The Black Man and Langston Hughes

The term identity is defined by Webster’s dictionary as being “the state or fact of remaining the same one or ones, as under varying aspects or conditions” however in exploring the concept of Identity in black literature, we can find no definite explanation or definition. We can try to accept that it has been rooted in social situations that are generally more discriminatory, such the institution of slavery. 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 society? 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 race consciousness. This is extremely significant because an African American establishes his identity with other individuals, known or unknown, on the basis of a similarity of color and features, that allowing the individual to be included in groups membership, “the subject of his self identity.” After 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 inspiring 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 sing 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 1920’s. Hughes growing 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 passing through various stages of