The poem “Mother to Son‚” by Langston Hughes‚ is about a mother advising her son about life. She tells him that life is not easy and that he should not give up even when life is hard. Throughout the poem she uses an extended metaphor to compare life as a decayed stair. The mother expressed the hardship of life by saying‚ “And splinters‚ And boards torn up‚ And places with no carpet on the floor” (4-6). She describes the stair as an old and decayed stair that seems impossible to climb. Life is hard
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Life: Born on February 1‚ 1902 James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet‚ social activist‚ novelist‚ playwright‚ and columnist from Joplin‚ Missouri. His parents‚ James Hughes and Carrie Langston‚ divorced soon after his arrival‚ his father then moved to Mexico. Hughes’s mother moved often‚ leaving Lanston to live with his maternal grandmother‚ Mary‚ until she died in his early teens.From that point on‚ James went to live with his mother. Langston and his mother moved to several cities before
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The main questions being posed by Hughes in “Theme for English B” seem simple‚ who are we and how is it that we know who we are? Such questions‚ he suggests‚ must be simple because an instructor in a basic English class (English B) uses them as the basis for an assignment: “Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you.” The instructor claims that if the students let it come out of them‚ it would be true. But the student is not sure it’s that easy. Then he begins to list all
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The “Trumpet Player” by Langston Hughes addresses the issues of slavery and discrimination that was going on in the United States. The poem means that no matter what your life is like‚ the memories of your past will always be with you‚ but if you can find something that comforts you and eases the pain‚ you can turn your pain and suffering into art. The lines “The Negro/with the trumpet at his lips‚” which are repeated in stanzas two and five‚ tell the reader that the poem is about an African American
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Robert Sharp Gwendolyn Baker-Alford English 1102 12 November 2013 Langston Hughes’s Harlem James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet‚ social activist‚ novelist‚ playwright‚ and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry. Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. Langston Hughes has many poems; some of his famous poems are Dreams‚ As I Grew Older‚ Mother to Son‚ and my favorite Harlem. He famously wrote about
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Langston Hughes- The Voice of African Americans “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”‚ “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”‚ “Danse Africaine” ‚ and “I‚ Too” by Langston Hughes are representative of Hughes ability to capture the vast experience of being black in America. Hughes’ ability to define African American heritage and the daily experience of being black in America through poetry and essays helped move the Harlem Renaissance into the forefront of American Literature. For Hughes‚ being African
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Langston Hughes’s‚ “Early Autumn‚” is an example of something that can happen in everyday life. The conflict in this story shows how one decision can result in a time of sadness. I believe the author uses the end of fall and the beginning of winter to show just how cold and empty the relationship is between the characters. It could represent that there was nothing to say‚ in the story it seemed like she was happier to see him than he was or maybe he was in shock. “The leaves fell slowly from
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Langston Hughes is known as a significant poet of the Harlem Renaissance- “an African American artistic movement in the 1920s that celebrated black life and culture”. Hughes connects with the audience through his sophistication towards life’s matters in which issues revolving around the African American community are frequently addressed. In his poem “Life is fine”‚ Hughes particularly brings out the significance of life which is often reinforced by the obstacles that people encounter in their living
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Renaissance Among the players in the Harlem renaissance were writers and poets. However‚ it was poetry that many African Americans identified with. ‘Harlem’‚ or popularly referred to as the ‘Dream Deferred’ by Langston Hughes. In this poem‚ the reality
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targets to get picked on for any little thing. There are some interesting literary elements Langston Hughes points out. Hughes uses literary devices such as simile‚ imagery‚ and anaphora to show the reader the theme of ill effects on African Americans in society. Through the use of simile‚ the author reveals the comparisons of a dream to rotten meat. In the poem‚ it says‚ “Does it stink like rotten meat?” (Hughes 6). This quote shows that a dream can sometimes be like a rotten meat unpleasant and never
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