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Langston hughes' symbolism
Langston hughes harlem renaissance poems analysis
Theme, imagery and symbolism in the writings of langston hughes
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Langston Hughes was a pioneer for human rights. Not excluded from his cause is the poem Subway Rush Hour. The poem describes this subway car carrying so many lives barreling towards it destination. The people on the subway for a short time are equal. The reader discovers that just as the little pockets of peace branch off throughout the city that so should the equality in each car. These niches of harmony rush forward to take over the future and pervade through the entire United States. The speaker “Subway Rush Hour” argues that forced unity will spread equality through the use of equalizing diction, the title, and change of tone from uncomfortable to hopeful. The first and fourth line of the poem is “Mingled.” In the subway car the speaker is describing the people that are pressed into the …show more content…
car until it can fit no more.
The word mingled reflects the mingling of the bodies together in the subway. They are all intercrossing together in the compressed subway car, which leads to a neutrality among the passengers. There is no hierarchy in mingled, only a level blend of people, condensed in harmonious anarchy. The speaker continues with “Mingled / breath and smell” (1-2). Breath and smell are equalizers throughout humanity. By choosing these words specifically the speaker is suggesting that all people are equal and that no one has the right to place themselves as the higher being. All life can be simplified to different integral aspects of all humanity. Breathing and smelling are two of those things. They are not only for the privileged but also for every single person. “Mingled / black and white” trivializes the importance of color (4-5). By comparing the colors to each other the speaker downgrades color
identification as superior. The speaker is arguing that white and black are the same as purple and blue. They are both colors but one is not better than the other. This is significant because of the segregation at the time the poem was written. Dr. Brian McCammack wrote that “African Americans could be residentially segregated with housing costs, exclusionary covenants, city planning, and discriminatory hiring practices, anyone with the five-cent fare was able to ride the El or the subway” (974). The subway was the one part of an African Americans life where they were seen as equals with whites. All races were mixed together and the conditions were fair to all people. The title of the poem is highly significant to the meaning. The title can be broken into two parts: “Subway Rush” and “Hour.” Subway Rush which replicates the subways job of rushing people around. In the poem the subway is traveling towards something. To its passengers it is traveling towards their destination but on a deeper level the subway is taking the people towards their future. We see the equality portrayed in the subway as the destination for the United States in the future. The subway is the means by which people arrive at their destination just as society will arrive at equality. The non-segregation of the subway served as a beacon of peace and harmony to all the United States. The speaker is saying that the model of equality in the subway system is the key to unlocking equality in all parts of the world. If people were to keep the same attitude towards others that they do in the subway during their everyday life, equality wouldn’t be an issue. In the word hour we see the emphasis on brevity that provides hope for the future. The culture was rapidly shifting towards equality, which gave the speaker hope that the destination was soon at hand. Thus put together Subway Rush Hour implies a hope for equality in the future. The poem at first read through is highly negative. We can sense the passengers uncomfortable attitude in the nature of the subway described with close proximity and smells. The lines “so near” and “so close” add to this uneasy tone by conjuring the image of people squished together in the subway car until they can fit no more (3,6). Even the first impression of the title is negative. Rush hour is known for the worst time to travel. However in the last line of the poem the speaker shifts the tone from disgruntled to hope. The line is “no room for fear” (7). The speaker uses this line to look back on the seemingly negative poem in a more positive manner. The smells and proximity of the passengers may be uncomfortable but there are positives. The closeness of the people can be seen as a positive because as Dr. Meta Jones explains, “a train car’s confined space is not favorable to racial separatism and thus not conducive for harboring animosity” (1148). With the example of the title we can understand the rushing towards the future rather than an annoyance in the public transportation system. The speaker is saying that although the path to equality may be uncomfortable the end result is worth it. The lack of fear the human race would gain through equality is worth the process wrought with annoyance. The poem “Subway Rush Hour” provided a clear picture of the future the speaker longed for. The subway dashed forward in its cause and equality is much more prevalent in todays society. The awkwardness of rush hour has been experienced and we have evolved to a higher understanding of what equality should look like. Subways still charge through cities and there are still destinations our culture needs to reach. However we have come a long way from where we began and I look forward to the journey ahead, despite any complications or awkward encounters.
In this poem, “On the Subway”, written by Sharon Olds brings two worlds into proximity. We will identify the contrast that develops both portraits in the poem and discuss the insights the narrator comes to because of the experience. The author refers to several literary techniques as tone, poetic devices, imagery, and organization. The poem talks about a historical view based on black and white skin. It positions the two worlds the point of view of a black skinned and a white skinned. The boy is described as having a casual cold look for a mugger and alert under the hooded lids. On the other hand, based on his appearance the white skinned person felt threatened by the black boy. She was frightened that he could take her coat, brief case, and
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
Recently you have received a letter from Martin Luther King Jr. entitled “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In Dr. King’s letter he illustrates the motives and reasoning for the extremist action of the Civil Rights movement throughout the 1960’s. In the course of Dr. King’s letter to you, he uses rhetorical questioning and logistical reasoning, imagery and metaphors, and many other rhetorical devices to broaden your perspectives. I am writing this analysis in hopes you might reconsider the current stance you have taken up regarding the issues at hand.
Although Langston Hughes’ “Why, You Reckon?” is a short story, it encapsulates differences between races and classes in American society. The story highlights the desperate and hopeless lives of poor African-Americans in Harlem, New York, who would do anything just so they can fill their stomachs. Hughes adds a contrast by putting in a white man who uses his money and privileges to try to experience the exuberance of Harlem but fails to do so. Written in 1934, during the peak of racial divide in America, Langston Hughes’ “Why, you reckon?” shows that real experiences, not money, contribute to happiness.
The forceful subjugation of a people has been a common stain on history; Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail was written during the cusp of the civil rights movement in the US on finding a good life above oppressive racism. Birmingham “is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known,” and King’s overall goal is to find equality for all people under this brutality (King). King states “I cannot sit idly… and not be concerned about what happens,” when people object to his means to garner attention and focus on his cause; justifying his search for the good life with “a law is just on its face and unjust in its application,” (King). Through King’s peaceful protest, he works to find his definition of good life in equality, where p...
The civil rights movement may have technically ended in the nineteen sixties, but America is still feeling the adverse effects of this dark time in history today. African Americans were the group of people most affected by the Civil Rights Act and continue to be today. Great pain and suffering, though, usually amounts to great literature. This period in American history was no exception. Langston Hughes was a prolific writer before, during, and after the Civil Rights Act and produced many classic poems for African American literature. Hughes uses theme, point of view, and historical context in his poems “I, Too” and “Theme for English B” to expand the views on African American culture to his audience members.
Because of that, his writing seems to manifest a greater meaning. He is part of the African-American race that is expressed in his writing. He writes about how he is currently oppressed, but this does not diminish his hope and will to become the equal man. Because he speaks from the point of view of an oppressed African-American, the poem’s struggles and future changes seem to be of greater importance than they ordinarily would. The point of view of being the oppressed African American is clearly evident in Langston Hughes’s writing.
First we will look at the rhetorical devices used in Martin Luther King’s speech and how he effectively uses ethos, pathos, logos, and numerous helpful devices to make a point that segregation needs to end. Next we will look how Lincoln uses certain parallel structure and repetition to also address the need for ending segregation. Although the same messages are being introduced in their speeches, some rhetoric’s are different.
For many years, African Americans were forced to live without a voice and many accepted the fact that they were seen as inferior to the white race. Although they were excluded from being a part of society, built up emotions constructed beautiful pieces of poetry that have become important aspects of today’s literature. Langston Hughes’, “ I Too, Sing America” and Claude Mckay’s, “The White House” will be looked at closely to determine how each poem portrays emotional discontent and conflicted emotional states.
“There’s never been equality for me, nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.” Hughes quickly puts himself as the one being oppressed. His reader quickly discover that he is portraying himse...
Hughes’s poem, “Let America be America Again” conveys a forward-looking, emboldened tone. The speaker acknowledges the suffering of all of the different people, from the “poor white” (Hughes 19) to the “red man” (Hughes 20) to the “Negro” (Hughes 32). The speaker attempts to name all who have suffered in America, but continues to dream that
“I swear to the Lord, I still can't see, why Democracy means, everybody but me”. These are the words of Langston Hughes, a black writer and poet from the early twentieth century. This man was famous for his portrayal of the realities of black life and culture in America. Although some literary critics may feel that Hughes’s poetry presented an unattractive view of black life, his poetry demonstrated the reality of their lives. Many of Hughes’s poems stand out in their description of the black experience. Some of the poems that stand out include “Ku Klux,” “House In the World,” and “Children’s Rhymes.” These poems delve into the world of fear, segregation, and the lost innocence of black culture. These poems genuinely demonstrate the difficult lives most black people had to live.
Racism and equality was a major problem that dominated America and is still a major issue today. During Martin Luther King Jr.’s time, these problems were at its’ highest peak. On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his revolutionary “I Have A Dream” speech in Lincoln Memorial Park. This speech demanded justice and equality for African Americans. King was one of many protesters who fought long and hard for equality and freedom to all Americans. His speech told the dreams of millions of Americans, demanding a free, equal, and just nation. In his speech, he stressed the idea of equality between colored and whites, and connected his pain with millions. Ethos, pathos, and metaphor are three of the elements that made Martin Luther
This poem, brimming with sudden and broken rhythms, is characteristic of jazz riffs popular in the 1920s. In “Subway Rush Hour,” Hughes uses the musicality of his poetry and incorporates it with an important social statement regarding the relation status between blacks and whites.
The four poems by Langston Hughes, “Negro,” “Harlem,” “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” and “Theme for English B” are all powerful poems and moving poems! Taken all together they speak to the very founding of relations of whites and blacks all the way down through history. The speaker in the poem the, “Negro” and also, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” tells the tale of freedom and enslavement that his people have endured, and it heralds their wisdom and strength. The poems “Harlem” and “Theme for English B” speaks to the continuous unfair treatment that the blacks have received at the hands of white people throughout the years.