Literary Analysis Paper of “Cross” As a writer and civil rights activist‚ many of Langston Hughes poems speak to the real lives of backs in the South during the time of slavery and racial prejudice. The Harlem Renaissance was a time of cultural‚ social‚ and artistic explosion taking place during the end of World War 1 and lasting through the mid 1930s. This is where many artists like Langston Hughes‚ Arna Bontemps and Clauda McKay bloomed in “a literary movement that involved racial pride‚ demanding
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In the Poem Cross by Langston Hughes‚ he shows how mixed races encounter hardships. One major hardship that mixed races encounter is identity problems. Langston demonstrates how not embracing a specific ethnicity causes him to show spitefulness toward his “white old man” and his Caucasian heritage. Langston also shows how identifying with his “Black old mother” and his African American heritage can cause bitterness because he did not know his true identity. At the end of Cross Langston struggles
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In his poem “A Dream Deferred‚” Langston Hughes utilizes vivid sensory imagery and similes to explore the various phases of a dream deferred. Before I wrote my stylistic imitation‚ one of my friends suggested I look carefully at the historical context surrounding this poem’s publication. This poem was written right before the Civil Rights Movement‚ during a time when racial tensions were high in the U.S. and this got me thinking about movements today. Recently‚ there has been an increased awareness
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"Mulatto"‚ a play by Langston Hughes‚ is an incredibly remarkable drama that instantly shapes individual’s perspective on race‚ discrimination‚ sexual exploitation‚ and family relationships. This play explores the impact of a sexual union between unmarried people of different races and the offspring of a mixed-race individual. Mixed-race individuals in the twenty-first century are less likely to experience the sense of displacement and rejection Hughes’s poem describes. However‚ the Caucasian individuals
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Much like when the poem ‘my people by Langston Hughes was written‚ the 20th century definition of black beauty has become – or maybe has not changed- distorted by images of colonial acceptance and oppression. Hence the term ‘white wash’ comes to mind‚ secluded defined by urbandictionary.com as “Someone who is looked at as leaving behind or neglecting their culture and assimilating to a white‚ western culture.” My interpretation of Mr. Hughes poem is that he seeks to justify that his people‚ African
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Let it be the dream it used to be” (Hughes). Langston Hughes said this in his poem “Let America be America again.” Hughes is conveying that the American Dream has changed from when it was the goal of every person in America and coming to America. The American Dream is what motivated people to come to the new world and start their lives with equal opportunity. It has evolved along with the ideals of the nation into “the dream that’s almost dead today”(Hughes). Although the American Dream is harder
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Apart from his apparent disgust for the desolate life that the African Americans were subjected to‚ Langston Hughes also portrays an evident mistrust of religion‚ not necessarily towards religion itself but particularly towards those individuals who use religion as a cloak to conceal their true duplicitous and oppressive nature. In arguably he’s most controversial poem‚ Goodbye Christ; Langston Hughes takes on the role of a disillusioned Christian and repudiates the doctrines set forth in America‚
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than a dream. As Langston Hughes depicts throughout many of his works with the use of the motif inequality‚ the American Dream is an illusion performed by the magicians also known as America’s political leaders. He exploits how life in America for those not deemed as the upper white class is in reality a nightmare. In the poem “I‚ Too‚” Hughes speaks of the inequality faced by the African American race in order to emphasize the community’s social immobility. Hughes begins the poem by
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The poem discusses Hughes’ background and identity as a person of mixed race‚ a white father and a black mother. To go about how he feels about it‚ he uses both literal and implied definition of words. When he states that “My old man’s a white old man” and “And my old mother’s black” he simply states his parents’ identity. He uses the literal definitions of the words “white” and “black” and describes his parents with color and no other way. The title of the poem‚ “Cross‚” however‚ can be used to
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Bop Neva Ends What is Bop? In “Bop” by Langston Hughes‚ the narrator describes Bop as Be-Bop‚ the opposite of Re-Bop. The general idea of Be-Bop is that it is current‚ makes sense‚ what the colored boys play and that it is authentic. This leads to Re-Bop having the definition of being white boys play‚ an imitation‚ and complete nonsense. In “Bop”‚ a character by the name of Simple is stating his own theory on the origin of Be-Bop music to an unnamed narrator. Simple uses his somewhat ethnocentric
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