Analysis Of Langston Hughes English Literature Essay

Change is hard to accept, but it’s also hard to bring. Change can be brought in a number of different ways; it can be brought through violence, speeches or words. Wars forced change through violence, Gandhi brought it through speeches and Hughes caused it by his poems. Winston Churchill once said, “There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction”. Winston Churchill believed in change as long as it was for the better. Langston Hughes also believed in the same change. He wanted to change America and make them accept African Americans as their own American brothers. Langston Hughes witnessed the racial prejudice against his community. He was terrified at the racial inequalities faced by African Americans, which influenced his poetry and made him dedicate his work to bringing change. Hughes changed his poetry style, during the Harlem Renaissance in 1920s, as he started to admire jazz music, manipulating his poetry towards music. During the early 1930s, Langston Hughes was largely influenced by The Great Depression. Hughes’ thoughts became pessimistic and his dreams became hopeless, as he started to express it in his poetic work. Hughes’ surroundings influenced his thoughts, which encouraged him to reflect it in his poetry. This caused Langston Hughes’ poetry to evolve from discussions of racial inequalities, to jazz poetry, and then to his pessimistic views on life.

As a result from witnessing racial abuse, Langston Hughes decided not to be a bystander. Hughes started to reflect his surroundings in his work. He began to write in his poems the tough challenges faced by African Americans. Hughes based most of his work on the theme of social injustice. He expresses, in his poems, the racial inequalities faced by African Americans, as they were subject to low class and discrimination. His critics often objected that he portrayed lower-class aspects of life through his choice of subject matter, but Hughes often felt that he needed to communicate that, in order to convey his message. Hughes wanted to bring change through his poems; he wanted to show that Blacks are not really different from other ethnic groups. Hughes truly portrayed this through his poem “I, Too Sing America”. In this poem, he illustrates unimportance of blacks during that time when he writes, “I am the darker brother / They send me to eat in the kitchen / When company comes” (Hughes 2-4). Hughes first conveys the image of how blacks are treated. Then he continues on, “Tomorrow, / I’ll be at the table / When company comes.” (Hughes 8-10). Hughes then shows the change that he strives to cause. The poem continues on to show that the change is accepted as, “They’ll see how beautiful I am / And be ashamed” (Hughes 16-17). Hughes then closes off the poem with, “I, too, am America” (Hughes 18) and shows that Blacks are not really different, as they are also American and sing the same national anthem as other Americans. Hughes expresses deep concern for the suffering that his community faced, through his poems, and aims to bring change.

Later on during the 1920s, a new movement started in America known as the Harlem Renaissance. Most African Americans started to move from the rural agricultural South to the urban industrial North during 1914-1918. During this time many African American gathered in New York. Many settled in New York and in the district of Harlem. This movement brought many talented African Americans together. It also brought many good black musicians together, who publicized jazz music during that time. The Harlem Renaissance also brought many artistic Blacks who had their talents in art and literature. These African Americans found a new way to explore and experience black life in America. Many intellectual African American and artists challenged racism and rejected to mimic white American styles. These talented and intellectual artists celebrated their black dignity and creativity. This caused these African Americans to express their true feelings about the racism they faced, and their urge for freedom and democratic rights. The African Americans explored their identities and celebrated their black culture, as they tried to renew it from the existing low class perception. With so many intellectual and talented figures, writers, artists, and poets started producing a variety of original work dealing with African-American life. These works then promoted and attracted many other blacks from all over the world and established a new cultural community within America.

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Hence, Langston Hughes became connected to the Harlem Renaissance. He quickly became known for his work during the Renaissance and led poetry division. He established a different style in his poetry and innovated jazz poetry in his work. Hughes started to listen and admire blues and jazz music. He spent much time in blues and jazz clubs, which influenced him to write about jazz poetry. Hughes really enjoyed listening to jazz and wrote it in his poems, as he said, “I tried to write poems like the songs they sang on Seventh Street…(these songs) had the pulse beat of the people who keep on going.” (Famous Poets and Poems, www.famouspoetsandpoems.com). Hughes changed his theme of his poetry and started to write in the spirit of jazz. Many of his poems were set to music and communicated operettas, a genre of opera. Hughes’ jazz poetry is usually represented through the poem “The Weary Blues”. In this poem Hughes talks about him listening to jazz as he writes,

“He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.

Sweet Blues!

Coming from a black man’s soul

O Blues!” (Hughes 13-16).

Hughes shows his love for jazz music during the Harlem Renaissance, as he changes the theme of his poetry and follows a transition to jazz poetry.

Consecutively, The Great Depression brought an end to the Harlem Renaissance and the African American literary activities. It forced many of the talented and artistic African Americans to become full time labourers, as there was scarce of jobs. Many artists quit their literary work to make a living for themselves and to support their families. This destroyed the hopes and dreams of many artists of their freedom and rights. Some artists also became involved in radical politics, since they not only felt racial injustice, but they also suffered through job loss and lower wages. This made most intellectual poets hopeless about their survival and freedom. A struggle for life started as money and food become a big issue, and for the African Americans their colour was also another issue. It was hard for them to speak out, since they could not make a living from just literary work at a time like this, causing most to support radical politics for some hope. The Great Depression caused hopelessness and people had negative views about their dreams, as it turned down hope for a bright future for the Black communities. This lead to people having pessimistic views on life and their life became more miserable as they continued to struggle and establish their dreams once again.

However, Langston Hughes also suffered a lot from The Great Depression. His dreams of bringing change seemed hopeless now. Now that the literary activities had gone down, Hughes also struggled for survival. Langston Hughes’ poetry also changed during this time, as Hughes became interested in socialism. Hughes supported the Soviet’s ideologies of communism as there were no flaws of equality. The communistic economies presented struggle and poverty, but Hughes still believed in it since there was no racism or classes in society. Hughes took part in the communist party in the US, along with other Black figures. Seeing his dreams and of other Black artists become bleak, Hughes’ thoughts became pessimistic and were reflected in his poetry. In his poem “Life Is Fine”, Hughes writes his pessimistic thoughts,

“I took the elevator

Sixteen floors above the ground.

I thought about my baby

And thought I would jump down” (Hughes 10-13).

In another poem Hughes writes about his dreams being put off as suggested by the title “Dream Deferred”, in which Hughes writes “What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up / Like a raisin in the sun?” (Hughes 1-3). This shows that Hughes became hopeless about his dreams coming true, as they were belated due to The Great Depression. Hughes thoughts became pessimistic as his hopes for his dreams turned bleak, but he still retains some hope to keep him on track and to keep him writing his poems.

In conclusion, Hughes brings a major change in the eyes of Americans, through his influential and powerful poetry. He witnesses the social injustice faced by African Americans, finds his admiration in jazz music, and suffers pessimistic thoughts and weakened hope through the 1930s. Langston Hughes reflects the ambience in his poetry, as his themes change according to his feelings, thoughts and setting. Hughes’ poetry emerges from examination of social injustice, followed by jazz poetry, and then to his pessimistic views on life. Hughes plans of bringing change are revealed in his poems and become his dreams. They are however, shunned as he faces the Great Depression and the suffering it causes to his community. His dreams are deferred and his hopes of bringing change among his people diminish. He learns from his experience and relates it in his poem “Dreams”, as he writes, “Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die /

life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.” (Hughes 1-2). Langston Hughes teaches his readers and admirers to fight their dreams and to not let them delay, as dreams become your success to life.