The Greatest American Authors of XX Century - Essay Example

In his oeuvre, he set himself up as the black, who didn’t hesitate to show it. He wasn’t afraid of public demonstration of his admiration for his culture. First of all, he aimed to investigate and answer the question: who are, those people, who lived in black ghettos? Hughes argued that African Americans have the same right to be equal with the dominant class of white people, which means that their humour, music and the way they look at this world must also be considered a part of American culture. Hughes made everything to show the society beauty of his people. Like he wrote in “My people”.Beautiful, also, is the sun.

Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people. (4-6) So who are they, those black people described in Hughes’s poetry? They were just ordinary workers, who lived in the USA trying to survive in harsh conditions. But despite their being tired and outworn, they still were able to enjoy their lives, smile and joke, and play their very special music. The main feature of these people was their dignity and pride in their diversified culture. By showing simultaneously both the ordinariness and eccentricity of his people Hughes became a poet, who came from people and wrote for them to change their beliefs about themselves and to integrate their culture and aesthetics into common ones. In one of his best and probably the most famous poems “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” Langston Hughes notices the wisdom and ancientness of his people, he writes: “My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”(1), giving the list of achievements of African American culture.

The poet expresses his confidence that, despite being refused, similar to great rivers of the world, the culture of his people will not only survive but will also thrive and develop further: “I've known rivers: /Ancient, dusky rivers.”(11-12). Such a rebellious state of mind wasn’t satisfactory for the cultural elite of the society of that time, because the upper classes hadn’t allowed blacks to become a part of them yet, in addition, Hughes himself advocated soviet Russia after living there for three years. When the restrictions were eased for black people, Hughes became highly influential in the field of culture. In press, he created the ironic character of run-of-the-mine Negro Jesse B. Simple (purposely creating such a last name) on behalf of whom he commented on public events.

We can’t also forget about the most influential of Hughes’s oeuvre factor - the uprising of jazz music, which inspired the poet to create something original; furthermore, he became the pioneer of so-called “jazz poetry”. In his poems he used colloquial language, some elements of folklore, and jazz rhythms, splitting his poems not on stanzas, but on different-sized bar lines, which added some syncopating rhythms into his poetry. He wrote the poems in the style of classic blues, repeating the first two lines and rhyming with their fourth, transferring the blue notes. Like many great writers, Hughes produced his oeuvre passing it through the prism of his own life experience, which added to his poetry both simplicity and depth. The following lines from his “Jester” apparently describe the feelings he went through during his whole life.

His poetry was the cry from the depth; it was appealing to justice for his discriminated people’s sake. He struggled, but evidently, he reached his aim of showing who his people are, how great their culture is, and how strongly they deserve to be.