Langston Hughes

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Langston Hughes
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Biography

• Born 1902- Grew up mainly in Lawrence, Kansas
• As child, his mother (a teacher) sued to allow
  him to go to a white school- succeeded, but
  Hughes was an outcast
• Dad left U.S. because of racism- mother had to
  work, so Hughes strongly by grandmother, whose
  husband died with John Brown
• 1921- Went to Colombia (in NYC) but dropped out
  due to discrimination
• 1922- Worked series of menial jobs- including
  working on a ship that eventually brought him to
  Paris- travelled in Europe for a year- part of
  black expatriate community
• 1924- Returned to U.S.- was discovered as poet,
  and finished college at Lincoln, PA- a
  historically black college
• Late 1920s- Returned to Harlem- lived there for
  rest of life
• Died in 1968

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Themes Class Struggle

• Hughes clashed early with DuBois and others due
  to his celebration of low black culture
• Also challenged superiority of white culture
• "We younger Negro artists who create now intend
  to express our individual dark-skinned selves
  without fear or shame. If white people are
  pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't
  matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too...
  If colored people are pleased we are glad. If
  they are not, their displeasure doesn't matter
  either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong
  as we know how, and we stand on top of the
  mountain, free within ourselves."
• Emphasized humor, wit, and strength of common
  people
• Poems Madam and Her Madam, Brass Spittoons,
  Share Croppers

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Music

• Fascinated by Jazz and Blues
• Used rhythms and patterns of this music in his
  poetry
• Also tied into his desire to portray life of
  common people
• Poems Dream Variations, Same in Blues, The Weary
  Blues

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The American Dream- Deferred

• Hughes essentially optimistic, in that he
  believes in possibility of racial equality
• At same time, incredibly bitter about the
  hypocrisy of white liberals who talk one thing
  and act another way.
• Repeated phrase- a dream deferred
• Poems Democracy, I Too, Harlem, Merry- Go-Round

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Origins Mothers and Rivers

• Hughes had a lot of abandonment issues
• Also spent childhood in white culture, but
  never accepted as part of it.
• Thus, many poems about what it is to be black,
  white, somewhere in between
• Poems Negro Mother, Negro Speaks of Rivers, The
  Bitter River, Cross, Mother to Son, Theme for
  English B.