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Langston Hughes 'As I Grew Older And' Let America Be America Again

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Everyone Has Dreams
In my paper I plan to connect Langston Hughes’ “As I Grew Older” and “Let America Be America Again” to the Harlem Renaissance. Everyone has dreams. Some people give up on their dreams while others follow it. The ones that follow their dreams don’t let anything or anyone get in their way of them and their dreams. Langston Hughes is a Harlem Renaissance poet, who expressed himself through writing during the Harlem Renaissance. His poems during this movement were very popular and won him many awards, including the Witter Bynner Undergraduate Poetry Prize. In Hughes’ poems, “As I Grew Older” and “Let America Be America Again” he expressed what it was like during the Harlem Renaissance. Langston Hughes “As I Grew Older” …show more content…

Find my dream! Help me to shatter this darkness, To smash this night, To break this shadow”(Hughes “As I Grew Older”). The narrator kept trying and eventually he accomplished his dream. He never gave up no matter how hard it was. The narrator was determined to accomplish his dream and he did. In the Harlem Renaissance many people gave up on their dreams because it got to hard for them. They were discouraged to follow their dreams and they let things get in the way of them and their dreams. The narrator said “Break through the wall!” to show that he is getting through the obstacles in his way in order to accomplish his dream. The “wall” was in his way but eventually he broke it and reached his dream. In the research database “The Jazz Republic” by Jonathan O. Wipplinger states, “The interpretation of jazz, blues, and other forms of African American music in Hughes’ work shows how the impact of jazz, in America and Germany, was by no means limited to music alone.” (166). Wipplinger says that jazz and blues was a major part of the Harlem Renaissance. It was a way that African Americans expressed themselves. Expressing themselves help them become more creative. It brought happiness to a sad time. Music, literature, and art made the bad times of the Harlem Renaissance happier. These ways of creativity help people get through hard times. Music, literature, and art gave people in the Harlem Renaissance hope that one day things will get better and their dreams will eventually come

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