Langston Hughes Harlem

1008 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance

Using both historical and biographical strategy to analyze “Harlem” by Langston Hughes reveals that the poet’s focus in writing this poem is to provide the reader an examination of the struggles of a black man trying to progress in a close-minded world. Langston Hughes was born in a world that most black people couldn’t tolerate. “His father, contemptuous of racist barriers that kept him from achieving his professional goals, settled in Mexico, where he prospered as a lawyer and landowner” (Bizot). That says a lot about Langston’s father’s character. Because once he was fed up, he ran away from cultural issues. But Hughes did not leave the struggles of being a black man. He decided to further his career in ways that most black people feared. …show more content…

The neighbors are not happy at all about black people moving into the neighborhood. So, they offered to pay the mother’s son, Walter, to not move into the area. Walter was going to give in like any other black man would because the money in those days, spoke volumes. And the situations that the family was facing during this play would finally be solved. In the poem, Hughes asked, “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” What he is telling reader is that if dreams are not chased or acted upon, they will eventually die. He continues to push the topic further by comparing a lifeless dream to a sore. This clearly means the seeking of one’s dream gets worse. During an era where black people were still treated less than their worth, it was hard to carry on a dream that no black person ever imagined. Despite all of what black society was enduring, Hughes remained in the fight for a dream, bigger than just one man. “Harlem” referred to not only about black society’s dream, but it was also Hughes dream. He made his first home in Harlem. And amongst the city was a type of music that moved the citizens there. And today, that would translate to

Show More
Related

  • Langston Hughes Biography Essay

    565 Words  | 2 Pages

    1920’s Harlem was a time of contrast and contradiction, on one hand it was a hotbed of crime and vice and on the other it was a time of creativity and rebirth of literature and at this movement’s head was Langston Hughes. Hughes was a torchbearer for the Harlem Renaissance, a literary and musical movement that began in Harlem during the Roaring 20’s that promoted not only African-American culture in the mainstream, but gave African-Americans a sense of identity and pride.

    Read More

  • Langston Hughes And Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    Langston Hughes’s poem, Harlem, inspired the title of A Raisin in The Sun for it’s close relation with the theme of dreams. His poem can also connect back with Disney’s quote; Disney states that anyone’s dream can come true if pursued, while Hughes talks about what happens when dreams aren’t pursued. He discusses many different things that can happen when dreams are deferred. Many times when they aren’t chased, dreams have a negative impact on that person. Harlem is definitely a negative poem, conveyed through phrases like rotten, crust, sag, and fester - all unpleasant words. The poem’s pace and placement of each guess as to what happens of a dream deferred is important to the message of the poem. In the beginning, Hughes talks about processes that are slower, like “...dry[ing] up like a raisin in the sun” (2-3) and “crust[ing] and syrup[ing] over -- like a sugary sweet”(7-8). At the end of the poem, the author talks wonders “...does it just explode?” (11), something that happens much quicker than all his other guesses. I think the reason for his choice of pace is because that’s often the path that a dream deferred takes; a slow process, the dream slowly fades away until, BOOM, there isn’t a dream left i...

    Read More

  • Life and Work of Langston Hughes

    1965 Words  | 4 Pages

    James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1902, to James Nathaniel Hughes, a lawyer and businessman, and Carrie Mercer (Langston) Hughes, a teacher. The couple separated shortly thereafter. James Hughes was, by his son’s account, a cold man who hated blacks (and hated himself for being one), feeling that most of them deserved their ill fortune because of what he considered their ignorance and laziness. Langston’s youthful visits to him there, although sometimes for extended periods, were strained and painful. He attended Columbia University in 1921-22, and when he died he, left everything to three elderly women who had cared for him in his last illness, and Langston was not even mentioned in his will.

    Read More

  • Langston Hughes

    1388 Words  | 3 Pages

    Langston Hughes was one of the first black men to express the spirit of blues and jazz

    Read More

  • Langston Hughes

    1517 Words  | 4 Pages

    James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin , Missouri . His parents divorced when he was a small child, and his father moved to Mexico . He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to Lincoln , Illinois , to live with his mother and her husband, before the family eventually settled in Cleveland , Ohio . It was in Lincoln , Illinois , that Hughes began writing poetry. Following graduation, he spent a year in Mexico and a year at Columbia University . During these years, he held odd jobs as an assistant cook, launderer, and a busboy, and travelled to Africa and Europe working as a seaman. In November 1924, he moved to Washington , D.C. Hughes's first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. In 1930 his first novel, Not Without Laughter, won the Harmon gold medal for literature.

    Read More

  • Langston Hughes

    2529 Words  | 6 Pages

    “I dream a world where… love will bless the earth and peace its paths adorn.” -- Langston Hughes

    Read More

  • Langston Hughes

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    Langston Hughes was a large influence on the African-American population of America. Some of the ways he did this was how his poetry influenced Martin Luther King Jr. and the Harlem Renaissance. These caused the civil rights movement that resulted in African-Americans getting the rights that they deserved in the United States. Hughes was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was young and his grandmother raised him. She got him into literature and education; she was one of the most important influences on him. He moved around a lot when he was young, due to his parents divorce, but remained a good student and graduated high school. After this he traveled the world and worked in different places, all the things he saw in his travels influenced him. In 1924 he settled down in Harlem where he became one of the important figures in the Harlem Renaissance. He enjoyed listening to blues and jazz in clubs while he wrote his poetry. The music that he enjoyed greatly influenced the style and rhythm of his poetry. The poem “Dream Variations” by Hughes is about an average African-American who dreams of a world where African-Americans are not looked at or treated differently and they can rest peacefully. Yet in real life this was not so, black people and white people were not equal. And the world was not as forgiving and nice as in their dream. This poem is a good example of Hughes writing because it is typical of three things. The first is the common theme of the average life of an African-American and their struggles. Secondly, the style of his writing which is based on the rhythm of jazz and blues- he uses a lot of imagery and similes. Lastly, his influences which are his lonely childhood and growing up as an Afric...

    Read More

  • Harlem by Langston Hughes

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    the poem “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” Is an illusion that explains how a dream and the life of

    Read More

  • Langston Hughes And The Harlem Renaissance

    634 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the 1920's and 30’s, America went through a period of astonishing artistic creativity, the majority of which was concentrated in one neighborhood of New York City, Harlem. The creators of this period of growth in the arts were African-American writers and other artists. Langston Hughes is considered to be one of the most influential writers of the period know as the Harlem Renaissance. With the use of blues and jazz Hughes managed to express a range of different themes all revolving around the Negro. He played a major role in the Harlem Renaissance, helping to create and express black culture. He also wrote of political views and ideas, racial inequality and his opinion on religion. I believe that Langston Hughes’ poetry helps to capture the era know as the Harlem Renaissance.

    Read More

  • Biography of Langston Hughes

    1369 Words  | 3 Pages

    Langston Hughes was probably the most well-known literary force during the Harlem Renaissance. He was one of the first known black artists to stress a need for his contemporaries to embrace the black jazz culture of the 1920s, as well as the cultural roots in Africa and not-so-distant memory of enslavement in the United States. In formal aspects, Hughes was innovative in that other writers of the Harlem Renaissance stuck with existing literary conventions, while Hughes wrote several poems and stories inspired by the improvised, oral traditions of black culture (Baym, 2221). Proud of his cultural identity, but saddened and angry about racial injustice, the content of much of Hughes’ work is filled with conflict between simply doing as one is told as a black member of society and standing up for injustice and being proud of one’s identity. This relates to a common theme in many of Hughes’ poems: that dignity is something that has to be fought for by those who are held back by segregation, poverty, and racial bigotry.

    Read More

  • Langston Hughes

    619 Words  | 2 Pages

    This statement is an excellent attention-getter. It tells about a dream that everyone would like without singling out any group of people to blame for the dream not coming true. Then as the poem goes on, he gets more and more specific. Hughes then goes on to dream that everyone “ll know sweet freedoms,/Where greed no longer saps the soul. Here Hughes is wishing to abolish greed.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of the Dream Deferred in A Raisin in the Sun and Harlem

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hughes, Langston. "Harlem." [1951] Literature. 5th ed. Eds. James H. Pickering and Jeffery D. Hoeper. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 1027-28.

    Read More

  • An African American's Dreams and “Harlem” by Langston Hughes

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Harlem” by Langston Hughes is a poem that talks about what happens when we postpones our dreams. The poem is made up of a series of similes and it ends with a metaphor. The objective of the poem is to get us to think about what happens to a dream that is put off, postponed; what happens when we create our very own shelve of dreams? The “dream” refers to a goal in life, not the dreams we have while sleeping, but our deepest desires. There are many ways to understand this poem; it varies from person to person. Some may see this poem as talking about just dreams in general. Others may see it as African-American’s dreams.

    Read More

  • Racial Tension In The Harlem Renaissance, By Langston Hughes

    1420 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement where African American poets were writing about the racial tension they experience. Most poems came from Harlem and were about the injustices and pride the black community felt. One famous poet was Langston Hughes. Hughes works were about the African American life starting in the twenties. Langston Hughes was the best writer of the Harlem Renaissance. He wanted his poems to the point and simple, rather than complex and wordy. His works were not written in sonnet like many other black poets. He believes that poem from African American poet should be different from their experiences. He wanted to tell real stories that including good and bad times that happen. His poems spoke to people everywhere, especially in the African American community. One of his poems goes over a hard time an African American would have to face when living under a landlord. Through the words in “Ballad of the LandLord” by Langston Hughes, themes of social injustices in the African American communities show the audience how African Americans were treated.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...urvive, and conquer life and society’s challenges. Hughes was an advocate and speaker for his community. He uses the memory of his past to instill pride in his African American community.

    Read More

More about Langston Hughes Harlem

Open Document