The Black Man and Langston Hughes

The term individuality is defined by Websters dictionary as being the narrate or fact of remaining the same one or ones, as under varying aspects or conditions however in exploring the concept of Identity in downcast literature, we can find no explicit explanation or definition. We can try to accept that it has been rooted in social situations that atomic number 18 in general more discriminatory, such the institution of knuckle downry. In some way shape or form, the average or normal African American is confronted with the question of where do I fit in amongst the white lodge?The problem with African American Identity has many dimensions, such as community, class, and color. The reality of the African American is one that is inescapable in America. Color which is inherent in the concept of self, manifest in melt d throw thought. This is extremely significant because an African American establishes his identity with other individuals, known or unknown, on the primer of a s imilarity of color and features, that allowing the individual to be included in groups membership, the subject of his self identity. aft(prenominal) the African Americans began to search for their identity looking through heritage, tradition, and folk traditions. Langston Hughes to me has been nourishing the black sensibility and stimulate it to create Afro American literation and transforming it into a literature of struggle. The poetry of Langston Hughes has the theme of I, too piffle America He made extraordinary contributions to American literature and has came to be regarded as a leading voice in the Renaissance of the arts in the 1920s.Hughes evolveing up asked the same question to himself of who he was, his lack of identity in society, which put a large impact on his mind and soul and made him a poet of the blacks. Hughes developed a distinct movement of negritude which may be regarded as the soul of the Renaissance. Rising from the consciousness of his skin color and p assing through various stages of identification with sight and territory of Africa, and finally cornerstone it in the American Past. Negritude in the poetry of Hughes evolves into a expressed and enduring concept expressive of definite vision. He Hughes doesnt suffer from what W. E. B Dubois terms as a double consciousness. Two souls, deuce thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body. Search for identity seems to be a vital aspect in the work of Langston Hughes. The identity of an American black citizen was denied to him and at that place was a loss of identity which a modern man living in the 20th century experiences. The obtuse people of America are American, the African and Black Americans are at the same time.Africa which is thought to be homeland for blacks, was dealt with by Langston Hughes, who missed the natural beauty of Africa and dreaded being caged in the mayhem of civilization. He searched his roots ass in Africa. Primitivism had al ready get under ones skin a fascinating alternative for people for people non interested in the 2nd industrial revolution. It gave new meaning of going back to the roots and ones identity. The poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers is an example of the of the urge and need of the Negro to go back to his own land to find ethnic connections. The poet says Ive known riversIve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the menstruation of human blood in human veins. In the poems entirety the rivers symbolize the glorious past, which have been catamenia since humanities inception. So the African who has known rivers can non be rootless or without past. Hughes also established a definite identity between the Blacks of America and the continent of Africa which he states in his poem called Negro I am a Negro Black as the night is black, Black like the depths of my Africa. Ive been a slave Ive been a worker Ive been a singer All the way from Africa to GeorgiaI carried my sorrow songs. It was not easy to just up and go back to Africa. It became the dreamland for the poet, a country in which he could escape into when he finds action difficult to cope with. The poet to me seemed widely aware of misery, frustration, and isolation which to him is something that other blacks are facing. This epiphany of his leans him to the universal significance and appeal to the poets treatment of black life in America. His retreat into African is not a romantic escape from realities of life, but it provides a point of view to look at the realities of the life of black people in America.To say the blacks were treated horribly by white Americans is an understatement, they were compared to beasts and were treated accordingly. The black man was lynched, maimed and burnt, while the black woman was raped and desecrated. Lynching of the black on the stick of raping a white woman was one of the most commonplace events. Fear to the race and hatred, for the black was a common behavior of the w hite masses. The treatments to the blacks becomes evident in the following lines of I, too sing America 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. Hence the stanza shows that the black worker doesnt find any place in the heart of the whites. He is displace to the background by the company bosses who are indifferent towards the blacks. The African American feels lonely in the blue city where there are large The Negro feels lonesome in the northern city where there are a large number of people, yet he still feels lost in the metrical composition One he relates his profound sense of isolation Lonely As a bottle of licker On a table All by itself.The whites dont permit the policy-making liberty to the blacks. Blacks are deprived of their basic necessities of life. They dont have a proper place to live in. Their down in the mouth condition is shown in the poem Vagabond Who have now here To eat. No place to sleep, The tearless Who cannot Weep. In this the blacks are alien on their own land. The blacks want a chance to eek out a becoming living and have equal rights across America. Langston Hughes says undemocratic doings take place in the posterior of the worlds greatest democracy The blacks have no right to participate in the political affairs.Langston Hughes poetry is also preoccupied with the social problems faced by the blacks. Man is called a social animal. Blacks are not given the equal place in the society. The poet shows this inequality in the poem Merry Go Round the social whites have no sympathy even for a young black child. He has to sit in a segregated section. Hughes writes Colored child at carnival Where is the Jim Crowe section On this merry-go-round, Mister, cause I want to ride? Down South where I come from White and change Cant sit side by side. Thus the merry go round is a metaphor for America.It is a kind of Satire on the American Society which we know as a free Society. A clear picture of the exploitation of the blacks is presented that cultural, social, and psychological space has been denied to them. Hughes never forgetting the images he has seen growing up, he has large up shell shocked. He can clearly make out the contradiction of principles, for America was a democracy, but for the Negroes, America was fighting for a free and equal world. One where Jim Crow was eradicated, however he understands that the flame of freedom can not be extinguished by lynching and imprisoning blacks.From all this it become evident that Langston Hughes deals with the racial discrimination, lack of identity in the society and lack of freedom for the blacks. His aim and crowning(prenominal) effect of his poetry is raising awareness and strengthening of the black people in their struggle for freedom in America. He was proud of his Afro-American legacy and tradition. He forcefully projects the theme of identity in his poems. He not o nly inspires the black to make it to the top but more than that he evokes a vision of a just society. works sitedGeorgene Seward, Psychotherapy and Culture Conflict (New York Ronald Press, 1956), p. 129. Arthur A. Schaumburgs The Negro Digs up his Past, in Alain Lockes The New Negro, pp. 931-37. Jay Saunders Redding, To Make a poet Black (WashingtonMcGrath, 1969), p. 3. James A. Emanuel, Langston Hughes (New Haven College and University Press, 1967), pp. 148-162. W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black mob (New York New American Library, 1969), p. 45. Langston Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers. Selected Poems (New York Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 4.Langston Hughes, Negro. Selected Poems (New YorkAlfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 8. Langston Hughes, I, too, Sing America. Selected Poems (New York Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 275. Langston Hughes, One. Selected Poems (New YorkAlfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 92. Langston Hughes, Vagabonds. Selected Poems (New York Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 91. Lan gston Hughes, The Big Sea The Collected Works of Langston Hughes ( New YorkJoseph Mclauren, 1979) brashness 13 P 165 Langston Hughes, Merry-Go-Round. Selected Poems (NewYork Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 194.