This paper will be about Langston Hughes and will discuss the topics hughes felt were important and his poems will be broken down to show you there was and is a deeper meaning behind everything. and all of his poems can be interpreted in many ways and can even be analyzed and can be relatable to all races. Langston Hughes is a well known African American writer /poet. Hughes is known for his hunger for change and the way he went about addressing the changes he felt needed to be made.
Hughes addressed these points in different ways through his poems and his novels, each one had a deeper meaning and a specific them than the title. Langston Hughes addressed the topics and his poems have a deeper meaning behind everything he writes in them Langston Hughes is a literary leader because he used the idea of social change to connect to the reader and keep them interested.
Langston Hughes was first acknowledged as an important literary figure during the early 1920s,which was a period well known as the “Harlem Renaissance” because of the number of black writers that were emerging during that time.
Hughes’s early works were then being criticized by many blacks for portraying what they thought to be an unattractive and bad outlook on the black life. In which hughes wasn’t trying to he was just all about social change and making people see things through the blacks eye and perspective. and not even just the blacks but everyone meaning different races and cultures. hughes was big on the ideal of social change he felt that if he could just get his message across hed be achieving something big and making a change for future generations. s one of his readers said “Without him and other people who actually spoke up we wouldnt have a voice today” Hughes poem “Sunset—Coney Island” goes “ The sun, Like the red yolk of a rotten egg, Falls behind the roller-coaster And the horizon sticks With a putrid odor of colors. Down on the beach A little Jewish tailor from the Bronx,With a bad stomach,Throws up the hot-dog sandwiches He ate in the afternoon, While life to him Is like a sick tomato In a garbage can”. (Hughes 1)this poem is a great example of how Langston Hughes described and saw the ugliness of life and the world.
Once again he uses similes, but Hughes described Sunset. Hughes describes the sun as being “like the red yolk of a rotten egg. ” The sun sets “with a putrid odor of colors,” and he also describes a man on the beach puking up hot dogs. Hughes real message in this poem is that life is neither easy nor beautiful. Life is difficult, harsh, and ugly for anyone not just for a specific race or ethnicity. Hughes other poem was “As I Grew Older” This poem is once again discussing the theme of dreams, but unlike the actual poem “Dreams,” this poem is just not simply saying that dreams are important.
In this poem Hughes is discussing his dream for a non-racist America, and the dream he had as a child of having a great bright future “Bright like a sun. ”hughes said. As a child, Hughes believed that the world was a good place where he would be able to achieve his dreams. However, as he grew older and he became exposed to the injustice of the world meaning the injustice of how African Americans were viewed and treated, “thick wall began to rise, blocking out the light of the sun” by that quote hughes meant he started seeing the real world and how everything wasnt always good as we imagine as a child .
In this poem, the wall represents racism and the sun represents hughe’s dreams. Hughes is exposed to the injustice of the world—racism and the struggle of being black he begins to lose sight of his dream. It is at that point that Hughes towards the end of poem is determined to resurrect his lost dream—“To break through the wall” to find his dream again and be happy,rather it be by personal changes or fu generations. Hughes poem “The South” is basically describing and breaking down Hughes love-hate relationship with the south.
Hughes refers to the south as having, “blood on its mouth” and being “scratching in the dead fire’s ashes for a Negro’s bones. ” This was said to be one of hughes most debated quote because of its graphic imagery that represents the mistreatment of African Americans and the violence and oppression that they faced in the south. However, Hughes also seemed somewhat reminiscent of the south, as he started describing the “cotton and the moon, warmth, earth, warmth, the sky, the sun, the stars, the magnolia-scented South. He called the south, “beautiful, like a woman,” but hughes also calls the south “a dark-eyed whore… cruel… syphilitic. ”Hughes admits that he would love the south, if only the south would love him back instead of turning its back on him because he was black. With no place for him in the south, hughes stated he started seeking the north as a “kinder” alternative where his children would be able to escape the racism, hatred, and violence that is known in the south. The poem offered insight into how African Americans viewed the south.
This showed he was willing to see the good in all bad situations. and that changed everyones outlook on the south even though he confused some. Hughes had a different style of writing,his style was simple yet smart he had lots info to back up his thoughts and opinions he had a need to let people see how he viewed things hoping to have a positive an effective outcome for the future generations. Hughes had a big need with trying to hope for a better and brighter future with everything being better than what he endured back then.
