Langston Hughes Literary Devices

Decent Essays
In the poem life is fine the writer is Langston Hughes. He is an African American writer during the Harlem Renaissance, At this time lots of people were going through hard times trying to make a living, and Langston Hughes was one of those people. The poem talks about Langston Hughes going through hard times and wanting to give up because thing we're getting really rough for him, but he preservers and decides to keep going. This poem uses literary devices such as repetition and verbal irony.

In Langston Hughes poem life is fine he highlights repetition and verbal irony to get his point across. Hughes uses repetition in a way to give us an image of what he wants us to know. He uses repetition a lot in this poem mostly at the end

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    The short story “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes and “The Six Rows Of Pompons” by Toshio Mori have a common theme which is with a good leader leads to responsibility. In both of the stories the to people that teach the two younger kids in the story how to be more responsible. In “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes the main character Roger Gets taught respect. A quote that shows he got taught responsibility is “The boy wanted to say something else other than “Thank you, m’am” to Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, but he couldn’t do so as he turned at the barren stoop and looked back at the large woman in the door.…

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    "Middle Passages" is a description of meshing stories that shapes two centuries of African-American journeys through the continent. Tremendous, multidimensional history of the complex, difficult relationship between African Americans, from the time of early enslavement to the present, with the "homeland" Africa an introduction in the senselessness of colonialism and its evil effects on the region, in addition to in the dangerous injury still continuing in various countries in Africa consequently, of recent civil wars and the many unsuccessful/obstructed self-governments. Campbell's eye-opening discovery is shown throughout the book, starting with the opening about Langston Hughes. “Overcome with emotion as he sails for Africa in 1923, a young…

    • 224 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “Minstrel Man,” by Langston Hughes, repetition, metaphor, and imagery are used to strengthen the theme that sorrow can be hidden by putting up joyful actions. To begin with, repetition is used when Hughes repeats the phrase, “Because my mouth is wide with laughter” to start each stanza. Repetition is used in this expression to highlight that no matter how happy he may seem to be, there will always be something about him that will be kept hidden. Secondly, metaphor is used when Hughes quotes, “I have held my pain so long?” and “You do not hear my inner cry?”…

    • 179 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Langston Hughes has been revered as the "’O. Henry of Harlem,’ the ‘Dean of Negro Writers in America,’ and the ‘Negro Poet Laureate,’" as well as “’the Poet Laureate’ of Black America’” (Scott 1; Waldron 140). He was a pivotal figure in the Harlem Renaissance and, in fact, defined the movement from a literary point of view. He also contributed an unsurpassed personal account of the movement in his autobiography The Big Sea (Gates and McKay 1251).…

    • 1638 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the poem, Hughes contrasts his hopes for America with the reality of life for those outside of the socially and economically dominant racial, religious, and social groups. Langston writes the poem not only from the perspective of a black man discriminated against, but from every form of down-trodden and abused person in America. He uses rhyme to draw attention to the poetic element of his message. Words such as “be and “free” in lines 2 and 4, “dreamed and “schemed’ in lines 6 and 8, “wreathe’ and “breathe” in lines 12 and 14, all demonstrates rhyming. Hughes uses the word machine on line 34 when he says “I am the worker sold to the machine.”…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    This poem is told by the poor, the pushed away or shunned, and the workers. These people are the people who suffer from rough conditions and depression. At the very beginning Hughes shows the true feelings that will strike those dreams of being high in status or not having to look up to someone right out of the sky, “America was never America to me” (Hughes, line 5). This line tells so much in so little time, it shows how he and how everyone at that time feels like they have been cheated and tricked, it will tell that everything anyone’s ever said was wrong and its nothing but a dream. Hughes also writes, “and who are you that draws your veil across the stars” (line 18).…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Langston Hughes Landlord

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages

    After reading the poem one begins to wonder what Hughes is trying to say in his poem or what point he’s…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Langston Hughes is a well-known African American Poet. Hughes had many literary talents he wrote short stories, novel, screenplays, plays, autobiographer, and children’s books. Hughes also had a very powerful voice which encourages many people to follow him. Langston devoted a lot of his literatures to the economics, politicians, and social issues that were going in the world. He was also a very important figure in the Harlem Renaissance.…

    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There have been numerous poets that have graced the Earth with their talents, providing humans with some of the simplest words; however, those simple words could have a deeper meaning than that of the ocean. One of these poets, Langston B. Hughes, was born in Joplin, Missouri. As an African-American, he faced many hardships in furthering his learning. While studying in New York during the Harlem Renaissance, he was inspired to write poetry. He had many works of poetry, “Theme for English B” being a product of the Harlem Renaissance.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Langston Hughes wrote “Harlem” as a prediction of the upcoming clash African Americans would embrace in order to gain civil liberties. The poem also serves as a rallying cry to those pondering what to do with their frustration of the way blacks were treated in America before the civil rights movement. Hughes delivers an emotional appeal to readers, urging them to wake up and see the future of a people bursting with ambition but held back by discrimination. In the poem "Harlem" Hughes uses figurative language to powerfully convey the consequences of oppression which deny black Americans the dream of equality. Hughes uses similes, anaphora, alliteration, and metaphor to help the reader visualize and empathize with the plight of African Americans…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Langston Hughes was known as an iconic figure in the Harlem Renaissance, basically as the flowering of developing African-American literature and the unique artistic form in the 1920’s in Manhattan. Not only Did Mr. Hughes write promote along with influence African –American Culture, it brought attention to the highlights of African- Americans s they suffered injustice, depression and overall the radical issues we still face today. In his famous poem’s “I, Too” and “Theme for English B” both show how Langston felt towards the political views on equal civil rights and how blacks suffered from the treatment under segregations laws meant for African-Americans. Both of Langston poems use first person speech…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Towards the end, the speaker brings up the struggle of racial differences in America. These racial differences are used to highlight a truth. In this Poem Hughes uses questions, structure,…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Life is not always gentle (A discussion on the theme “life” in Spoon River Anthology) In the spoon river anthology Edgar Lee Masters writes poems about life including the poems: Lucinda Matlock, Cassius Hueffer and Richard Bone. Through the book the presence of the theme life is imminent. An example of a poem that illustrates life is Richard Bone. The poem talks of how when he first came to Spoon River, how he would get the epitaph and people would stand around the shop and say good things about the people he wrote the epitaph on, at that time he did not know whether the thing…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    At the start, the poet ponders on if the writing is as easy as it seems. He ends the poem by stating that "This is my page for English B" (41). Hughes is split between two characteristics of his life. First, he is different from his classmates because he is black, but he is still an American which makes him the same as everyone else. "You are white--yet a part of me, as I am part of you.…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Langston Hughes’s poem “My People” is a short poem that gives off a variety of meanings. Hughes’s poem gives the reader a different form of viewing people by emphasizing certain features from his people, although not directly throwing it out there for the reader to grasp right away. Also, interior and outer beauty. When the reader first reads this short poem, they would assume that the narrator is implying that his people are beautiful and that is all, just beautiful. Although, as the reader continues to read the poem thoroughly they will realize that there is more to it then just “beautiful” through out the rest of the poem.…

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays