Compare And Contrast Langston Hughes And Zora Neale Hurshes

Both Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman are regarded as some of the finest poets in a long list of excellent American poets. Hughes, a poet during the Harlem Renaissance era of American poetry, often wrote of the struggles of African Americans in his poetry. A common theme of Harlem Renaissance poetry was discussing the struggles and advancements of African Americans in terms of social justice. Walt Whitman wrote his poetry in the period of transition from transcendentalism and realism. His works can be seen to incorporate elements of both styles. Walt Whitman was also a humanist, and this can also be readily seen in his many works. Both Langston Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again” and Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” tackle the idea of oneself within a larger collective group. However, Hughes speaks from the African American viewpoint at the time. Hughes relies on more specific imagery, while Whitman incorporates imagery that is more generalized. Each of the authors uses imagery in similar yet individually effective ways, covers a similar theme with respective viewpoints, and uses different tones to cover how an individual effectively fits into a collective.

    There is a very powerful message in Langston Hughes poem I, Too, that message is we are all Americans no matter what differences we have. During the Harlem Renaissance, African Americans were treated just like Africans, even though they were born in America. All of them at that time were born and raised in America, that should make them American. Hughes says in his poem “I, too, sing America”(1). Hughes says he is American just like

The well known poet Langston Hughes was an inspiring character during the Harlem Renaissance to provide a push for the black communities to fight for the rights they deserved. Hughes wrote his poetry to deliver important messages and provide support to the movements. When he was at a young age a teacher introduced him to poets Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, and they inspired him to start his own. Being a “darker brother,” as he called blacks, he experienced and wanted his rights, and that inspired him. Although literary critics felt that Langston Hughes portrayed an unattractive view of black life, the poems demonstrate reality. Hughes used the Blues and Jazz to add effect to his work as well as his extravagant word use and literary

Even though both Hurston and Hughes grew up around the same time period, they had very different ideals regarding their experience as African American’s as well as a different voice used within their works to convey their ideals. Hurston in her 1928 essay “How it Feels to be Colored Me” describes her childhood and coming of age with a delightful zest that cannot be contained. Although the essay does contain some dark moments such as when she describes her experience with her friend at the jazz club and the sudden realization of the racial difference between her and the other patrons, for the most part the work exudes her keen sense of dignity despite the popular opinion of the masses during that period. Lines in her essay such as “But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes…I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it” (Abcarian, Klotz, and Cohen 812) beautifully express her sense of self dignity and refusal to give in to the negative energies surrounding her race. Despite the many hardships that the color of her skin caused her she was proud and determined to never let that stand in her way of

During the 1920’s a new movement began to arise. This movement known as the Harlem Renaissance expressed the new African American culture. The new African American culture was expressed through the writing of books, poetry, essays, the playing of music, and through sculptures and paintings. Three poems and their poets express the new African American culture with ease. (Jordan 848-891) The poems also express the position of themselves and other African Americans during this time. “You and Your Whole Race”, “Yet Do I Marvel”, and “The Lynching” are the three poems whose themes are the same. The poets of these poems are, as in order, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Claude Mckay.

Langston Hughes and Zora Neal Hurston uniquely shared the written word during the Harlem Renaissance in the Modernist movement. Because of the individualistic style throughout their works, some people argue that they do not artistically belong within the Modernist movement and need their own separate category. Even with the rare sense of hope found at the core of their words, Hurston and Hughes truly do use Modernist techniques to convey ideologies. Thus, even though their approach looks different, they do belong in the Modernist movement. Modernist wrote with the inner-self in mind, in hopes to portray “modern” life.

This boom of appearance, also called the New Negro Movement, had long-lasting, constructive effects on the communal, scholar and profitable standing of African Americans. The festivity of African American culture was well embodied by the outstanding writer’s poets and artists that posed for the rights of African American people. flanked by 1919 and the mid 1930s Harlem seized a stand in the arts and wanted America to realize and know the artistic abilities, and educational accomplishment manifested in the course of an outpouring of new trade, skill, journalism, composition and jazz. Within this movement such writers: Langston Hughes and Zora Hurston sufficed to develop to be part of the mouth pieces that carried the movement for so scores of years. Zora Neale Hurston was a known writer whose weight was bridging the gap

In the poem “I, Too, Sing America” by Langston Hughes, he envisions a greater America, a more inclusive America where all the races can proudly represent themselves as American citizens. Hughes was a leader of Harlem Renaissance, and had tremendous pride of his race as an African American. However, during that time period, African Americans were being considered as second-class race, and they were being segregated in every aspect throughout the country. Hughes could not tolerate seeing his fellow brothers and sisters being treated unequally because of their skin color, he knew that he had to do something to bring a change, and he was determined to make that change become the reality. Hughes published the poem in the year of 1945, about ten years before the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. It was the time where racism and prejudice were still prevalent, and segregation laws were being implemented in many places throughout the country. People needed encouragement to stand up in order to fight for their rights, and this poem perfectly empowers people’s courage and spirit. In “I, Too, Sing America,” Langston Hughes uses sound, diction, and symbolism hoping to awaken people’s dilapidated spirits and that one day people would embrace each other in which African Americans are truly classified as equal Americans.

As civil rights and theories of equality emerged, art and literature by the African American populace started to present and showcase the new ideas. One example of an author with an agenda for equality was Langston Hughes, a black artist who wrote and conducted numerous works for the sake of educating the public. In his poem I, Too, it reads: “I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table When company comes. Nobody’ll dare Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen,” Then” (Doc 4). It is clearly evident that Hughes wrote this to incite hope for an equal society, since the era that he lived in put blacks in a lower position than whites. With freedom of speech, anybody could have voiced their concerns through words on paper, and that became the new normal for Americans in a time of changeable

During the 1920s, black literature and culture exploded in a movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, which at its forefront directly challenged white stereotypes that ‘defined’ black perception in society. Thus, one major focus during this movement was to recreate and define a new identity for black Americans through the lens of art. Two poets attempted such a feat and, in their works, argued for an identity centered on the authentic roots and customs of African-American culture. As evidenced by “I, too,” “Theme for English B,” and “The Melting Pot,” Hughes and Randall assert that black racial identity should not be sequestered, but instead should be embraced in society.

Langston Hughes was an African American writer who took the literary world by storm in the twentieth century. Hughes was known for incorporating African American culture into his poems and plays. Langston Hughes did this so much so that per, "Masterplots II: African American Literature" he was "…recognized as the unofficial poet laureate of the African American urban experience…" (Niemi). Hughes has written several poems in his career. Most of them have a theme of racial pride incorporated somewhere in the poems. By analyzing Langston Hughes's writings, it can be inferred that the poems "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", "Negro" and "I, Too" all have the theme of racial pride.

During the Harlem Renaissance period, artists used their personal voices to relate the Negro experience in hopes of educating and empowering people. Some wrote to appeal to the reader’s intellect while others relied on emotion. Langston Hughes and Claude McKay were examples of two artists with a common cause and different voices. Both men both used their work to encourage and empower, but their approaches were extremely different and likely spoke to different people.

Langston Hughes felt compelled to speak his mind for equality and his birthright freedom through his poetry. “Democracy will not come/ Today, this year/ Nor ever /Through compromise and fear” (lines 1 – 3). Hughes believed his rights as well as everybody else’s should parallel to those of the white people, without degrading themselves in any way. He declares he is an American and should have the right to stand on his two feet and own his land: “To stand/ On my two feet /And own the land” (lines 7 –

According to Biography, James Mercer Langston Hughes is considered to be an African American poet who is college educated and comes from a middle-class family (Langston Hughes Biography). He attended college in New York City and became influential during the Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes Biography). Although Hughes was a talented writer, he faced some challenges early on and it was stated that his “early work was roundly criticized by many black intellectuals for portraying what they thought to be an unattractive view of black life” (Langston Hughes. American Poet). They believed that his work helps the spread the stereotypes of African Americans. “Hughes, more than any other black poet or writer, recorded faithfully the nuances of black life and its frustrations” (Langston Hughes. American Poet). Langston Hughes’s poems “The Negro Mother”, “Let America be America Again” and “The Weary Blues” were influenced by his life during the Harlem Renaissance and the racial inequality experienced in the late 1920s through the 1960s.

Langston Hughes once said “When a man starts out to build the world, he starts first with himself.” Hughes was the best and most well renowned writers of the Harlem Renaissance. He often showed deep passion in his poems for the situation that black people were in at that time. He identified the journey that African Americans were having to through to find their place among society. Langston Hughes sends some very important messages in his four poems The Negro Speaks of Rivers, I, too, Dream Variations, and Refuge in America.