Langston Hughes' Role In The Harlem Renaissance

Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was born in Joplin, Missouri and educated at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He published his first poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” in Crisis magazine in 1921 and studied at Columbia University from 1921 to 1922. He lived in Paris for a time and after his return to the United States, he worked as a busboy in Washington, D.C. there in 1925, his literary skills were discovered after he left three of his poems beside the plate of American poet Vachel Lindsay who recognized Hughes abilities and subsequently helped publicize Hughes work. Hughes never married and several of his friends were homosexual, among them Carl Van Vechten, who wrote the controversial novel Nigger Heaven (1926) therefore causing an unrelevant speculation about his sexuality. Hughes wrote in many genres, but he is best known for his poetry in which he disregarded classical forms in favor of musical rhythms and the oral and improvisatory traditions of black culture. http://myhero.com/hero.asp?hero=langstonHughes

Langston Hughes earned a place amongst the greatest poets America has ever produced. The literature he created became part of the Harlem Renaissance Movement.

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The short story “Thank You Ma am” and the poem “Mother to Son”, both by Langston Hughes are similar yet differ in many ways. The two literary works are alike in the sense that they both give advice to young people. For example “Mother to Son” the mother says “So boy don’t you turn back, don’t set you down on the steps ‘cause you find its kinder harder, don’t you fall now”. An example from “Thank you Ma’am is when Mrs. Jones says “ I were young once and I wanted things I couldn’t get, I have done things, too, which I would not tell you son—neither God, if he didn’t already know”.

The characters in both of these works share their experiences with younger people to help them learn from the mistakes made in their lives. Both stories are also written using the same language. For example, words like “M’ am”, “No’ m”, “Yes’ m”, “I’ se” “a-climbin’ “, and “aint”. Ways in which these works differ or are different are the format of the pieces. “Mother To Son” is a poem and “Thank You M’ am” is a short story. The literary elements in “Thank You M’ am” are characterization, direct characterization and indirect characterization. “Mother to Son” also has a deeper meaning; Hughes chose to write this poem like a metaphor, referring his life to a staircase. “Thank You M’ am” is clear about its meaning and uses dialog to explain the theme and meaning of the work.

In contrast, a different side of nature is depicted in Hughes poem, Song for a Dark Girl. The language in this poem paints a morbid picture of a racist south. In this poem, nature is harsh, unfair, and cruel. Instead of providing man with a means to express the freedom of his soul, nature confines the soul. Nature serves as a symbol for the captivity and death of the soul. The black man that is lynched in the poem could not be free in this society, and the girl he leaves behind mourns at the sight of the tree. For her, the image of this tree brings anguish to the soul: Way Down South in Dixie (break the heart of me) they hung my black young lover to a crossroads tree. The tree is the object on whi

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