Harlem

In the short story “Salvation” Langston Hughes describes his traumatizing experience at a religious revival as a twelve-year-old boy. The revival was a popular event that occurred in town for ongoing days and one his Aunt Reed had attended every night. On the final day of the event, the children of worshippers were invited to the congregation to receive salvation from Christ. Before the event, Aunt Reed had explained to young Langston that once he became saved he would see a light, meaning Jesus…

Because of the vast number of stylistic choices an author must make, finding one’s style can prove problematic. When writing a piece, deciding the best device that will emphasize the message can provide the ultimate challenge for any writer, no matter their expertise. Langston Hughes, however, implemented the use of many devices in his piece, “Salvation” that made the memory as vivid and intense as the day it happened. Hughes implemented personification throughout his piece to amplify the…

Hughes tries to explain the obstacle faced by a black writer (artist) as a mountain in his article “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” which stands sturdy in the way of most black persons literary work expression; that mountain is mainly based on color. Since arrival of black people to the new world from West Africa as slaves, blackness is associated to all bad things on earth. The subjugation of blacks at the hands of white masters generated fear, anxiety, depression, and self-hate.…

In the short story “Dreams” by Langston Hughes, Langston shows that if you are striving for a goal, you must hold on to it, persevere and protect it. If you give up life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly and a barren field frozen with snow. First off in the beginning of the poem it is saying that you must protect and continue to strive for your dream, if not it will eventually die. This is because in the poem it says “Hold onto dreams for if dreams die”. So what the author is trying…

In my opinion, the whole book was based on deferred dreams. In the beginning, Langston Hughes read a poem about what happens to deferred dreams. He asked an essential question, do deferred dreams dry up like a raisin in the sun? Challenging the reader to think what really happens to dreams put off to the side. In the novel, Walter Lee was a huge dreamer. He had so much ambition but felt he had very little motivation around him. Walter felt no one in his family would support his dream, and that…

“I, Too, Sing America”, by Langston Hughes published 1945 is one of these literary works that address the plight of the Blacks in the United States between 1955 and 1965. Apparently, the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (1955-1965) shows the bravest act to protest against African-American discrimination. By this time, the Blacks experienced discrimination of highest order. For instance, they were not allowed to vote and own property like the Whites (Abel 595). A series of…

Langston Hughes’ “Democracy” and Arna Bontemps’ “God Give to Men” are both written by African American poets. Each author represents pain, segregation, and racism. Hughes and Bontemps both had high education in their life, and they both went to college. Both of these poets related because they both dealt with the situation of Segregation, Civil Rights Act of 1957 & 1960, and Voting Rights Act. These two are inspiring poets who indeed inspire others of their kind to be themselves and become…

1 Fences is a play written by the playwright August Wilson, who dedicated himself to writing plays capturing what it was like to be an African American in the United States during every decade of the 20th century. Fences was a play that was specifically written to provide an outlook into the lives of African Americans in America during the 1950s, during the process of demarginalization. Each character of the novel provides a unique perspective to capture different aspects of the “African…

Livesey Abar Perspective in Literature Ms. Apthorp 9 February 2018 Figurative and Musical Devices Developing Themes of Racial Inequality Countee Cullen’s expressive sonnet, From the Dark Tower, explores the emotion of the African-American experience during a time of systemic oppression through his use of vivid symbols and musical devices. In the opening symbol of planting and reaping, Cullen discusses inequitable relationships on the basis of race before transitioning to the stars and the sky…

Belief and perseverance are the eternal children of struggle, sculpted throughout the ages by poets, poets like Langston Hughes, who wrote “I, Too” and “Refugee in America” from the depths of black discrimination. “I, Too” describes an African American and his reaction towards black oppression, while “Refugee in America” speaks of the African American longing for true freedom. Eugenia W. Collier, like Hughes, captured the essence of black discrimination, through her poem “From the Dark Tower”.…