ipl-logo

How Does Langston Hughes Use Of Personification In Mississippi River

622 Words3 Pages

2. The central metaphor of Langston Hughes’ poem revolves around rivers who have been the lifeline of civilization. Hughes’ use of I represent the entire African and African-American community and culture and parallels the souls of blacks to ancient rivers that are important to the culture and religion of civilizations throughout the world. By likening rivers to blood, Hughes establishes that rivers have given life to humans like the blood that keeps us alive. Hughes alludes to their historical significance as he places Black culture along the Euphrates River, often known as the birthplace of civilization; he houses them by the mighty Congo River, where many great African Kingdoms took power; he positions them along the Nile River as the creators of the Great Pyramids; and ultimately they settle at the Mississippi River where they are linked to slavery and Abraham Lincoln. Despite the extended metaphor employed by Hughes throughout the poem, he also uses personification, a form of metaphor. In lines 2-3, Hughes associates rivers with blood as they both keep the human life/civilization alive. In line 6, the river lulls the Blacks to sleep like a mother would to a child. And finally, in lines 9-10, the Mississippi River is given bosoms that turn from muddy to golden in the sunset. …show more content…

Of the four rivers that Hughes mentions, the Euphrates, Congo, and Nile are important and purposeful to the development of mankind. He alludes to the rivers in ancient times, where Blacks were free and contributed to the start of civilization. By doing so, Hughes presents historical equality between Blacks and their light-skinned counterparts. On the other hand, the Mississippi, while a lifeline of American culture for commercial and transportation uses, is associated with slavery with the mention of Abraham Lincoln. From this, we can draw the conclusion that Hughes aims to empower African Americans by tracing their ancient, rich, and powerful

Show More
Related
189 Words | 1 Pages

In Langston Hughes’ piece “Salvation,” he implemented personification to amplify the impassioned, but manipulative, environment of the church during the revival. 2. “And the church sang a song about the lower lights are burning, some poor sinners to be saved” (par. 4). “And the whole building rocked with prayer and song” (par. 4).

Read More
157 Words | 1 Pages

There are many talented poets, but there is something special about Langston Hughes that makes him unique. He has many eye-opening poems. Langston Hughes is definitely one of a kind. The poems Cross and Mother to Son by Langston Hughes, use figurative languages such as imagery and syntax to provide more climax. Imagery.

Read More
1367 Words | 6 Pages

This piece connects and alludes to Langston Hughes excerpts of his life in the north to help us understand what life was like for those outside of the south as they experienced discrimination in the

Read More
919 Words | 4 Pages

Where he “Bathed in the Euphrates,” built his “hut near the Congo,” “Looked upon the Nile,” and “Heard the singing of the Mississippi,”. Secondly you read “I, Too” and as you read you can see that hughes is still speaking in the tone of an African American but is in the phase of being a slave. For they send him “to eat in the kitchen When company comes,” since slaves were never given to the privilege to eat at the table. They were to just work and stay low-key. But the slave knows that one day they will no longer be oppressed and will “be at the table When company comes.”

Read More
2002 Words | 9 Pages

At some point in our lives, most of us have judged a book by its cover. In other words, we have held prejudice against each other based on our outward appearances, but rarely considered what lies beneath the surface. In Langston Hughes’ 1959 poem “Theme for English B”, a professor assigns a speaker, a young African-American male college student, a one-page composition in which the student can write about a topic of their choosing. The speaker chooses to write about how, despite being African-American in a mostly white class, he is simply human just like everyone else. The craft of “Theme for English B”, including the sound, rhythm, tone, form, and figurative language of the poem, demonstrate the writer’s message that despite our differences,

Read More
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

Read More
1173 Words | 5 Pages

Two important classes were senatorial class (senators) and equestrian class (any person, who possessed a certain amount of wealth.) For instance, the wealthy dominated the legal system; they had control over properties through ownership rights and the use of sanctions, and could distribute them in their favor. As it could be seen, the elite group took the government, possessed vast amounts of land (most of which was conquered during the expansion) and owned slaves. On the other hand, people from lower class (freedmen and slaves) almost owned nothing and had to win the affection of confidence of their masters. The great enrichment of the Roman’s upper class directly and indirectly led to the worsening of life and daily struggles for many plebeians.

Read More
738 Words | 3 Pages

The poem that I chose was Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes I chose this poem because it’s a very confusing and very difficult to understand but if you treat it like a puzzle and take the small parts and put them together and understand what they mean you put the whole picture together. The theme of Dream Deferred was the limitations that African Americans had at the time to come and have the so-called “American Dream”. A simile in the text would be “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun”The author uses this to help his theme by stating that the raisin will become smaller and smaller but it won't disappear. Another part of the poem that contributes is“fester like a sore and the run” this means rejected dream almost physically painful and gets infected and becomes a gross reminder. Finally, the last piece of evidence I could find is “or does it explode” this means that everything is gone and the dream is blown to bits”.

Read More
806 Words | 4 Pages

“The African American Artist and the Racial Mountain” was written in the year 1926. Langston Hughes was inspired to write this excerpt to highlight the continuous, African-American oppression that continued long after the abolishment of slavery (Hughes,1). During the Harlem Renaissance, many African-Americans had been freed from slavery, and were looking to move north, also known as the great migration, seeking new jobs and opportunities for better life(Graves,17). The Great Migration ultimately led to the Harlem Renaissance as many African-Americans sought to congregate in cities and towns, ultimately causing an influx in cultural diversity and African-American influence (Graves,17). During the era of the Harlem Renaissance, African-Americans were empowered by the 369th Harlem Hellfighters (Graves, 39).

Read More
1156 Words | 5 Pages

The Congo and Euphrates were influential to Langston Hughes' ancestors. It was once thought that, along the Nile, slaves were used to build the pyramids. His ancestors might have been among those slaves, but the Nile was also home to a flourishing civilization for thousands of years. Hughes imagines times when Black people were not discriminated against or enslaved. In speaking about the Mississippi the narrator imagines, “I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.”

Read More
1409 Words | 6 Pages

The only source of symbolism in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” comes from the line saying, “My soul has grown deep like the rivers”(CITE STORY). This statement

Read More
1089 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
761 Words | 4 Pages

Therefore, the whole theme about this poem is everything is a mystery and a question and it will take years to potentially to find an answer. To begin, Langston shows in his first stanza his extreme miss for Africa and how much his history as an African American man has changed ever since his ancestors are officially part of the United states. Langston begins stating “ So long, So far away Is Africa. Not even memories alive Save those that history books create.” Langston explains how

Read More
1413 Words | 6 Pages

In the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Langton Hughes uses rhetorical devices such as allusion and imagery to develop the theme of the poem. Starting in stanzas four to six, Langston uses four very famous rivers to trace back on where it all began. Throughout these stanzas he develops allusion because he traces back on to history and state that everyone are historically equal. “My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Read More
858 Words | 4 Pages

In the poem “I, Too”, the author Langston Hughes illustrates the key aspect of racial discrimination faces against the African Americans to further appeals the people to challenge white supremacy. He conveys the idea that black Americans are as important in the society. Frist, Hughes utilizes the shift of tones to indicate the thrive of African American power. In the first stanza, the speaker shows the sense of nation pride through the use of patriotic tone. The first line of the poem, “I, too, sing America” states the speaker’s state of mind.

Read More

More about How Does Langston Hughes Use Of Personification In Mississippi River

Related Topics

Open Document