But I guess I'm what I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you: hear you, hear me-we two-you, me, talk on this page. (I hear New York, too) Me-who? ... I guess being colored doesn't make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races. ... Being me, it will not be white. ... "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair." (587) and then continue his poem like if it was a sermon given to an entire community listening to him and his conviction. ...

• Word Count: 1971
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

Me--who? Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life. ... I guess being colored doesn't make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races. ... This expansion forces him, as well as the reader, to acknowledge that his blackness doesn't automatically make him dislike preferences of other races (line 25 and 26) - the underlying message being that his blackness doesn't automatically make him like the same things as other blacks either. ...

• Word Count: 1896
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Me--who? Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life. ... I guess being colored doesn't make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races. ... This expansion forces him, as well as the reader, to acknowledge that his blackness doesn't automatically make him dislike preferences of other races (line 25 and 26) - the underlying message being that his blackness doesn't automatically make him like the same things as other blacks either. ...

• Word Count: 1930
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

He is not alone; there are many Black intellectuals during this period crafting art, literature and poetry in ways to express their heritage. ... Hughes is known for his refusal to separate his personal experiences with the common experiences of Black America. ... The first two lines of the poem, "Well, son, I"ll tell you; / Life for me ain't been no crystal stair" can be interpreted as a tired and weary parent delivering a lifetime of experience to her son (lines 1-2). ... Much like a hiker or marathon runner, once you stop moving, you lose momentum and the ability to return is nearly im...

• Word Count: 1328
• Approx Pages: 5

Music with different beats was being played like jazz, spirituals, and hymns. ... That is why I picked literature during the Harlem Renaissance because it brings out to me what people were thinking and feeling. ... Hughes wrote literary types of writing like poetry, plays, short stories, and novels. ... Magazines like "The Crisis" let writers contribute their work. ... Although, there were controversy between the white publishers and the audience, there were writers like Hughes that supported the idea and said "artists intended to express themselves freely, no matter what the black pu...

• Word Count: 2368
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Work from the Harlem Renaissance gave many blacks the courage to stand up and say, "I"m proud to be black and you are no better than me." ... Like every good story Hughes wrote there is always an ending; he was no exception. ... His funeral like his poetry, was all blues and jazz- (Hughes 2). ... Like many great American authors, Hughes helped mold the history of this country with his writing ability. People like Langston Hughes paved the way for leaders such as Dr. ...

• Word Count: 1296
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Jazz was a flourishing art form that Hughes often liked to write about. ... Like the earlier poem "Harlem Night Club-, it is a fast-paced, forceful piece. ... It represents yet another case of whites letting blacks down. ... The poem is a speech made by a black defendant, who is arguing to a white jury. ... The comparison of shame to a painful burn is most apparent in the last stanza, "When you throw Cold water on me, I'll sign the Paper..."" ...

• Word Count: 1313
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

I"m like that old mule- Black-and don't give a damn! You go to take me Like I am. ... During this time, Hughes published several poems whose basis was the difference in "Black" and "White" America. ... "Freedom's Plow" is an excellent example of Hughes overlap between "Black" and "White". ... You, me! ...

• Word Count: 1522
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Hughes' poetry announced to the world that the streets of black America were culturally rich, vibrant and fiercely poetic. ... For example, words like "M' am-, "No' m-, "Yes' m-, "I' se- "a-climbin' ", and "aint-. ... "Mother to Son- also has a deeper meaning; Hughes chose to write this poem like a metaphor, referring his life to a staircase. ... The speaker's soul is united with nature; he is like a river in that he is connected with earth, nature, and himself. ... For her, the image of this tree brings anguish to the soul: Way Down South in Dixie (brea...

• Word Count: 1518
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

" As evidence in short stories like, "The Little Virgin". ... In Hughes poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", he is unmistakably mindful of the foul play and persecution in his general public. " My spirit has developed profound like the streams. ... I fabricated my cottage close to the Congo and it hushed me to rest. ... As I stated before for most African Americans Langston's work was a form of empowerment and endurance with poems like, "The Ballad of the Landlord". ... Hughes associated as unashamedly as African American during an era when being black was not the...

• Word Count: 1762
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Langston Hughes Langston Hughes opened his first volume of poems with the expression of his- and every Negro's- "soul world": "I am a Negro: /Black as the night is black, /Black like the depths of my Africa" (Emanuel 17). ... As Langston later recalls "So I learned early not to hate all white people," "And ever since it has seemed to me that most people are generally good, in every race and in every country where I have been." ... This was the first time Langston wrote poetry; and he liked it. ... Langston was fascinated by black music especially the blues. ... Langston spent the summe...

• Word Count: 1325
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Like any other aspiring author, success does not come easily and working toward it can be laborious, especially due to the scarce amount of existing African American women authors in the mid-1960s. ... The two novels embody many similar concerns and methods that characterize the black women's literary tradition. ... Only one of the other adults, a black male janitor, was formally charged. ... All that I have believed in has failed me. ... "God does love black people, doesn't He?" ...

• Word Count: 1464
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

At night they would read him stories from such works from popular black authors such as W.E.B. ... They would also tell him stories of black history, and encourage him to try to make positive changes someday. ... In his autobiographical novel, Hughes said as a young boy, "For the first time loneliness strikes me, strikes me terribly settling down in a dull ache round about, in the dusk." ... "I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow Of human blood in human veins My soul has grown deep like the rivers" This poem describes how he ...

• Word Count: 1483
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

His viewpoints and achievements set the tone for Harlem Renaissance and earned him a lot of respect from the younger black poets of the time (poets.org). ... For example, as McKay writes that the dancers voice was like "blended flutes blown by black players," he is explaining that it is not just any players, but specifically the black players. ... She does not like this "flattery" and does not enjoy the fact that she feels very out of place in this "strange environment." ... As I began to read this poem, I thought it was a look into the world of a struggling black female during the...

• Word Count: 1662
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

His viewpoints and achievements set the tone for Harlem Renaissance and earned him a lot of respect from the younger black poets of the time (poets.org). ... For example, as McKay writes that the dancers voice was like "blended flutes blown by black players," he is explaining that it is not just any players, but specifically the black players. ... She does not like this "flattery" and does not enjoy the fact that she feels very out of place in this "strange environment." ... As I began to read this poem, I thought it was a look into the world of a struggling black female during the...

• Word Count: 1634
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

And tell it to me, Mama every time we need a new pair of curtains and I have to watch you go out and work in somebody's kitchen. Yeah you tell me then... " (1.2 p. 1009) Since Walter had to postpone his dream, he felt depressed as "like a heavy load". ... Like in Hughes poem "fester like a sore-/And then run?" ... George, as his common name suggests, represents a black person assimilating into the white world. ...

• Word Count: 1719
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" ... The main character, Walter Younger from A Raisin in the Sun had a deferred dream; their dreams become dried up like a raisin in the sun. ... In contrast when Ruth said " Walter leave me alone! ... "Man say to his woman: I got me a dream. ... When he wanted me to go in the dry-cleaning business with him. ...

• Word Count: 1368
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

While World War II was over, the war against racism is still being fought between black and white Americans, which put a strain on the family dynamics of the Younger family, both financially and emotionally. ... She also goes on to say, "But Lord, child, you should know all the dreams I had bout buying that house and fixing it up and making me a little garden in the back-And didn't none of it happen" (Hansberry 45). ... He feels like Ruth should be understanding and supportive of his dreams, but sadly she's tired of everything. ... I think Ruth feels like the only way that things wil...

• Word Count: 1259
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Maybe the dream breaks up like a raisin, damaged and old, but the essence of it is still intact. Later there are lines about festering like a sore. ... It further underlines and describes her play's themes, and it also emphasizes the heritage of black American literature, a heritage that portrays a very different conception of America than the literature of dominant white culture. ... Hughes also asks the question: "Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun?" ... After analyzing both Langston Hughes" poem and Lorraine Hansberry's play it give me a better understanding of what exactl...

• Word Count: 1645
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School