author’s purpose for writing this poem is to show the problems that African-Americans dealt with in the 1930’s which is exemplified through the use of hyperbole, change of lines in stanzas, and repetition.
Prejudice is a cancer that spreads hate among its perpetrators and victims alike. In 1930 Langston Hughes penned the novel, Not Without Laughter. This powerful story, written from the perspective of an African-American boy named James “Sandy” Rodgers, begins in the early 1900’s in the small town of Stanton, Kansas. Through the eyes of young Sandy, we see the devastating impact of racism on his family and those they are close to. We also see how the generations of abuse by whites caused a divide within the black community. Among, and even within, black families there were several social classes that seemed to hinge on seeking equality through gaining the approval of whites. The class someone belonged to was determined by the color of their skin, the type of church one attended, their level of education, and where an individual was able to find work.
Reading these poems is an incredible learning experience because it allows readers to view segregation through the eyes of someone most affected by it. In the U.S. History course I took I didn’t take away the details and specific examples I did from reading and researching Brooks’ work. For example, the history textbook only mentioned one specific person who was affected by segregation, that person was Rosa Parks. The example of Rosa Parks demonstrated just one isolated incident of how black people were punished if they disobeyed the laws of segregation. In contrast, Brooks’ work demonstrates the everyday lives of black people living with segregation, which provides a much different perspective than what people are used to. An example, of this would be in Brooks’ poem “Bronzeville Woman in a Red Hat”. The speaker of this poem hired a black maid and referred to her as “it”(103). By not using the maid’s name or using the pronoun her, the speaker is dehumanizing the maid. This poem expresses to readers that white people thought that black people weren’t like them, that they weren’t even
Another example of Hughes’s constant struggles with racism and his inner and thoughtful response to that is clearly seen when he recalls being denied the right to sit at the same table. His point of view identifies that he was not able to sit at the table because he was an African-American. Yet, he remains very optimistic in not letting his misfortune please what is considered the “white-man” in the poem. Langston Hughes’s states,
This poem is written from the perspective of an African-American from a foreign country, who has come to America for the promise of equality, only to find out that at this time equality for blacks does not exist. It is written for fellow black men, in an effort to make them understand that the American dream is not something to abandon hope in, but something to fight for. The struggle of putting up with the racist mistreatment is evident even in the first four lines:
The contradiction of being both black and American was a great one for Hughes. Although this disparity was troublesome, his situation as such granted him an almost begged status; due to his place as a “black American” poet, his work was all the more accessible. Hughes’ black experience was sensationalized. Using his “black experience” as a façade, however, Hughes was able to obscure his own torments and insecurities regarding his ambiguous sexuality, his parents and their relationship, and his status as a public figure.
The author illustrates the struggle of an average black male during his daily routine through many personal stories and relatable anecdotes. Through the actions of mentally discriminating against foreign races in America, we see in the writing, it makes them feel they are lower than everyone else. One example of this is when the proprietor got her dog as a precautionary action when he entered a jewelry store to just take a look , “She stood, the dog extended toward me, silent to my questions, her eyes nearly bulging out of her head.” The man was repetitively rejected when he questioned the dog, who wouldn’t feel less of themselves. We pity him because he was blatantly getting unconsciously discriminated by a precautionary store owner. Another example of this was when a different black male was mistaken as the killer, of a story he was working on, “ Police hauled him from his car at gunpoint and but for his press credentials would probably have tried to book him.” This man was being accused of someone he never was and was being treated with a gun. We pity him because he was abruptly hauled from his vehicle, handled as a criminal, and being discriminated at all the same
“Ballad of the Landlord” by Langston Hughes portrays a perfect example of racial discrimination during the Civil Rights Era. Throughout the poem, a white landlord intentionally ignores a black tenant’s request to fix the problems in his home. This obvious sign of neglect from the landlord has to do with the color of the tenant’s skin. Moreover, although times are different now, this sort of mistreatment was not uncommon back then. The poem shows that most African-American’s attempted to go about racial discrimination peacefully, until they had had enough. The tenant tries to go about the conflict civilly, but then he slowly realizes that he was not being heard. Therefore, the tenant turned to violent threats. This sudden change of emotion was
This image is the author’s perspective on the treatment of “his people” in not only his hometown of Harlem, but also in his own homeland, the country in which he lives. The author’s dream of racial equality is portrayed as a “raisin in the sun,” which “stinks like rotten meat” (Hughes 506). Because Hughes presents such a blatantly honest and dark point of view such as this, it is apparent that the author’s goal is to ensure that the reader is compelled to face the issues and tragedies that are occurring in their country, compelled enough to take action. This method may have been quite effective in exposing the plight of African-Americans to Caucasians. It can be easily seen that Hughes chooses a non-violent and, almost passive method of evoking a change. While Hughes appears to be much less than proud of his homeland, it is apparent that he hopes for a future when he may feel equal to his fellow citizens, which is the basis of the “dream” that has been
The poems of Langston Hughes focus on the working African Americans to portray the living conditions that are often looked. Due to past events, African Americans put more effort towards achieving any goal set in mind, but because of the extra work, some get lost. Getting lost is losing sight of a vision and settling on “surviving.” The reason behind the excessive amount comes with the realization that black people live a harder life. Racism, slavery, and segregation still takes a toll on the world. Slavery and segregation no longer exist within America, but have left a permanent scar on people and history. It is more work for a person of color to become successful compared to a person who is white. Because of Caucasian feelings toward African Amercans and past events, a mental barrier is created which limits colored people. This mental block pushes African Americans to get mediocre jobs, rather than go after the goal which is thought of. The dream begins to die as time moves on. There is no major contribution to the world when the dreams of unique human beings are forgotten. The curiosity of what may happen when dreams die cannot be saturated because it may be much like drying up “like a raisin in the sun,” or as extreme as
I am choosing “The Ballad of the Landlord” by Langston Hughes as a model for my own poem. I am choosing this poem because it relates to what is going on in the African American community and other minorities. This poem talks about racial injustice within the African American community and also about white privileges that are often used to overpower other minorities. This poem inspires me because I can relate to what the author is feeling in the poem. Also because I witness racial injustice every day whether it is in my personal life or from the everyday media. This inspires me to write about my opinion on racial injustice and racism. In the same manner, I want to educate my readers more about the social injustice in America. I feel as if
Langston Hughes “The ballad of a landlord” had an ironic twist when the speaker ended up in jail. The landlord thought that the man was lawfully wrong because he “threaten the government.” The landlord didn’t fix the speakers house because of the color of his skin. This poem can be useful today because of the racial tension that is happening today. Many African American face problem with social injustices every day just because the color of their skin isn’t like everybody else’s. The community gets profiles as soon as they enter the room. Langston Hughes poem is one that brings the audience along to inform them that the African American community is still dealing with a problem with something as simple as living in an