Langston Hughes Was A Central Figure in The Harlem Renaissance, The Flowering of Black
Langston Hughes Was A Central Figure in The Harlem Renaissance, The Flowering of Black
As he wrote in his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” “We younger Negro
artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or
shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we
are beautiful. And ugly too.”
This approach was not without its critics. Much of Hughes’s early work was roundly criticized
by many black intellectuals for portraying what they thought to be an unattractive view of black
life.
Nevertheless, Hughes, more than any other black poet or writer, recorded faithfully the nuances
of black life and its frustrations.
In Hughes’s own words, his poetry is about "workers, roustabouts, and singers, and job hunters
on Lenox Avenue in New York, or Seventh Street in Washington or South State in Chicago—
people up today and down tomorrow, working this week and fired the next, beaten and baffled,
but determined not to be wholly beaten, buying furniture on the installment plan, filling the
house with roomers to help pay the rent, hoping to get a new suit for Easter—and pawning that
suit before the Fourth of July."
It was Hughes’s belief in humanity and his hope for a world in which people could sanely and
with understanding live together that led to his decline in popularity in the racially turbulent
latter years of his life. Unlike younger and more militant writers, Hughes never lost his
conviction that “most people are generally good, in every race and in every country where I have
been.”
Hughes died on May 22, 1967, due to complications from prostate cancer.
Major Themes
Music
Music, particularly blues and jazz, permeates Langston Hughes's works. Many of his poems have
an identifiable rhythm or beat. The lines read like the verses in a blues song and echo themes that
are common in blues music, like sorrow, lost love, anger, and hopelessness. Hughes frequently
alludes to music that originated during the era of slavery, using a 'call and response' pattern for
auditory effect and to create a link between the past and the present. By invoking the musical
traditions of slaves, Hughes connects himself to the painful history of African Americans.
Hughes's poetry, like jazz and blues, has a distinct and expressive tone, often depicting tales of
sorrow, alienation, and loneliness.
The American Dream
Many of Langston Hughes’s poems invoke the theme of the American Dream. In 1931, James
Truslow Adams defined the American Dream: "life should be better and richer and fuller for
everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement." Hughes, however,
addresses this concept from the perspective of the country's disenfranchised, including African
Americans, Native Americans, downtrodden immigrants, and poor farmers. He portrays the
glories of liberty and equality as out of reach for these populations, depicting individuals who are
trapped under the fist of prejudice, oppression, and poverty. Their dreams die or are forgotten in
a life defined by a desperation to survive. However, Hughes does often end his poems on a
somewhat hopeful note, revealing his belief that African Americans (and others) will one day be
free to pursue their dreams.
Dignity
During Langston Hughes's time, his African American readers felt that the poet's work directly
explored their lives, their hopes, their fears, their past, and their dreams - as opposed to the
obtuse modernism of poets like T.S. Eliot or Ezra Pound. The African American characters in
Hughes’s oeuvre embody all the complexities of life in a segregated America. He writes from the
point of view of struggling jazz musicians, frustrated dreamers, disenfranchised students, biracial
children, and so on, finding dignity in their daily struggles. Like W.E.B. DuBois, Hughes's work
calls attention to his characters' strength, endurance, and the purity of their souls. He praises their
physical beauty as well, defying the "white" standards of beauty that dominated popular culture
during the early 20th Century.
Aspiration
Hughes often writes about aspirations as dreams. He explores hidden dreams, lost dreams,
dreams regained, and dreams redeemed. African Americans, from the time of slavery to the
oppression of the Jim Crow era, were treated like second-class citizens in the eyes of the
American law. Hughes believed that this inferior social status forced most African Americans to
hide their dreams behind a protective psychological barrier. For many of Hughes's characters, the
American Dream is completely unattainable. Hughes expresses the power of dreams in different
ways throughout his work. In one poem, Hughes comments that despite the difficulty of realizing
these dreams, it is important for the disenfranchised to keep them alive in order to sustain the
will to live. In another poem, Hughes writes that if these dreams remain dormant for long
enough, then they might explode.
Racism
While Langston Hughes's tone is softer than that of Malcolm X or the Black Panthers (not
surprising, since Hughes lived in a different era), he has his own way of denouncing racism and
depicting the oppression that African Americans experienced at the hands of the patriarchal
system. He alludes to lost and forgotten aspirations, insinuating that African Americans are not
allowed access to the American Dream because of their race. In “Mother to Son,” the mother
describes the various vicissitudes she has faced, exacerbated or directly caused by the color of
her skin. In “On the Road,” one of Hughes’s best known short stories, he depicts racism as being
tied up with religious hypocrisy. Hughes is realistic about the discriminatory environment that he
lives in, but he also expresses hope that one day, the racial inequality in America will start to
even out.
Wisdom
While the word “wisdom” does not specifically occur this particular collection of Langston
Hughes's poems, he clearly alludes to its attainment in many places. Hughes shows wisdom
being passed down through generations, such as the mother who tells her son to never give up,
even when the road is hard. Wisdom is a result of experience, and can inform one's decision to
persevere in the face of adversity. Courage can lead to wisdom - there is priceless knowledge to
be gained from confronting one's demons. Finding a mode of expression for sorrow - like music
or poetry - is a form of wisdom in that a person can learn how to separate him or herself from
bad experiences.
Self-Actualization
Many of the speakers in Langston Hughes's poems start in situations of despondency and
hopelessness. One has argued with a lover, another faces discrimination, a biracial man struggles
with his identity, and so on. However, in these poems, Hughes commonly creates a narrative that
culminates in the protagonist/speaker reaching a state of self- actualization. Despite his or her
difficult surroundings, these individuals are able to find inherent inner strength, allowing them to
persevere against the odds.
Let America Be America Again
Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
The free?
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
But I laugh,
Tomorrow,
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
Then.
Besides,
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.