Langston Hughes has showed the happiness and pain of the African American struggles in his poetry and plays. Throughout the Harlem Reniassance Langston wrote 800 poems and was one of the most infuencal people in black history. His lyrical jazz flow gave is poems and short stories a creative artistic style to tell his story. He touched and influence many artists past, present, and future. In his poems and stories he taught African Americans to be proud of who they are and where they come from. He was a verbal and active speaker for African Americans by uplifting blacks, he wanted equality across the world. He gave his audience a sense of joy, laughter, struggle and his honesty. He painted an image to make the people understand whats going
Langston Hughes is a well-known African-American writer who emerged from the Harlem Renaissance, which is also known as the turning point for African-American culture and literature. Because he is identified as such a prominent writer, he became honored as “Shakespeare of Harlem.” At an early age, Hughes wished to voice and represent his African-American culture through writing. Because Hughes had a range of styles and genres, he managed to write and publish sixteen volumes of poetry, ten collections of short fiction, two novels, two volumes of autobiography, nine books for children, and over a dozen works for the stage. His remarkable works are based on the rhythms of African-American music that combine elements from the old and new worlds of America. In his poetry, he expresses racial pride to African-American literature during enslavement, and he reveals the self-respect and inner strengths of blacks during the twentieth century. In his autobiography Hughes states that the folk stories he heard from his mentor and grandmother greatly influenced him as a writer. Hughes was also extremely passionate about the blues, and he was one of the few to take it as achievements and expressions of black culture. His desire for the blues acted as a stimulus to the productive reaction that makes his collections so influential.
During the 1920s and 1930s, there was a cultural movement for creativity known as the Harlem Renaissance, and Langston Hughes was one of its most important members. He was a well-known dramatist, novelist, and poet. He is renowned for his potent and moving artwork that clearly illustrates the hardships and traumas faced by African Americans. Hughes' poetry frequently addressed the social and economic injustices that African Americans experienced while also praising the grace and strength of black culture. His work is still a monument to the ability of art to speak and promote social change, therefore his remarks still have value today.
Langston Hughes is an extremely successful and well known black writer who emerged from the Harlem Renaissance (“Langston Hughes” 792). He is recognized for his poetry and like many other writers from the Harlem Renaissance, lived most of his life outside of Harlem (“Langston Hughes” 792). His personal experiences and opinions inspire his writing intricately. Unlike other writers of his time, Hughes expresses his discontent with black oppression and focuses on the hardships of his people. Hughes’ heartfelt concern for his people’s struggle evokes the reader’s emotion. His appreciation for black music and culture is evident in his work as well. Langston Hughes is a complex poet whose profound works provide insight into all aspects of black
Langston Hughes was one of the great writers of his time. He was named the “most renowned African American poet of the 20th century” (McLaren). Through his writing he made many contributions to following generations by writing about African American issues in creative ways including the use of blues and jazz. Langston Hughes captured the scene of Harlem life in the early 20th century significantly influencing American Literature. He once explained that his writing was an attempt to “explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America” (Daniel 760). To fulfill this task, he wrote 15 volumes of poetry, six novels, three books, 11 plays, and a variety of non-fiction work (Daniel 760). He also edited over 50 books in his time (McKay).
Langston Hughes is regarded as one of the "most eloquent of American poets to have sung the wounds of political injustice." While some of his poetry can be classified as non-racial most of it can be categorized as literature of protest. Hughes background and personal beliefs were quite influential in his writing and it is reflected in his tremendous discontent for the "white man's world." Three of his works that that display this feeling and similar theme include "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "Porter," and "Refugee in America."
Langston Hughes’s writing showcases a variety of themes and moods, and his distinguished career led his biographer, Arnold Rampersad, to describe him as “perhaps the most representative black American writer.” Many of his poems illustrate his role as a spokesman for African American society and the working poor. In others, he relates his ideas on the importance of heritage and the past. Hughes accomplishes this with a straightforward, easily understandable writing style that clearly conveys his thoughts and opinions, although he has frequently been criticized for the slightly negative tone to his works.
Langston Hughes was a poet with many artistic abilities. His writing and drawings established the lifestyles of many African Americans during this time. In a poem called “I, Too” Hughes express his feelings as an African American, a brother, and someone who deserves to fit in society. He states “I, too sing America” (1039). Hughes saw himself as an individual who has a voice in America even though his skin is a little darker. In a poem called “Democracy” Hughes states: “I have as much right as the other fellow has to stand on my own two feet and own the land” (1043). Hughes was speaking for every African American whom were still dealing with segregation, racism, and freedom.
“He was the first nationally known african american leader in the U.S. history”.www.encyclopedia.com. He was also known for the first african american ever to be nominated for vice president, But he declined the nomination, which had came from a little known equal rights party. Till the end of his life he had begun lecturing and write for the cause of freedom. He died in Washington D.C. after he just attended a meeting for the national council of women. After he died many people wrote books about him and his amazing escape from slavery and how he survived without getting caught .
Langston Hughes remains known as the most impressive, durable Negro writer in America. His tone of voice is as sure, and the manner he speaks with is original. During the twenties when most American poets were turning inward, writing obscure and esoteric poetry, Hughes was turning outward using language and themes, attitudes, and ideas familiar to anyone who had the ability simply to read. He often employs dialect distinctive of the black urban dweller or the rural black peasant. Throughout Langston Hughes career, he was aware of injustice and oppression, and used his poetry as a means of opposing them. James D. Tyms says, “Hughes writes lyric poems. But his “lyric” persona is often able to copy this social convention of the Negro Folk. Their use of the method of the ballad, to tell others how they feel” (191). Hughes lived as an
Langston Hughes clearly connects with a wide range of audiences through the simplicity that surrounds his poetry. The beauty of this manner in which he wrote his poetry, is that it grasp people by illustrating his narratives of the common lifestyles experienced by the current American generation. His art form expresses certain questionable ideologies of life and exposes to the audience what it takes to fully comprehend what being an American truly means. Each individual poem describes and illustrates the strength and hardships the African American community was experiencing. Through his literature art form of poetry, Hughes was able to convey the common assertions of
My course at Columbia University included a lecture on the esteemed Langston Hughes. We learned about his impact in the Harlem Renaissance and his lasting importance to the African American community. The poem that affected me the most was Theme for English B, a reflective assignment from Hughes’s English class.
Langston Hughes’ style is blues and jazz, he mainly writes poetry and short stories. He’s known for being the voice of African Americans in 1920s, beginning the Harlem Renaissance. He also gives his characters meaning, he uses characters to portray a bigger picture of the story. He also uses a lot of slang in his writing. His writing also provides his readers with a purpose to the story as way to empathize.
The well known poet Langston Hughes was an inspiring character during the Harlem Renaissance to provide a push for the black communities to fight for the rights they deserved. Hughes wrote his poetry to deliver important messages and provide support to the movements. When he was at a young age a teacher introduced him to poets Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, and they inspired him to start his own. Being a “darker brother,” as he called blacks, he experienced and wanted his rights, and that inspired him. Although literary critics felt that Langston Hughes portrayed an unattractive view of black life, the poems demonstrate reality. Hughes used the Blues and Jazz to add effect to his work as well as his extravagant word use and literary
Despite his own very liberal beliefs, Hughes defended African American activists who held more conservative views. Langston Hughes was not just a poet but an artist, who used words to express himself, but other forms of art influenced him, and his work crossed over into other mediums. Langston Hughes influenced many other people with his art -- young writers and artists looked up to him. African Americans found in him a voice for their own experiences and culture -- a voice that hadn 't been heard until Langston Hughes. He inspired many other artists of all races to write, draw, play, and sing.
Credited as being the most recognizable figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes played a vital role in the Modernist literary movement and the movement to revitalize African American culture in the early 20th century. Hughes’s poems reflect his personal struggle and the collective struggle of African Americans during this cultural revival.