Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance

Ingrid Juarez
American Literature
Mrs Tracey Sangster
May 5, 2015
Hughes’ Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance in the 1900’s was one of the most influential black arts’ movements that helped to form a new black cultural identity. The Harlem Renaissance marks its beginning with the ‘Great Migration’: the migration of African Americans from the depressed, rural and southern areas to more industrialized, urban areas in the 1920’s. This Great Migration relocated hundreds of thousands of African Americans to the urban North where they discovered shared common experiences in their past histories and their uncertain present circumstances. Instead of indulging themselves in self-pity, however, the recently dispossessed fuelled an explosion of intelligence that cultivated cultural pride and exploded into newly discovered talents in art, literature, music and intellectual growth. African culture was reborn due to the Harlem renaissance as it reflects the age of the emergence of ‘black’ talent and acceptance into society. Spanning from the 1920s to the mid-1930s, the Harlem Renaissance was a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that in its essence was summed up by critic and teacher Alain Locke in 1926 when he declared that through art, “Negro life is seizing its first chances for group expression and self-determination.” Cultural development during this period reflected much of the artists’: poets, authors, playwrights, musicians, sculptors, etc., heritage and black culture and depicted their lives. The Harlem Renaissance was a movement that allowed the blacks the cultural uniqueness and preservation of literature and arts that for centuries they had been stripped of. Majority of the works focused on realistically black life in the agrarian, oppressive south and white society. This movement eventually became the centre of a “spiritual coming of age” in which Locke’s “New Negro” transformed “social disillusionment to racial pride.” With the new found ‘Black Identity’ important literary figures were recognized in society: Langston Hughes and Claude McKay, Countee Cullen and Arna Bontemps, Zora Neale Hurston and Jean Toomer, Walter White and James Weldon Johnson. W.E.B. Du Bois, to name a few. With their social acceptance and controversial works these writers helped to accomplish the central focus of the movement and further highlighted the black community. The legacy of the Harlem Renaissance opened doors for new writers and deeply influenced the generations of African American writers that followed and which led to recognition in the literary world and countless prizes awarded to African American writers and their works. Langston Hughes born 1st February 1902 to an African American family, is today one of the major black writers and an important literary figure that emerged during the Harlem Renaissance. Grandson to African American grandmothers and slave owning grandfathers from his paternal family, Hughes grew up in a ‘black and white world’. His parents divorced at an early age as his father tried to escape racism Hughes was bound to endure as he was left to live with his maternal grandmother. His grandmother was a proud black woman who instilled in her grandson a lasting sense of racial pride a trait that greatly influenced his works. In the early 1920s Hughes started his activism in black movements as he joined the black expatriate community in London and later returned to the U.S to further his activism and his writing. Hughes’ diverse field of works include poems, novels, short stories, music and much more and explore the harsh realities faced by the blacks prior to, during and after the Harlem Renaissance. He was first recognized as an important literary figure in the 1920s because of his ‘black’ works and the emergence of countless African American writers. In an article published in the New York herald in 1926 Du Bose Heyward wrote: "Langston Hughes, although only twenty-four years old, is already conspicuous in the group of Negro intellectuals who are dignifying Harlem with a genuine art life. . . . Always intensely subjective, passionate, keenly sensitive to beauty and possessed of an unfaltering musical sense, Langston Hughes has given us a 'first book ' that marks the opening of a career well worth watching." Despite much of the positive sentiments expressed by Heyward in his statement, much of Hughes earlier works were met with harsh criticisms from both coloureds/blacks and whites and labelled as misrepresenting the black community. Hughes’ works were seen as portraying the unattractive view of black life and harshly criticized by the black community for reinforcing the white objectification of the blacks. In his autobiographical The Big Sea, Hughes commented: "Fine Clothes to the Jew was well received by the literary magazines and the white press, but the Negro critics did not like it at all…They characterized me as 'the poet low-rate of Harlem. ' Others called the book a disgrace to the race, a return to the dialect tradition, and a parading of all our racial defects before the public. . . . The Negro critics and many of the intellectuals were very sensitive about their race in books. (And still are.) In anything that white people were likely to read, they wanted to put their best foot forward, their politely polished and cultural foot—and only that foot." Hughes through his writing, and although met with harsh criticisms for doing so, identified with the plain black community, the community that suffered at the hands of the whites- not because it required less effort and sophistication, but precisely because he saw more truth and profound significance in doing so. Langston Hughes was more than a black poet or writer but an activist for equality as he recorded faithfully the nuances of black life and its frustrations. Regardless of the trouble Hughes faced with critics he was one of the first African American writers to dedicate himself entirely to his literary career. He was socially accepted by average black people, a majority at this time, and occupied a fond memory in the hearts of his people by using his poetry and prose to illustrate that ‘there is no lack within the Negro people of beauty, strength and power.’
Langston Hughes a prolific American writer brought a varied and colourful background to his writing that extended to unify his work, culture and heritage to his black community. His works, but primarily his poetry is a reflection of the African-American culture and Harlem. He wrote many poems, and continued to write even after the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes loved Harlem as his home and watched its decline with the onset of the Great Depression. Much of his poetry talks of the hardships, poverty, inequality, etc. of the African-American people, but in Harlem (Dreams Deferred) he wonders what happens to dreams that are deferred. How long must one still dream of something that seems like it will never come? His displacement at first and later the loss of his home made him question the depth of dreams: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” Although short with four stanzas this poem draws the most intense emotions from readers as it allows them to venture into their own lives and to question beyond the surface meaning of their surroundings. He depicts the surrounding of Harlem through this work and highlights the dreams of the black community at the time and through this and the end of the movement shows the effect the Harlem renaissance had on Hughes’ writing. He explore not only his emotions in Harlem (Dreams Deferred), but also highlighted his black community and allowed for later readers to explore the depth of the few short stanzas. In our journey through life, we all have certain expectations of how we would like our lives to be. All of us strive to reach a certain level of self-actualization and acceptance, but they are simply dreams. Some of our individual dreams inevitably become the collective dream of many people. In "Harlem (A Dream Deferred)", Langston Hughes makes use of symbolism as well as powerful sensory imagery to show us the emotions that he and his people go through in their quest for freedom and equality. By using questions he builds the poem towards an exciting climax. He wants to know "What happens to a dream deferred?" He asks this question as an introduction to possible reactions of people whose dreams do not materialize. The image he uses in the first question is that of a raisin. He asks the question; "Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" He draws a parallel between grapes losing its juices in the sun, to dreams losing some of its vitality when its realization is deferred for a long time.
The Harlem Renaissance, an era of rebirth for the blacks brought more than a home for the displaced migrants; it brought enlightenment and acceptance. Through contributing authors of the era blacks were able to see the beauty and unity they possess and in doing so proved to be a well-founded community with writers like James Langston Hughes. Hughes will always be known as a great poet who did so much to make his race move toward equality through his many inspirational poems. Hughes was a part of something great: the Harlem Renaissance, a time of change, a time of happiness for the most part, a time when many people realized that there were many talented African-Americans, and a time for new things and a new way of doing things. Despite the countless criticisms, Hughes received his position in the American literary scene seems to be secure. Hughes is recognized as the one sure ‘Negro classic’, his voice is sure, his manner original, his position secure. Hughes will always remain a significant figure I the Harlem Renaissance and an influential literary figure in the world of Literature.

Works Cited
Chwarz, Christa A. B. (2003). "Langston Hughes: A true 'people 's poet '". In Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissance, Indiana University Press
Joyce, Joyce A. (2004). "A Historical Guide to Langston Hughes". In Steven C. Tracy (ed.), Hughes and Twentieth-Century Genderracial Issues, p. 136. Oxford University Press.
Hughes, Langston (2001). "Fight for Freedom and Other Writings on Civil Rights" (Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Vol. 10). In Christopher C. DeSantis (ed.). Introduction, p. 9. University of Missouri Press
"Langston Hughes." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 05 May 2015.

Cited: Chwarz, Christa A. B. (2003). "Langston Hughes: A true 'people 's poet '". In Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissance, Indiana University Press Joyce, Joyce A. (2004). "A Historical Guide to Langston Hughes". In Steven C. Tracy (ed.), Hughes and Twentieth-Century Genderracial Issues, p. 136. Oxford University Press. Hughes, Langston (2001). "Fight for Freedom and Other Writings on Civil Rights" (Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Vol. 10). In Christopher C. DeSantis (ed.). Introduction, p. 9. University of Missouri Press "Langston Hughes." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 05 May 2015.