borrowed from experiences in his own life as well as his friends’ lives and the lives of

those around him. Growing up Langston endured hard times but was able to draw from

his past and turn it into a creative outlet. He chose to write about the ordinary blacks,

rather than the educated blacks that others chose as subjects. He used one character, Jesse

Semple, referred to as “Simple,” to especially express human feelings and evoke readers’

emotions (Haskins 100). Langston was also a political man, who used his writing to

promote his views. Even at his death Langston Hughes was able to find humor in life, and

Many of the people that Langston was in contact with as he was growing and

developing were influential to his writing style as well as the characters he created.

Langston had a difficult childhood and adolescence. He was born to James Nathaniel

Hughes, a law student, and Carrie Mercer Langston Hughes, a stenographer and

newspaper woman (Haskins 1). Even his parents’ educated status couldn’t save their

family from poverty, as blacks were still looked u

was killed while fighting in the Harper Ferry Raid. Mary’s second husband and

inspire him. “I tried to write poems like the songs they sang on Seventh Street – gay

Jones “Rape is for sex, you have to sex in a Broadway show” (Rampersad 313). Langston

Some topics in this essay:
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