In a time when many African Americans were struggling to transition into a life of freedom, Langston Hughes illustrates the importance of celebrating ones cultural roots in his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”. Written in the beginning of his career, the essay serves as an introduction for all that he would accomplish in his work as a revolutionary poet of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes discusses the threat to the individuality of African American culture and the duty of young black artists to preserve it. Hughes also highlights the characteristics of racial art that make the work of African American artists unique and indispensable. These characteristics are vibrantly expressed in his own work which helps to inspire rich artistic
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In his essay, he questions what this could mean for young Negro artists. According to Hughes, one of the reasons for the abandonment of non-white qualities is the subconscious association between whiteness and goodness that many children are raised to believe in. He worries that black children who are raised by wealthy families who aspire to personify white ideals lose the opportunities to see the beauty in themselves and their people. Hughes challenges the young black poets of his time to overcome the “racial mountain” previously mentioned by keeping sight of their roots and not being misled by the appeal of assimilation. He says, “it is the duty of the younger Negro artist, if he accepts any duties at all from outsiders, to change through the force of his art that old whispering ‘I want to be white,’ hidden in the aspirations of his people, to ‘Why should I want to be white? I am a Negro--and beautiful’?” In the poem “Mother to Son” the speaker has a similar message for the younger generation. Its final lines read, “So boy, don't you turn back. / Don't you set down on the steps / 'Cause you finds it's kinder hard. / Don't you fall now -- / For I'se still goin', honey, / I'se still climbin', / And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.” In this poem, Hughes further illustrates an emphasis on the …show more content…
Hughes makes this point clear in his discussion of the creative promise that awaits the young black poet if he resists racial restriction. Hughes highlights the qualities of racial art when he says, “And when he chooses to touch on the relations between Negroes and whites in this country…there is an inexhaustible supply of themes at hand. To these the Negro artist can give his racial individuality, his heritage of rhythm and warmth, and his incongruous humor that so often, as in the Blues, becomes ironic laughter mixed with tears.” One of the first of Hughes poems that demonstrate his alignment with these qualities of African American art is “Dressed Up”, which he identifies to be his first poem to make it into his high school’s magazine. When speaking at UCLA in 1967, Hughes shares with the audience some of the poets who influenced his first publications. On “Dressed up”, he says, “You can see the poetic influences on my work. You can see here the influence of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a very fine Negro poet of more than a half-century ago…when I tried to write seriously I tried to write on the one hand like Dunbar, in the kind of a singing, lyrical, dialect verse...” Naturally, Hughes is inspired by the rhythmic verse and use of dialect that gives Dunbar’s poetry a sense of racial individuality. Hughes mimics this
In his essay, he questions what this could mean for young Negro artists. According to Hughes, one of the reasons for the abandonment of non-white qualities is the subconscious association between whiteness and goodness that many children are raised to believe in. He worries that black children who are raised by wealthy families who aspire to personify white ideals lose the opportunities to see the beauty in themselves and their people. Hughes challenges the young black poets of his time to overcome the “racial mountain” previously mentioned by keeping sight of their roots and not being misled by the appeal of assimilation. He says, “it is the duty of the younger Negro artist, if he accepts any duties at all from outsiders, to change through the force of his art that old whispering ‘I want to be white,’ hidden in the aspirations of his people, to ‘Why should I want to be white? I am a Negro--and beautiful’?” In the poem “Mother to Son” the speaker has a similar message for the younger generation. Its final lines read, “So boy, don't you turn back. / Don't you set down on the steps / 'Cause you finds it's kinder hard. / Don't you fall now -- / For I'se still goin', honey, / I'se still climbin', / And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.” In this poem, Hughes further illustrates an emphasis on the …show more content…
Hughes makes this point clear in his discussion of the creative promise that awaits the young black poet if he resists racial restriction. Hughes highlights the qualities of racial art when he says, “And when he chooses to touch on the relations between Negroes and whites in this country…there is an inexhaustible supply of themes at hand. To these the Negro artist can give his racial individuality, his heritage of rhythm and warmth, and his incongruous humor that so often, as in the Blues, becomes ironic laughter mixed with tears.” One of the first of Hughes poems that demonstrate his alignment with these qualities of African American art is “Dressed Up”, which he identifies to be his first poem to make it into his high school’s magazine. When speaking at UCLA in 1967, Hughes shares with the audience some of the poets who influenced his first publications. On “Dressed up”, he says, “You can see the poetic influences on my work. You can see here the influence of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a very fine Negro poet of more than a half-century ago…when I tried to write seriously I tried to write on the one hand like Dunbar, in the kind of a singing, lyrical, dialect verse...” Naturally, Hughes is inspired by the rhythmic verse and use of dialect that gives Dunbar’s poetry a sense of racial individuality. Hughes mimics this