Poetry and Prose of Langston Hughes - Research Paper Example

Poetry and Prose of Langston Hughes Like many prominent African-American writers of the 20th century, Langston Hughes also brought out the theme of racial discrimination and oppression through his poetry as well as prose. Born in early 20th century to a family of mixed race, Hughes understood and experienced the racial differentiation at an early age. Hughes wrote nine anthologies of poems, several novels, short stories, plays, essays as well as an autobiography titled The Big Sea (1940). His writings are an expression of the hardship that his community endured. This study is an attempt at analyzing some of his prominent works to understand how he used his writings as the voice of many fellow African-Americans who went through severe discrimination and racial abuse. Hughes’ work Ballad of the Landlord talks about the situation of a black tenant who demanded for fair rent. Here, Langston uses poetry as a strong medium to depict the fate of a poor African American who had the courage to question the landlord for fair living conditions. Hughes manages to bring out the strong bias, unfairness as well as the discrimination through the headlines of the newspaper which he writes in capital letters, ‘MAN THREATENS LANDLORD/ TENANT HELD NO BAIL /JUDGE GIVES NEGRO 90 DAYS IN COUNTY JAIL!’ (Hughes, 1951, p. 383). The poem Song For a Dark Girl is a narration of the racial hatred. Through very few, but strong words, the poet brings for a very grim portraits which was quite familiar to the black population in the South. The pain of a beautiful relationship that was shattered by violence against the African Americans comes out in the lines, ‘Way Down South in Dixie / (Break the heart of me)/ They hung my black young lover /To a cross roads tree.’(Hughes, 1927, p.71). It is noteworthy that Hughes does not use his writing as a way of expressing the agony of the discrimination, but instead he uses it as a very powerful tool to instill pride among his fellow men towards their race and color. The message of such writing was not just to show the pride that he himself felt, but to spread awareness about their lineage. In the poem Dinner Guest: Me, Hughes’ strong sense of pride and belonging are evident in the lines, To be a problem on / Park Avenue at eight / is not so bad/ Solutions to the Problem/ Of course, wait.’ (Hughes, 1951, p.397). A similar sense of pride is also seen in his poem ‘Negro’ where he reflects on achievements when he says, ‘I’ve been a worker/Under my hand the pyramids arose’. (Hughes, 1921, p. 28). Many African American writers wrote a lot about the hardships that they had to endure because of the discrimination. However, Hughes was unique because he took immense pride and his writing comes out as a strong mix of both agony and pride (Miller, 2006). The remarkable thing about Hughes writing is that he was able to celebrate the dignity of normal and simple African Americans who belonged to the working class. For this reason, he was also known as the Harlem's Bard (Comporne, 2006). In one of his articles that were published in 1926, Hughes wrote about Harlem renaissance, “We younger Negro artists now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they aren’t it doesn’t matter.” (Hughes, 1926). For Hughes, there was a lot of dignity in accepting that he belonged to the African American community. This sense of pride that Hughes has can also been seen in his style of writing. Hughes purposely adopts a style that is full of vernacular tones and words. He had no hesitation in adopting the language that the African-Americans used for communication. At the time when Hughes wrote, very few writers would opt to use vernacular language, especially because it was considered to be crass and lowly, when compared to the high literary language used by the scholars. However, as with his lineage and origin, Hughes took great pride in his language and had no qualms in using it for his writings. This usage can be clearly seen in ‘Rent-Party Shout : For a Lady Dancer’. Here he tries to incorporate the common language spoken by African Americans by using apostrophizes and by cutting of certain word endings, as seen in the lines, ‘That man I love is/ Mean an’low./ Pistol an’razor!/Razor an’gun/ If I sees ma man he’d/ Better run.” (Hughes, 1930, p. 121) This style in fact, proceeds to create a melodious sound, which is so characteristic of the type of English that is commonly spoken in areas such as Harlem. Thus, it is an effort by Hughes in highlighting the vast oral culture that the working class African Americans used in folk poetry and songs (McLaren, 1997). The use of tones of black vernacular language was popularized by Hughes, at a time when the tendency was to abandon this style of speech because it was not sophisticated enough. Hughes also was not blinded by the Jazz age and its exotica during the 1920s, instead he was more preoccupied with the downfall of the economy and the Great Depression. His poems such as the ‘Midnight Raffles (1953)’, talks about fortune as well as luck and how life is a mixed bag of fortune and misfortune. The strong theme of African-American life is further reflected in the works of Langston Hughes because of the special efforts that he takes to glamorize and romanticize Africa. The romanticizing goes perfectly well with the pride that he brings out through his works. The major effort of Hughes was concentrated around evoking pride in their traditions that have originated in Africa. Therefore, his lines in the poem ‘Negro’, ‘I am a Negro: / Black as the night is black,/ Black like the depths of my Africa". (Hughes, 1921, p. 28). Another very popular of Hughes work is a short story compilation known as The Ways of the White folks. This collection of 14 short stories, with each of them portraying the strong racial discrimination that was faced by the African American population stands out because here he uses the technique of irony as well as sarcasm (Westover, 2004). For example, in Cora Unashamed (1934), Hughes uses the character of a black woman who leads an isolated life to lash out against the hypocrisy of the white employers. Hughes also wrote many plays and most of his plays as well as non-fictional work also revolved around the theme of racial discrimination that they faced (Tracy, 1988). The works of Langston Hughes holds a very important place in the history of African American writing. The works, as mentioned earlier, revolve around the various facets of life as an African American during the early half of the 20th century. Works of writers such as Hughes had an instrumental role in instilling the sense of pride and dignity into the life of African Americans who felt that they were lesser human beings. Though Hughes also writes about the pain, agony and trauma that the community had to endure, he also stresses on the importance of taking pride in their color and roots. Similarly, even though the works had a sense of grief about them, there was a strong undercurrent of optimism as well as hope. It is this optimism that is strongly reflected in the poem Youth, in the lines, ‘We have tomorrow, bright before us like a flame.’ (Hughes, 1941, p. 312) References Comprone, R. (2006). Poetry, Desire, and Fantasy in the Harlem Renaissance. Lanham, MD: UP of America Hughes, L. (1921). Negro. Me. In Rampersad, A. Eds. (1995). The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. California: Vintage Hughes, L. (1926). The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain. The Nation. Retrieved, Oct 24, 2011 http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/hughes/mountain.htm Hughes, L. (1927). Song For a Dark Girl. In Rampersad, A. Eds. (1995). The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. California: Vintage Hughes, L. (1930). Rent-Party Shout : For a Lady Dancer. Me. In Rampersad, A. Eds. (1995). The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. California: Vintage Hughes, L. (1951). Ballad of the Landlord. In Rampersad, A. Eds. (1995). The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. California: Vintage Hughes, L. (1951). Dinner Guest: Me. In Rampersad, A. Eds. (1995). The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. California: Vintage McLaren, J. (1997). Langston Hughes, folk dramatist in the protest tradition, 1921-1943. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Miller, R.(2006). The Art and Imagination of Langston Hughes. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 2006. Tracy, S.C (1988). Langston Hughes & the Blues. Urbana: University of Illinois Press Westover, J (2004). The Colonial Moment: Discoveries and Settlements in Modern American Poetry. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois UP, Read More