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The Boy And The Bayonet, By Paul Laurence Dunbar

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Bob Jeff 704 May 2024 The Power of Dreams in Literature How does literature show the power of dreams? Abraham Lincoln once said, “I will study and get ready, and maybe my chance will come.” (Page: 4, Paragraph: 1 and 2). His Motto, by Lottie Burrell Dixon, embodies this quote beautifully by showing how dreams can be a source of inspiration when Robert Hilton perseveres so that his dream of going far with his electrical experiments starts to become a reality. The Boy and the Bayonet, by Paul Laurence Dunbar, shows how dreams can be a source of perseverance. Even though Bud’s dreams of becoming a military officer are threatened by his mistake at the drill competition, he keeps striving to accomplish his dreams. Finally, the poem “The Negro Speaks …show more content…

The main character, Robert Hilton, has a dream to go far with his scientific inventions. He sees an opportunity to get a job, but because he is Black, he was initially underestimated because of the prejudice at the time. Robert Hilton explains, “Well, I’m interested in all kinds of electrical experiments, and have kept up reading and studying ever since I left school.” This demonstrates how one’s dream can encourage them to persevere. His dream was powerful, motivating him to go far; he didn’t limit himself even though there were fewer opportunities available to him since he is Black. Robert has a quote from Abraham Lincoln hanging on his wall, “I will study and get ready and maybe my chance will come” (Page: 4, Paragraph: 1). Later, Robert Hilton meets Durmont, who doesn't believe Robert is capable enough to help him. Robert persists and finally gets his chance to prove that he is capable, after all. Once Durmont sees how capable Robert is, he says,“‘Well, Robert, that motto you’ve got up there is a pretty good one to tie to. You certainly have studied; you have made yourself ready as far as your resources will permit, and I’ll be hanged if I don’t stand for the ‘chance.’ In the manufacturing of electrical instruments, you could have a great opportunity for inventive talent, and in my concern you shall have your chance, and go as far as your …show more content…

In the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Langston Hughes fantasizes about the freedoms his people had in Africa. He yearns to go back to that time, and even though it is not possible, he wants to relive that time. “I bathed in the Euphrates when dawn was young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.” 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.” The narrator describes the Mississippi when Abraham Lincoln stopped slavery and the slave trade from continuing. This is powerful, to Langston Hughes, because when slavery ended, Black people were liberated, creating a momentous turning point for the country. Throughout history, rivers have been essential to civilization and Hughes’ people. Langston Hughes dreamt of rivers, which are like timelines, flowing from beginning to

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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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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.”

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Public and private acts of violence towards “coloreds” was not only the norm but justified. Langston Hughes addresses these issues in many of his works through the time period. Hughes’s poem, “Let America be America again” speaks volumes to the African American experience socially, economically and culturally; and his hope for America to transform. Langston Hughes writes, “O, let my land be a land where Liberty, is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, but opportunity is real, and life is free, equality is in the air we breathe (Hughes).” Throughout this piece of literature, Hughes’ continually confesses his desire for America to be as promised.

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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 emerged as a towering figure of the Harlem Renaissance, his evocative, jazz-inflected poetry giving a powerful voice to the African American experience. " Hughes purposefully mixed his own personal experiences into his work, setting him apart from other major Black poets of the era, and placing him at the forefront of the literary movement," the sources explain (Hughes 1). In seminal works like "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and "I, Too," Hughes asserted the inherent dignity and beauty of the black community, rejecting the notion that African American culture was inferior or unworthy of artistic expression (Hughes 1). Beyond his poetic output, Hughes was also a tireless advocate for black artists, using his platform to champion the Harlem Renaissance and ensure its

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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

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Langston Hughes was going to have a big impact on the African American culture. Hughes grew up without a father, moving around with his mother. However, he was raised mainly by his grandmother, Mary, who died in his early teens. After his grandmother’s death, he went on to live on with his mother and settled in Cleveland, Ohio.

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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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Langston Hughes, once described as “one of the most notable poets among the writers of the Harlem Renaissance,” depicts the challenges experienced by African Americans long after the abolition of slavery (“Langston Hughes” [The Bedford Anthology] 744). Attempting to explain his work, Langston Hughes once said, “My writing has been largely concerned with the depicting of Negro life in America” (746). The life of an African American compared to their white neighbor reveals the deeply institutionalized racism that defined American life, which Hughes’s poetry addresses. He captures the oppressed, unvalued African American heritage and culture with his use of African American vernacular, sorrow songs, and vivid imagery. In his poem, “Negro,” Hughes

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Langston Hughes once wrote, “In all my life I have never been free…except in the field of my writing” (qtd. in NPR). The early twentieth century marked an era in which blatant racism and discrimination limited the freedom and lives available for African Americans. The Harlem Renaissance gave way to a period that allowed influential blacks such as Langston Hughes to express themselves through the outlets of literature, music, art, and poetry. The fostering of creative expression finally gave voice to the struggles that the black diaspora has faced for centuries—a movement that unified a marginalized group to combat prejudicial injustices. Langston Hughes explores the theme of African American unity throughout the poems “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,”

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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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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.

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