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Harlem, The Weary Blues, And Theme For English B

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Langston Hughes is a writer, novelist, and poet known for such poetic works as "Harlem," "The Weary Blues," "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," and "Theme for English B." These poems are some representations of his activist activity against the oppression and injustice suffered by black people.

Indeed, Hughes's works are directed at African Americans. These four poems positively portray the joys and obstacles experienced in the life of the black working class. Langston Hughes played a major role in the Harlem Renaissance, also known as the awakening of black intellectual, literary, and artistic life, which occurred in many cities, including Harlem. (Poetry Foundation). The most recurring themes in his works are racial injustice, discrimination, …show more content…

In the poem “Harlem”, the author explains that the “dream” is subjective to those who live in Harlem and want a better life and future. The dream itself is to be treated equally to provide a better future and environment for the next generations. However, the poem also conveys the message that this dream could not be achieved due to injustice and prejudice from other people. Line 12, “Or does it explode?”, suggests that when a dream does not come true, a feeling of resentment is created in the individual; the imagery of an explosion could refer to the destruction of the dream of African Americans after going through obstacles and prejudices made by other races. In the same way, “Theme for English B” depicts a black student's struggle for identity when he is overwhelmed by describing the ways in which ethnicity separates him from his class and teachers. He says, "I'm the only colored student in my class" (Hughes, line 15). Such assignment led the young man to reflect on the definition of his own identity and what truly makes him. Like other students, he also likes to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love (Hughes, line 22). Admitting that he is not that different from his peers, he challenges the use of social practices such as

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He explains that an African American man likes and does the same things as a white man, for instance when he says “Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life” (l 21-22). Society doesn’t view the truth that African Americans are the same as everyone else. The speaker states “I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races” (L 25-26). He explains how he feels about other races in society viewing him as being different just because he is African American (l 34-36).

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Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Zora Neale Hurston, Marcus Garvey, AaronDouglas PART 2: POETRY IN MOTION: Langston Hughes was a famous Harlem Renaissance poet. Like others, he developed themes that connected the African-American heritage to the present. The website for this activity is: https://studies.tripod.com/ENGL2328/negro_speaks_rivers.htm 1. How old was Langston Hughes when he wrote this poem “Negro Speaks of Rivers” ?

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It is often said that symbols in the text of a writing can convey tone and meaning. First of all, the title Harlem, is a symbol in itself. This places the poem in a specific location. In this case, Harlem, a historically black neighborhood in New York City. This title evokes the racial injustice that the citizens

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Incessant discrimination against African Americans left them without an amalgamate identity within America. Although artists of African descent had existed before, their works and ideas remained isolated from the broader American populous. The subsequent dichotomy between African American and American culture resonated fervently during the Harlem Renaissance, a breakthrough literary movement during the Roaring Twenties which essentially acted as a prefatory to the integration of African American ideas and arts into the scope of intellectual Americana. Langston Hughes and other black artists produced works that quelled their estrangement in an American culture dominated by Anglo-Saxons, with little before perceived minority contribution. Hughes,

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Writers and poets emerging during that time were recapturing the African-American past. Topics such as southern roots, new urban living, and African heritage were a few of their focuses. Langston Hughes was one of these poets transforming the Black image to the rest of the world. He was largely known for the raw emotions he emitted into his poems. Laced with Jazz and Blues undertones, Hughes’ poems that forced you clearly think about what he said.

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Langston Hughes was an African American poet whose poetry was influential during the Harlem Renaissance. He often wrote about the struggles that were facing African Americans. His poem “Theme for English B” is about a twenty-two year old African American’s response to his white instructor’s writing assignment. He is told to, “Go home and write / a page tonight / And let that page come out of you / Then, it will be true,” (2-6).

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When people think of the Harlem Renaissance they think of music, literature, art, and the ability for African-Americans to be able to showcase their talents. This was a time where such authors like Langston Hughes were able to take their thoughts and portray them in a different light for the world to see. Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri where he lived for a brief period until his parents split and he was forced to live with his grandmother. He lived with her until thirteen when she shipped him back off to his mom in Lincoln, Illinois. Upon graduating high school, he attended Columbia University for one year then decided to travel to Africa and Europe before settling down in Washington D.C.

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Or does it explode, Langston Hughes was trying to say that if you have a dream don’t give it up, without a dream you are nothing but, a person without a purpose in life. This poem relates to the Harlem Renaissance because it’s literature from that time period and it’s about how young people need to hold on to their dreams.

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The Harlem Renaissance, which occurred throughout the 1910’s and 1920’s, was a big leap for black communities because the African Americans got a chance to use their creativity and culture to become a strong and equal society in America. The Harlem Renaissance was a time for the black communities of America to find their individuality through art, literature, music, and other aspects of their culture. Through the use of this artwork, African Americans were able to voice their feelings and opinions on the situations they were dealt with during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. This is similar to the works of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois because he voiced his reasoning in the use of literature. Du Bois was a major impact on the Harlem Renaissance

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In the poem the narrator questions whether or not there is a vast difference between him and his white instructor and he supposes that in many ways they are both the same and different.

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Langston Hughes poems “Harlem” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” are two poems that have a deeper meaning than a reader may notice. Hughes 's poem “Harlem” incorporates the use of similes to make a reader focus on the point Hughes is trying to make. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Hughes shows how close he was to the rivers on a personal level. With those two main focuses highlighted throughout each poem, it creates an intriguing idea for a reader to comprehend. In these particular poems, Hughes’s use of an allusion, imagery, and symbolism in each poem paints a clear picture of what Hughes wants a reader to realize.

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The works of Langston Hughes and other authors during the Harlem Renaissance helped African Americans understand who they really are. These authors have shown that your identity is something you should be proud to represent. Writers during the time of the Harlem Renaissance used figurative language and self image to in order to create realization that identity makes up who

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Langston Hughes was an American poet, novelist, and playwright. He’s themes on African American made him a big part of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. The Harlem Renaissance was an African-American cultural movement that focused on literature, music, theater, art, and politics. Langston also was on of the first African Americans to live off of a career of writing. Mother to Son by Langston Hughes,a poem with a meaning,a meaning waiting to be explained

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Langston Hughes was an American poem born in the early nineteen hundreds, who became known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He published many poems that brought light to the life of people of color in the twentieth century. There are three poems that the speakers are used to portray three major themes of each poem. Racism, the American Dream, and Hopes are all the major themes that Hughes uses to highlight the average life of a person of color. Theme for English B,” “Harlem,” and “Let America Be America Again” were three of Hughes’s poems that was selected to underline the themes.

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Langston Hughes is an African American Poet who is very closely connected to his culture and expresses his feelings very thoroughly through his poetry in a jazz style. Langston Hughes is a modern poet who ignore the classical style of writing poetry and instead, in favor of oral and improve traditions of the Black culture. In majority of Langston’s poetry, many of his audience seems to take away a very strong message that many can apply to themselves or to others or his poems gives you an educational background of what’s going on in the African American community right now. For example, Langston Hughes writes a poetry piece called Afro American Fragment, which gives you a great breakdown of what an everyday African American person goes through considering that their whole history is basically taken away from them. Langston seems to show his audience that in books we never hear much about what contributions a African American person has done except for being brought to America and being a slave.

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