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How Did Langston Hughes Use Racism And Inequality Erred Dream

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The Harlem Renaissance introduced a sense of cultural freedom that allowed the new African Americans from the Great Migration to express their feelings and emotions through literature, as well as, a variety of other mediums. Poets who expressed such sentiments had many styles of addressing their viewpoints. Some wrote complex and short poems with encrypted messages whilst some wrote long poems with immediately conceivable messages. This led to the creation of elements that distinctively reflects the issues at the time. For instance, the desire to ascertain African American rights to self-definition and self-defense and the racial pride from their contributions to society.
A popular poet named Langston Hughes conveyed racism and inequality …show more content…

However, he includes an alternate ending with the question “or does it explode?” From that last statement, Hughes is hinting that, if the dream to achieve equality and social freedom, escape from oppression from the south, and receive good education is never fulfilled, then it will linger within the person, become burdensome, and make it difficult to not feel disappointed from the hindering of societal growth. Additionally, Hughes’ violent emphasis of the word “explosion” portrays how serious the aftereffects could be, including riots, rebellions, revolutions and strikes, and the desire to assert rights of self-definition and self-defense. Another poem that discusses the same issue of racism and inequality is “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay. McKay introduces his poem by establishing the fact that …show more content…

A poem titled “My City” by James Weldon Johnson captures the pride he has within himself as he admires Manhattan and all of its unique elements. Johnson begins his poem with him realizing one day he’ll have to “sleep death’s endless night” and so he starts listing things he might miss such as Manhattan’s natural elements that included “the trees, the smell of flowers, the singing birds, the flashing streams, and the patient herds.” He considers missing them, but he appreciates elements of Manhattan that can’t be reproduced and are present only in that city, such as, “Manhattan’s sights and sounds, her smells, her crowds, her throbbing force, her subtle spell, her shining towers, her avenues, and her slums”. He finds pride in appreciating these unique elements because he can understand the origin of those places, such as the slums that placed hardships as well as provided a “safe haven” to the people during the Great Migration. By understanding the city’s foundation he was able to completely absorb, admire, strengthen his racial pride, and appreciate the

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Langston Hughes uses images of oppression to reveal a deeper truth about the way minorities have been treated in America. He uses his poems to bring into question some of Walt Whitman’s poems that indirectly state that all things are great, that all persons are one people in America, which Hughes claims is false because of all the racist views and oppression that people face from the people America. This oppression is then used to keep the minorities from Walt Whitman in his poem, “Song of Myself”, talks about the connection between all people, how we are family and are brothers and sisters who all share common bonds. He says, “ And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own,/ And that all the men ever born are also my brothers,

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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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