Hughes Promotes the African Civilization Essay

Still recognized as one of the literary giants of the States, Langston Hughes played an important role as a writer and thinker of the Harlem Renaissance. This was an wileistic movement of African the Statesns that arose during the 1920s to celebrate the lives and culture of Africans in the United States (Langston Hughes). Because intimately of the African the Statesns had been brought to the New valet de chambre as slaves of white master, it was poets and writers like Hughes, an African American man, that helped to change the apprehension of African Americans in the minds of the whites once slavery had been abolished.Hughes metrical compositions, The pitch blackness Speaks of Rivers published in 1926, and negro published in 1958, therefore depict African Americans as ordinary human beings like everybody else, and yet richer in culture and purification than m some(prenominal) others, seeing that they fork up participated in the anatomical structure of the great pyramids, m entioned in both poems (Hughes, 2007 Hughes). Hughes was direct and open about the fact that his writings were meant to catch the conditions confronting Africans in the United States (Hughes, 1923). They had been slaves, so therefore the whites did non respect them complete even after the abolishment of slavery.The Negro Speaks of Rivers was published five eld after the Tulsa Riot and during the Harlem Renaissance (Race Riot, Lynchings, and other Forms of Racism in the 1920s). Negro, on the other hand, was published at a metre when racialism was considered a bigger problem than before. In fact, during the 1950s racism was at the forefront of American thought (Lewis, 2002). Many battles were fought to set blacks touch to whites in the minds of tout ensemble Americans. Hughes contribution of the 1950s, his poem Negro, was only different to the consequence that it was an artists contribution.Countless other Africans were fighting on the streets of America to set things right on ce and for either. Both poems, The Negro Speaks of Rivers and Negro, are expressions of African American identity. The first poem begins thus Ive known rivers (Hughes). In the second as in the first, although the poet has do clear that the narrator is a negro the poem, Negro begins with the words, I am a Negro (Hughes, 2007). Because the whites had been masters over African slaves, they were inclined to look down upon Africans. Since the whites were owners of property in America and certainly richer, the blacks longed to be like the whites.But, Hughes would like the Africans to feel at home in their own skins. With images of rivers as grand as of the Euphrates, the Nile and the disseminated multiple sclerosis the poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, reminds the African of his or her historical roots or the account statement of the great African peoples who learn traveled across all of these rivers adding honour to the historical streams of cultures. The poem has irregular, long lines without rhythm because it is making a basal point the African soul is as deep as any human soul could be. The African individual indulges in deep thought as he travels across ancient rivers.What he must survive on is his own identity on foreign soil. Remembering the accounting of his civilization, he must keep in mind that life carries on. Whats more, the poet reminds his fellow African that the black race has survived despite all odds (Hughes). Because The Negro Speaks of Rivers was published during the peak of Harlem Renaissance, it refers to depth of the African soul, given that art is often understood as the voice of the soul and the Harlem Renaissance was all about promoting African art and culture in the United States. utilise gentle images such as the Mississippis bosom act golden in the sunset, the poet uses his emphasis on rivers to stand as a symbol for the depth of the African soul (Hughes). Negro, published during the 1950s as well as mentions depths (Hughe s, 2007). As in The Negro Speaks of Rivers, the depths mentioned by Hughes in both poems most likely refer to the depth of African knowledge too. After all, both poems refer to the tale of Africans.Negro, with its sentence arrangements describing either what had happened to Africans or what they have do in the history of the African civilization also sack ups mention of the experiences and/or skills that set Africans apart, for example, slavery and singing (Hughes, 2007). The poet represents all Africans in both his poems, The Negro Speaks of Rivers and Negro. What is more, both poems mention the fact that the Africans were part of the labor force that build the ancient pyramids. In The Negro Speaks of Rivers, it was the African who looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it (Hughes).In Negro, the pyramid is said to have arisen under the African hand, implying that the African was greatly skilled even at the time of ancient pyramid construction (Hughes, 2007). The m ain difference between the two poems, The Negro Speaks of Rivers and Negro is, undoubtedly, the tincture of hope felt through the first poem versus the sense of discouragement mixed with hope in the second poem. Hughes must have imperturbable The Negro Speaks of Rivers in a different frame of mind altogether. The poem clearly promotes the African American culture and art as originating in the deep history of humanity (Hughes).Although Negro makes mention of world history too, it does not necessarily promote African American art, apart from its eccentric to singing. The African American may be considered as more of a laborer or low paid worker than an artist in Negro (Hughes, 2007). Perhaps the poem was not written to promote African American art at all. As mentioned previously, the 1950s saw the whites and blacks of America fighting over the question of equal rights of Africans in almost all major areas of state functioning, including education. There were severe problems relate d to racism during this accomplishment of American history.Clearly, blacks were being looked down upon. It was in the mood of that hour that Hughes collected Negro. The poem speaks of the ordinariness of the African individual while describing the good uses that Africans have been made of, for example, in the construction of the Woolworth Building (Hughes, 2007). The Negro Speaks of Rivers is certainly not dismal or depressing like Negro, mainly because it does not make mention of slavery and victimization as the second. After all, Hughes is fighting against damage toward African Americans in the 1950s.In the 1920s, his cause was entirely different. If The Negro Speaks of Rivers had made frequent mention of darkness as does Negro, the Harlem Renaissance could not have been considered a harbinger of hope (Hughes, 2007). References Hughes, L. (2007, Dec 2). Negro. Retrieved Mar 15, 2009, from http//amandafa. blogspot. com/2007/12/negro-by-langston-hughes. html. . (1926, Jun 23). T he Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain. The Nation. Retrieved Mar 15, 2009, from http//www. hartford-hwp. com/archives/45a/360. html. . The Negro Speaks of Rivers.Retrieved Mar 15, 2009, from http//www. wmrfh. org/dcrews/index_files/Hughes_The%20Negro%20Speaks%20of%20Rivers. doc. Langston Hughes. Americas Story from Americas Library. Retrieved Mar 15, 2009, from http//www. americaslibrary. gov/cgi-bin/page. cgi/aa/hughes. Lewis, C. H. (2002). The Rise of the polished Rights Movement in the 1950s. Retrieved Mar 15, 2009, from http//www. colorado. edu/AmStudies/lewis/2010/civil. htm. Race Riot, Lynchings, and other Forms of Racism in the 1920s. Retrieved Mar 15, 2009, from http//www. assumption. edu/ahc/raceriots/default. html.