Langston Hughes 'Poem Life Is Fine'

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 journeys. The poem is considered Hughes’s most successful piece of work as it concentrates on the hardships of not only the African American community, but all humanity.

“Life is Fine” is a perfect example that demonstrates an endless scenario when people come to death as a permanent solution for everything. The poem consists six stanzas, and the first four stanzas are the depictions of the speaker’s attempts to commit suicide. His determination is highlighted in the first stanza, particularly in these two sentences: “I tried to think but couldn’t; So I jumped in and sank.” Through this, his intellectual impasse- a principle that leads to him committing suicide is illustrated. However, his attempt fails eventually: “I came up once and hollered! I came up twice and cried!” Based on this, the audience can interpret that
Through the situation that is brought out in the poem, Hughes depicts death as the only escape from the reality. Life and death may seem to be two extremely opposite concepts, but if humans could not be enlightened soon enough; the distance between life and death is just a jump away as described in the poem. “Life is fine” not only addresses a typical scenario when people comes to death as an option to end everything but it is also a meaningful lesson for everyone to reflect on