Harlem Langston Hughes Analysis
Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri on February 1, 1902 and died in New York City, New York on May 22, 1967. His father’s name was James Nathaniel and his mother’s name was Carrie Mercer Langston Hughes. His parents separated not to long after he was born. His father later moved to Cuba and later permanently lived in Mexico, where he lived the rest of his life working as an attorney and landowner. He eventually traveled to Mexico to visit his father who moved when his parents separated from each but luckily for Langston, within a few years of his visit to Mexico, he would find himself at the center of a cultural flowering in New York City's historically black neighborhood that is famously known as Harlem. Hughes's poetry …show more content…
This short poem is one of Hughes’s most famous works; it is likely the most common Langston Hughes poem taught in American schools. Hughes wrote "Harlem" in 1951, and it addresses one of his most common themes like the limitations of the American Dream for African Americans. The poem has eleven short lines in four stanzas, and all but one line are questions.In the early 1950s, America was still racially segregated. African Americans were saddled with the legacy of slavery, which essentially rendered them second-class citizens in the eyes of the law, particularly in the South.Hughes was intimately aware of the challenges he faced as a black man in America, and the tone of his work reflects his complicated experience. He can come across as sympathetic, enraged, and hopeful. Hughes titled this poem “Harlem” after the New York neighborhood that became the center of the Harlem Renaissance, a major creative explosion in music, literature, and art that occurred during the 1910s and 1920s. Many African American families saw Harlem as a sanctuary from the frequent discrimination they faced in other parts of the country. Unfortunately, Harlem’s glamour faded at the beginning of the 1930s when the Great Depression set in that left many of the African American families who had flourished in Harlem
Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri on February 1, 1902 and died in New York City, New York on May 22, 1967. His father’s name was James Nathaniel and his mother’s name was Carrie Mercer Langston Hughes. His parents separated not to long after he was born. His father later moved to Cuba and later permanently lived in Mexico, where he lived the rest of his life working as an attorney and landowner. He eventually traveled to Mexico to visit his father who moved when his parents separated from each but luckily for Langston, within a few years of his visit to Mexico, he would find himself at the center of a cultural flowering in New York City's historically black neighborhood that is famously known as Harlem. Hughes's poetry …show more content…
This short poem is one of Hughes’s most famous works; it is likely the most common Langston Hughes poem taught in American schools. Hughes wrote "Harlem" in 1951, and it addresses one of his most common themes like the limitations of the American Dream for African Americans. The poem has eleven short lines in four stanzas, and all but one line are questions.In the early 1950s, America was still racially segregated. African Americans were saddled with the legacy of slavery, which essentially rendered them second-class citizens in the eyes of the law, particularly in the South.Hughes was intimately aware of the challenges he faced as a black man in America, and the tone of his work reflects his complicated experience. He can come across as sympathetic, enraged, and hopeful. Hughes titled this poem “Harlem” after the New York neighborhood that became the center of the Harlem Renaissance, a major creative explosion in music, literature, and art that occurred during the 1910s and 1920s. Many African American families saw Harlem as a sanctuary from the frequent discrimination they faced in other parts of the country. Unfortunately, Harlem’s glamour faded at the beginning of the 1930s when the Great Depression set in that left many of the African American families who had flourished in Harlem