Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes, a renowned poet from the early 1900s, has written numerous poems that have various themes and meanings. Although a lot of his poetry has to do with the struggles of African Americans during the time of slavery or during the early 1900s, Langston Hughes’ themes differ from poem to poem. One theme that appears in multiple poems of his is the theme of race, Langston Hughes uses the theme of race in his poems as a way to challenge the racial barriers that are placed on society. The theme of race is discussed in a plethora of his poems and it is important to examine a few of these poems which include, “I too, sing America”, “Theme for English b”, and “Let America be America Again”, to point out that Hughes tries to implement the sense of hope into African Americans of the time, also he uses race as a way to provide a focus on the oppression of slaves.

First, a great example of the theme of race is the poem of, “I too, sing America”, which is a poem that uses race as the major theme because it portrays a slave in a white household. It is apparent that this is about slavery when Hughes states in the poem, “They send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes company,” (INSERT CITATION). This quote expresses the fact that slaves were not allowed in the kitchen when company comes over because there was no equality during thus tome. Hughes does a great job in the next few lines where he shows that the slave has a vision in which whites and blacks can eat at the same table without racial prejudice. In, “I Too, Sing America”, Hughes uses race as a symbol of oppression on African Americans as well as a sign of hope for the future. When the slave is sent into the kitchen to eat this is a symbol of hope because it says he eats ...

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...nt to be, the homeland of the free.

To conclude, Langston Hughes uses race in his poems as a way to break down the racial barriers that are placed on society. It is seen in his poem, Let America be America Again, that he doesn’t only want racial equality for African Americans but for all races. It is also important to point out that some of his poems use race as a way to describe the struggles of slaves or the oppression on slaves. He does this to provide an insight into how African American’s view slavery and how they feel about it. The poems that Hughes writes can relate to today’s time period as well as his, although racial issues aren’t as severe as they were in his time there are still issues in 2014 that can be made more equal to all races. A great thing about his poetry is that many of the poems that have a theme of race also result in a subsiding theme of h