Negro Artist And The Racial Mountain By Langston Hughes

Born in Joplin, Missouri, James Langston Hughes was born into an abolitionist family. At a young age, Hughes was separated from his parents and lived with his maternal grandmother who told him stories of slaves and abolitionists. Hughes was impressed by her stories, which enabled him reach into his roots. "Through my grandmother 's stories always life moved, moved heroically toward an end. Nobody ever cried in my grandmother 's stories. They worked, or schemed, or fought. But no crying," Hughes wrote. In his eight-grade class, he won class poet because he was a Negro, a Negro with rhythm. After living with his dad in New Mexico, Hughes decided to leave off to college. He attended Columbia for one year after realizing it was discriminatory. …show more content…
In his essay entitled, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” he directly speaks to the Negros. He emphasizes the ability of Negros to accept their selves and expose their roots. He does not want any Negros falling into the white community and does not want Negro brothers to change for the white. He writes, “ …cause the smug Negro middle class to turn from their white, catch a glimmer of their own beauty”(4,Hughes). In this essay he has a strong demanding tone. He undermines the Negros that act like white and believe they are high-minded. He influences jazz and other arts because he believes it creates a tie into the …show more content…
This illustrates how Hughes keeps his roots close to him. Hughes utilizes anaphora, which is the repetition of words or phrases at the start of each line, like “I built,” “I looked,” and “I heard.” He articulates, “My soul has grown deep like the rivers,”(Hughes). To say that one 's spirit develops profound like that implies that you may have begun to some degree shallow yet after some time, the experience of life has made you a more profound individual, with more profound emotions and a more profound comprehension of individuals and