Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Analysis of the Langston Hughes poem
Analysis of the Langston Hughes poem
Langston hughes style analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Rebellion is simply the resistance to or defiance of any authority, control or tradition. (Sandi Amorim, para 1, n.d.). Rebellion can be expressed in many different forms, and in this case, it is poetry. The poems, “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks, “Theme for English B” and “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes, all have a distinct display of rebellion.
First, the poem “We Real Cool” is about teens who are rebellious, and think they are so “cool”. It is meant to be read at a certain beat or pace, like a rap, to add an effect to the “rebellion” theme. Brooks starts off by saying, “We left school”(Brooks, line 1-2, 1960) which hints that the characters dropped out of school, or might be skipping. Next, the author says ,”We Lurk late. We strike straight. We sing sin” (Brooks, lines 2-5,
…show more content…
The poem is about a black student ,presumably Langston Hughes himself, having to prove that he is just the same as his white professor. Langston starts off the poem by saying, “I wonder if it’s that simple? I am twenty-two, colored… I am the only colored student in my class.”(Langston Hughes, line 1-5, 1951) Hughes is implying that since he is the only black person in his class, the professor will not believe what he writes on. This poem was written in 1951, when most schools were separate and black people were treated differently, and Hughes writes about that. He is very rebellious in his poem, yet he still follows the directions. He says, “ That’s American. Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me, nor do I often want to be a part of you.” (Langston Hughes, line 32-34, 1951) He writes about how black people and white people actually are the same, and during this time period most people did not believe that. He goes against what society’s normal view of colored people is, while still completing his assignment. He showed a bold way of rebellion, while still following the
The poem 'We Real Cool' by Gwendolyn Brooks is a stream of the thoughts of poor inner city African-Americans who have adopted a hoodlum lifestyle. Though many can have different interpretations of this poem, it is fair to look at the life and career or the works and influences of Gwendolyn Brooks.
The first thing the author, Langston Hughes, used to bring out his purpose for writing is the use of hyperbole. This can be seen in lines twenty-three and twenty-four of the poem. “He’s trying to ruin the government, And overturn the land!” (Hughes 23, 24) The landlord immediately jumps to an extreme in these lines. The landlord immediately jumps to this conclusion when the African-American man is trying to resolve the issue of the condition of his house. The landlord immediately viewed the man as a hostile person when he tried to
In “We Real Cool,” by Gwendolyn Brooks, one can almost visualize a cool cat snapping his fingers to the beat, while she is reading this hip poem. Her powerful poem uses only a few descriptive words to conjure up a gang of rebellious teens. Brooks employs a modern approach to the English language and her choice of slang creates a powerful jazz mood. All of the lines are very short and the sound on each stop really pops. Brooks uses a few rhymes to craft an effective sound and image of the life she perceives. With these devices she manages to take full control of her rhyme and cultivates a morally inspiring poem.
With the use of such a sarcastic and straightforward tone in her poem, “We Real Cool”, Brook’s enforces the poem’s theme using patterned repetition. This repetition makes it apparent to the reader that Brooks is suggesting something completely opposite from what she is saying, and creates a poem with much more direction and meaning. Repetition is seen throughout the poem with, “We Real Cool”, in lines 1 and 2, “We / Left school. We / Lurk late” (1-2). The pattern proceeds throughout the stanzas in the poem, each sentence beginning with “We” and containing three syllables. Each sentence suggests a moment of pride and satisfaction. This is clear in “We Real Cool” in the very first couple lines “We / Left” (1-2) where Brooks conveys the act of dropping out of school. Even though dropping out of school may alleviate the young men’s immediate dislike for a structured schooling environment, it will affect their long-term future. Apart from its subtitle, "The pool players, seven at the Golden Shovel”, "We Real Cool" is made up of four stanzas, each of which is a two-line couplet. Each word throughout the poem contains only one syllable. Although most traditional couplets in poetry contain a rhyme at the end of the line, this poem takes rhyming to a new level where the couplets rhyme in the middle. For example, the rhyming
Hughes thinks that everyone has rights to be them self and everyone has their own beauty. People can be what ever they want they can be black artist if they want or they can white artist if they want, the only thing he wanted to tell people was that be proud of who you are, don’t try to be someone else who you are not. Langston Hughes gives an example where a young poet says “ I want to be a poet – not a Negro poet” Hughes thinks that the young kid wants to be white. Form my point of view the young poet said he wants to be poet but not Negro because in during 1920’s white people were like superior and they have higher chances to become well known person. So when the young poet said
Brooks conveys her message in an ironic manner, which is presented in the title of the poem. Before actually reading the 10 line poem the first thing that grabs the reader's attention is the title. After reading the title "We Real Cool" one would assume that the intent of the poem is going to be about a group of people who are fortunate and live a flamboyant lifestyle. This is not the case for the "seven players" in Brooks's poem. After reading the entire poem, the true meaning is revealed. "We Real Cool" focuses on the life of "seven players" who drop out of school. Their daily life is carefree and consists of playing pool, drinking alcohol, and using vulgar language. Brooks elucidates that this "cool" lifestyle only leads to death.
Gwendolyn Brooks captures the reality of America’s youth with her poem, “We Real Cool.” Growing up in Chicago, Brooks was inspired to write “We Real Cool” while catching a glimpse of a group of teenagers playing pool during school hours (On “We Real Cool”). The poem portrays a group of young people dodging the responsibilities of life in order to do whatever is considered “cool” to them and their peers. The poem allows the audience to make their own judgements about the pool players, because Brooks gives no opinion. However, the last line of the poem gives the audience the impression that the pool players’ actions are wrong because it shows that their destiny is an early death date. Brooks made the speaker of the poem to be defiant, since he is rebelling against what is expected of the youth by “lurking late” and “striking straight” (3-4) in order to give the audience a realistic view of teenaged dropouts.
“We Real Cool” poem proves you can give a lot of personality and insight to a group of characters in eight lines. With the lines “We real cool, We Left school (Lines 1-2)” it tells us that these kids left school to chase after their perception of cool. The poet reveals the fact that these boys are also uneducated, rebellious and arrogant. This poem will be the prime example of quality.
“We Real Cool” is a poem that was written by poet Gwendolyn Brooks in the year of 1959. This poem states that the black young people in the United States went through to make a clear definition of themselves and tried to seek their values in the late fifties and early sixties, young kids knowing they are different from the society, so they started their abandonment from a young age, they give up school because they know they cannot be accept as other white kids, they were caught in things as rape, murder and robbery because that's the only thing the now to express their anger. They do everything that seems fun to them then die young because they have no hope left for them. These African American young ones are living in the society that was ruled as well as predominated trying to make them stay in the relatively oppressed state.
Historical abolitionist Frederick Douglas famously once said “The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.” Rebellion only happens because a group of individuals is dissatisfied with authority. Without this conflict between society and authority, humanity will not advance. Many conflicts occur frequently, but what is the frequency of individuals rebelling against authority? Some may choose to believe that this conflict is a rare occurrence, while many authors throughout history may believe that rebellion occurs more often than one might think. Rebellions against society can all be refined down to a rebellious action, a reason for rebellion, and a response from authority.
Rebellion an act of violent or open resistance. Rebellion is an act that we see take place in movies and reality. A great example of teen rebellion takes place in “Romeo and Juliet” written by William Shakespeare. In “Romeo and Juliet” two teens from complete opposite world’s start to take interest into each other. This later results into falling deeply in one with one another. However, their love is not supported by each others families due to their differences. This same concept is tied to the movie ‘Titanic”. Titanic is a movie about a poor boy and wealthy girl that fall in love with one another. Although despite the disapproval of their love from their peers they both rebell and go against others opinions. I believe that Titanic is an act of rebellion because like Romeo and Juliet they go against others beliefs and follow what they believe is right. Not only do they go against
To emphasize the use imagery in the poem the author uses a lot of repetition. Throughout the entire poem the word “We” is used to describe that there is more than one person doing something. “We Real Cool, We Left School,” (lines 1-2) are the first two lines in the poem and it already describes that the people in the poem are young and they are bad. “We Real Cool” is a good example of how little you can describe but can still have imagery.
Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” (written in 1959 and published in 1960) is a lyric poem that shows a glimpse into the life of seven, young African-American men who have chosen to abandon the social norm of searching for the “American Dream” and, instead, venture into the uncertainty of life roaming the streets (slang for unsavory areas where criminal activity is frequent), where the only certainty is an early death. In a time already plagued with racial hostility, life was guaranteed to come with adversities for young, African-Americans, but to freely choose a life without a formal education or employment was adding unnecessary hardships. “We Real Cool” utilizes a unique combination of literary vices like point of view, rhythm, and syntax to provide social commentary on the reckless lifestyle of some of the youth in the black community at the time.
Then after reading it another time and looking into more about the background of the author and poem, I see that it is has a bigger picture of the issue Gwendolyn Brooks was trying to write about, which was that during this time period many African Americans were dropping out of school. Just a few years before Brooks wrote this poem, the Supreme Court ruled in the Brown vs. Board of Education case, that it was unconstitutional to segregate schools. However, desegregating the schools was a prolonged process, and many African Americans became frustrated. So, these students who would drop out, like the ones in the poem, felt like they had no future anymore and now chose to follow a different lifestyle. Gwendolyn Brooks does a great job as to explaining
The poem “Negro” was written by Langston Hughes in 1958 where it was a time of African American development and the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. Langston Hughes, as a first person narrator tells a story of what he has been through as a Negro, and the life he is proud to have had. He expresses his emotional experiences and makes the reader think about what exactly it was like to live his life during this time. By using specific words, this allows the reader to envision the different situations he has been put through. Starting off the poem with the statement “I am a Negro:” lets people know who he is, Hughes continues by saying, “ Black as the night is black, /Black like the depths of my Africa.” He identifies Africa as being his and is proud to be as dark as night, and as black as the depths of the heart of his country. Being proud of him self, heritage and culture is clearly shown in this first stanza.