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How Does Langston Hughes Use Imagery

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The Harlem Renaissance was a time of great diverse culture. However, the acts of segregation, discrimination, and inequality between blacks and whites was still very alive. Poets of the Harlem Renaissance used their voices and writing skills to send a message of the importance and desire for freedom and identity at the time. Three poems that used imagery to express these themes are “A Black Man Talks of Reaping” by Arna Bontemps, “I, Too” by Langston Hughes, and “Any Human to Another” by Countee Cullen.

To begin, “A Black Man Talks of Reaping” by Arna Bontemps uses imagery to depict a desire for freedom and identity. This poem creates an image of a Black man working hard to farm. However, the poem describes that the Black man is unable to reap what he sows. He does not get the harvest for his hard work. Instead, it implies that the harvest is taken by the Whites. This image is important because it shows a desire for getting what you deserve. The imagery of this poem is so effect because it relates to the struggles of the time. At the time the poem was written, Black people were terribly discriminated against and did not have the freedom to get any type of payment or reward for their hard work. Even if they were classified as free, they did not …show more content…

The image this poem creates is one of a man who identifies he is American like those around him, but gets segregated and treated different than others. When guests come over, he is not allowed to be in sight and does not get to eat with the White people. However, the poem also describes a hopeful future, and states “Tomorrow, I will be at the table.” This statement means that the writer knows in the future that he will not be separated from Whites and will be able to eat with them at the table. This poem is also very effective because it relates to the real life situation at the time and describes a desire to be free and

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Some of the significant subjects were music, literature, poem, and art. The poets Langston Hughes and Claude McKay were some of the most influential poets from the renaissance. The poems “The Harlem Dancer” by Claude McKay and “I, Too” by Langston Hughes will be used to compare and show how two poems form the same era could be similar yet different based on their subject, purpose, style, tone, and rhythm. “I, Too” creates the world where people are treated equally. With so much discrimination and segregation occurring in the 20th century, it was a world that people wished for.

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615 Words | 3 Pages

Authors tend to use political and or social statements to express themselves in literature. Paul Laurence Dunbar talks about the inequality and discrimination that African Americans were facing in his poem “Douglass.”

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In Langston Hughes’s “Harlem” and Maya Angelou’s “Caged Bird,” the use of metaphors shows the oppression and difficulties in African American people’s life. In Langston Hughes’s “Harlem” the dream deferred is a metaphor for African American people not being able to achieve their dreams. If a dream is deferred it is put off for a later time and Langston Hughes describes what he thinks happens to a dream when it is deferred. He states, “What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?”(1-3).

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Hughes uses the inequality that still stands in the “free” America to voice that everyone should be equal. Hughes uses various allusions to portray the didactic meaning of the poem that the statements of a free America for everyone, is far from the truth. Making allusions to certain instances, in African American history provided a way for Hughes’ audience to understand his underlying thought. Throughout the formation of the America today, African Americans have been discriminated starting from their beginning as slaves. Hughes describes African Americans during this time period as, “the Negro(s) bearing slavery’s scars.

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In stanza four, we see it begin with a metaphor of “O Negro slaves, dark purple ripened plums,” comparing black slaves to ripened plums as if ready for picking (line 16). The speaker then says, “One plum was saved for me, one seed becomes / an everlasting song, a singing tree,” which he is speaking about carrying on his or their legacy and past (line 19). The last seed and plum the speaker talks about is the child of the speaker and the heritage of the African American community through his son, which is echoed in the following stanza: “Caroling softly souls of slavery, / What they were, and what they are to me” (lines

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303 Words | 2 Pages

Langston Hughes uses symbolism in “Let America Be America Again” to impart the lack of freedom and inequality that restricts all people who are socially and economically disadvantaged of their unalienable rights. Hughes’ poem, “Let America be America Again” utilizes symbolism to illustrate the lack of freedom amidst people, regardless of the color of their skin or the amount of wealth they possess. The lines, “ I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars/ I am the red man driven from the land,” references how African Americans had gone through segregation and they were mercilessly beaten when they were considered African slaves, though there were in the land of the free, scars that would never vanish throughout the history of the U.S. In the same

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The second line expresses a sense of self satisfaction among African Americans, by the action of taking justice with their own hands because they may feel as if there is no other choice. He also expresses how even though the emancipation act in 1863 aimed to set free all slaves, Africans have never truly been felt free of society.

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502 Words | 3 Pages

This poem is really questioning the ability of Americans to accept everybody and to treat them as just another person because at this time in the history of America it is very hard for people of color to fit in and to just do things that everybody else could do. The person in this poem feels like personally they were not treated like an actual person but instead they were just treated like an object that people could use and treat terribly. This poem feels like it could be a call to action for all Americans and calling them out for what they have done in the

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Nobody’ll dare-say to me, ‘Eat in the Kitchen.’ (8-13). In this poem, the word “kitchen” is a place to hide something away or neglect. In many ways this was similar to the treatment of African Americans at the time, who were always regarded as second class citizens.

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959 Words | 4 Pages

Bontemps poem “A Black Man Talks of Reaping” was one of the first poems to give an insight of African Americans' bitterness to the racial policies that they had suffered under in the south. Bontemps poem “God Gave to Men” used religion and irony to show the bitter discontent African Americans felt about their circumstances and struggling relationship with God. With the African American community changing radically during the Harlem Renaissance, it is important to remember the critical role poets played in publishing poetry that reflected the change of the

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1206 Words | 5 Pages

/ They send me to eat in the kitchen / When company comes” (2-4). Even though the speaker sees himself in the role of a brother in this family, or as someone a part of the American identity, others who are a part of this family feel the need to other him because of his race. However, as the poem continues, he believes that tomorrow they will no longer dare to separate him, and will finally see his beauty in their family: “Besides / They’ll see how beautiful I am / And be ashamed – / I, too, am America” (15-18).

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715 Words | 3 Pages

This poem teaches readers that all humans have strength within them that can help to overcome any obstacles. “Out of the huts of history 's shame…/ I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide…/ Into a daybreak that 's wondrously clear…/I rise…” (29-43) generate a glorious ending and reflection of being the hope and the dream of slaves as reflected in the freedom and opportunity of the present day. The message drives a point that no matter what, the protagonist will be triumphant.

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1089 Words | 5 Pages

The second speaker also reshapes the first two lines of the entire poem into a plea to the majority. Beforehand, the first speaker uses those lines as a call for the old American spirit to be revived: “Let America be America again / Let it be the dream it used to be” (1-2). Both speakers change the meaning of the lines to express their thoughts on America. As a result, the poem expresses the desire for everyone to be treated equally in the land of freedom. The readers can relate to the speaker because they wish that everyone has equal rights in the country that proclaims itself to be the symbol of freedom.

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858 Words | 4 Pages

The speaker laughs at the oppression, and do the opposite things that the white people expect him to do, which illustrates his inner growing strength and power despite the fact that he is constantly put down by other. Furthermore, the speaker’s tone becomes aggressive in the third stanza which serves as the caution to warn people that the black power is thriving by saying that “Nobody’ll dare Say to me, ‘Eat in the kitchen,’ then” at lines 11 to 14. The lines indeed are somewhat violent, but clearly deliver the intention of the speakers, and emphasizes the importance of the message. At the last two stanzas, the tone again becomes prideful.

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1124 Words | 5 Pages

Making a Difference in My Community What are your long-term personal and education goals? How has knowledge or awareness of your own culture and other cultures affected your understanding of yourself? What key experiences with your own and/or other cultures influenced your goals and your interactions with others? Please provide specific examples.

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