Hardships Expressed in Hughes On the Road and Mother to Son
African-American citizens who live in the United States have experienced a tough life through personal experiences. They have struggled to obtain basic civil rights--a struggle that has spanned many centuries (Mabunda 311).
Langston Hughes, author of the short story "On the Road" and the poem "Mother to Son," often illustrated in his writing the hardships experienced by the characters--products of African American life in the United States. While Hughes and other young African-American authors wanted to define and celebrate black art and culture, they were also responsible for changing the preconceived notions of most Americans' erroneous ideas of black life (Mabunda 696). The cultural aspects of Hughes' poems exhibited life as an African-American in the late 1910s to the early 1960s. His views, like many writers in his era, came directly from personal experience, which provided the reader with a sense of communication that illustrated--with art rather than essay--the ills of the racist world. L. Mpho Mabunda proclaims that the issues and grim realities of the African-American "could be experienced through the lives of characters and in verse, and the message delivered more subtly and effectively" (696).
The overall theme and purpose of "On the Road" and "Mother to Son" are centered around an illustration of the hardships experienced by most African-American citizens in the early part of the century. Both genres graphically detail the lifestyle and environment in which the African-American lived. In the 20th century, many of the black communities in America have existed in a perpetual state of crisis ("Black American"). According to Kenneth Clark in his add...
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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.
Hughes, Langston. The Negro mother, and other dramatic recitations. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1971. Print.
The African-American Years: Chronologies of American History and Experience. Ed. Gabriel Burns Stepto. New York: Charles Scribner 's Sons, 2003.
During the early to mid-twentieth century Langston Hughes contributed vastly to a very significant cultural movement later to be named the “Harlem Renaissance.” At the time it was named the “New Negro Movement,” which involved African Americans in creating and expressing their words through literature and art. Hughes contributed in a variety of different aspects including plays, poems, short stories, novels and even jazz. He was even different from other notable black poets at the time in the way that he shared personal experiences rather than the ordinary everyday experiences of black America. His racial pride helped mold American politics and literature into what it is today.
other hand, obesity accounts for about 13 percent of children in the United States, which is why physical education programs should be one of the last things to go. They also help students release the stress they have built up through out the day and teach them the ...
Rose, Arnold. “The Negro in America”. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated, 1964. Print
...on American soil, they were treated with disrespect and forced into a life of servitude and pain. However, they were able to change adapt and find hope even when it didn’t seem as though there was any to be found. The African American culture has been greatly shaped around what their ancestors were put through and the struggles that they endured. The pain and suffering that was inflicted among them will never be forgotten and will forever be apart of the African American culture.
Chapter 2: Canada’s Physical Base emphasizes reasoning for which its physical geography attributes to its regional geography, along with the population distribution and developing core regions. This chapter outlines main geological structure, landforms, climate, and impact on human a...
...education to all the children in school. This will, in turn, guide our future generation to follow a hale and hearty exercising and diet programs. In addition, such programs will initiate a smaller percentage of children becoming obese and thus growing up as regular healthy adults. As a society, we should depend on the schools to educate our children on physical education and healthy eating habits. Physical education classes should be available for all grades from kindergarten to twelfth grade in order to face the problems of obesity in our society.
Proponents of physical education often contend their case with these and other similar arguments, but upon closer examination of the physical education system, its true use and effectiveness are highly questionable. Those who argue that physical education is integral to the nation’s health must reexamine the nation in which we live, a nation in which more than one-third of adults are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pennsylvanian legislation has mandated physical education since 1999, but since 1999, the adult obesity rate has risen by 11%. Regardless of the proponents’ claims, physical education is not having its intended effect on public health. (Note: I am not trying to suggest that physical education is deleterious to public health. I am just showing that physical education has done a negligible job promoting health). Furthermore, physical education consumes an entire class period of a student’s day, a class period which could be spent learning one of many highly important, pertinent 21st century subjects that the Common Core has inexplicably ignored: micro and macro economics, U.S.
Hughes, Langston. "Black Identity and Langston Hughes" The Craft of Literature third edition. Gioia, Dana and Kennedy X.J. New York: Longman, 2003. 772-773.
The purpose of play is to develop intelligence, according to the cognitive development theory. When children play, they learn to solve problems. One of the biggest contributors to understanding play was Jean Piaget. Piaget believed, all people must adapt to the environment through assimilation and accommodation. Piaget said, ”Childhood play is a form of assimilation and any behavior that is done for enjoyment can be defined as play” (1962). Sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational thinking are all stages of cognition developed by Piaget. These stages of development provide a framework for intellectualizing childhood behavior and are made apparent through play.
It is hard to deny the fact that a good body will get you more attention. Women have always wanted the perfect body and would do just about anything to get it. These days, women are not the only ones concerned with their image. Studies have shown that more and more men are worrying about their appearance, especially because of peer pressure. However, there are fewer things for men to do in order to get well built, muscular bodies. This means that in many cases, men must turn to steroids. Steroids are a very dangerous drug, with many terrible side effects (InfoFacts).
Physical education must be mandatory for students all over the world. It provides many conveniences for children later in life. Sports in school encourage kids to play more outside of school and from there, their health increases. Unquestionably, physical education improves kids’
The development of technology has drastically changed the way we look at physical education. Today we have learned that physical education plays a huge role in our youth and making sure they are participating but, technology has contributed to a secular decline in physical activity. Less and less children are participating in physical activity and more in video games and cell phones. Because of this our nation is becoming unhealthy, contributing to doctors prescribing more exercise as a method to becoming healthier. Another point that influences physical education is age, gender, ethnics, education, and income. Many Physical education teachers have to deal with many different children from all different places. It is extremely important that the teacher know where their students are from and how to try to teach them so they understand and can learn like everyone else. Some children may have learning disabilities and the teacher will have to know how to help this student. Some children may get left out or picked on because of age, race, gender, ect. The teacher needs to make sure that they are not left out or picked on so that this will not play a role later in life of not liking physical education and it taking a bigger effect in later life, like becoming overweight, and being afraid of gyms or working out. The history of physical education that came after WWI was greatly needed. Many men during WWI went into war unfit and could not do proper activities because they were not fit to do them, so physical educators developed conditioning programs for armed forces. “After the war, health statistics had later revealed that the nation was in poor shape 1/3 of the men were physically unfit for service” (Wuest and