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Langston Hughes is considered to be one of the quintessential voices of the 1920s and ‘30s Harlem Renaissance movement. Utilizing a wide range of motifs and subject matters, Hughes became a voice for working class Black Americans who were excluded from mainstream American society. In this paper I will attempt to analyze Hughes’ first published poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”. Written when he was only seventeen, the poem helped establish his reputation among African American writers, and…

The poem “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes is about the struggles and issues that people in America is having and Hughes wants to inform the reality of America. During the mid-early 1900s, there were many global issues that were happening that affected many people in America, like for instance; there are power struggles, racism, wars, women’s rights, and immigration. In the poem, Hughes is addressing the main global issue that affected him and all people in America, which was…

Both Du Bois and Washington were profound and influential leaders of the African American community in the late 19th and 20th century. During a time of havoc for these people, they set up foundations on how the black people could rise up amidst their discriminated states. During these years African Americans were lynched, disenfranchised, and segregated from the whites who were ignorant and cruel towards them. After declaration of freedom for African Americans, it proved evident quite quickly…

Langston Hughes’ poem, “Cross,” can be seen as based on his experiences with racism during the Harlem Renaissance period. As a result of the cultural expression that Hughes was exposed to growing up and later being a part of, he was able to express his intimate parental relationship that he composed in “Cross,” during the Renaissance period. During his time period, Langston was known as the most active, most published, and most beloved writers of the Harlem Renaissance. His position as a…

W. E. B. Du Bois' The Souls of Black Folk (1903) is an original work in African American writing and an American excellent. In this work Du Bois recommends that "the issue of the Twentieth Century is the issue of the shading line." His ideas of life behind the shroud of race and the subsequent "twofold awareness, this feeling of continually taking a gander at one's self through the eyes of others," have ended up touchstones for pondering race in America. Notwithstanding these persevering ideas,…

During the 1900’s poetry and music were used by African Americans to express their feelings about segregation. Then the term “American” did not include every race. Jim Crow Laws were created to oppress African Americans and enforce segregation. By analyzing the poem, “Theme for English B”, Langston Hughes shows how the term American has no single race category and the two races can learn from each other using imagery, archetypal emotions, and tone. First, Langston Hughes used imagery to display…

Langston Hughes uses alliteration, personification and mood in “Let America be America again” to discuss how America does not live up to people expectations. The author talks about how people have different looks about America. People think different because even they try to overcome their economic statues instead of making them progress into middle class this people become even poorer. Something that with the Rich even with doing so little it tends to get them richer than they deserve to be. Is…

The messages of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois could not have been more diverse. The philosophical rivalry between Washington and DuBois has deep historical roots. To be on the same side fighting for the same purpose, progress, and uplifting of the Black race, these two Black intellectuals harbored radically divergent views on how to assist African Americans to free themselves from their often subhuman conditions. Both men were aware that technological advancement was of foremost…

Civil War focusing primarily on the role of reconstruction through the Freedmen's Bureau of 1865. This literary treasure consists of a collection of essays that are categorized by theme and has a poetic style using various metaphors and references of Du Bois's personal and historical context which ultimately represent what it is like to be black in this time period. In this essay I will be analyzing DuBois’s insight on the social implications, political disenfranchisement, religious inducement…

In 1903, W.E.B Du Bois, an African-American writer and activist said, “The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife…He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American...” Du Bois is describing a part of the African-American’s battle for freedom which takes place throughout most of the twentieth century. Throughout the poem, “Let America Be America Again,” Langston Hughes colorfully depicts the lack of freedom for black Americans in the land of…