Langston Hughes's Poem In The Black American Dream

The inspiration behind Langston Hughes poetry was the racial conflict going on at the time of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes took his poetry and voiced his opinion on politics, current events, and his thoughts about what an American should be. The contradiction of being both black and American was a significant one for Hughes. Although this anomaly was troublesome, his situation as such granted him an almost desired status. Due to his place as a black American poet, his work was all the more accessible. Hughes’ black experience was sensationalized. Using his black experience as a façade, Hughes was able to depict throughout his poetry the black American dream. Langston Hughes, the American dreamer, wrote, “Harlem,” “I, Too,” and “Theme for …show more content…
Hughes’ poetry allows the reader to understand that he is looking toward the future. It allows the author’s thoughts of hope and dreams for a better tomorrow to become existent. If Hughes had not lived through racism or was not an oppressed African-American then the poem would not have had the same impact on the reader. Instead, the poem may have seemed to be some type of patriotic poem. However, because Langston Hughes’s point of view comes into context, the reader then interprets the poem as a cry for the struggle of African-Americans in the United States. As a result, the audience is able to see that Hughes was better and stronger than the oppression that he faced. He then was able to look forward to the future and hope to one day become …show more content…
(“Theme for English B” 25-40)
His college which is “on the hill above Harlem.” (“Theme for English B” 9) conveys to the audience an example of the difference in social statuses between black Americans and white Americans. Hughes puts the reader in the mind of a young African American trying to receive an education. While portraying this scenario, Hughes conveys to the reader his dream for the black American to receive the type of equality that allows for better education and the same opportunities denied to black Americans because of their color. Langston Hughes was an African American poet and author who joined other black artists to break literary barriers during the civil rights movement. The backdrop was a time in American History were African Americans had no rights of freedom of speech or even a right to vote. Hughes dedicated his poems to the struggles, pride, dreams, and racial injustices of African American people. Hughes, being the black American dreamer he was, used his poetry in a sense to speak out against racism. The audience can conceive that it was not easy growing up in a society where white domination was hardly of any support to the then growing black geniuses of literature like Langston Hughes. Though many obstacles came in his life, he was able to overcome them without ever giving up. As a poet, he found ways to express the forbidden feelings of African Americans in his poetry and other literary works. Although his works were written