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The Identity of Langston Hughes

He understands that he lives in a corrupt country filled with prejudice and hate, but he knows who he is and who African Americans are. This is where identity comes into play. Hughes creates a face for a group of people by pointing out their differences. He creates a situation where an African American slave is treated like an animal. He makes his point, but he still stands strong. The identity of the speaker unites audience by creating a scenario that all African Americans of that time period could understand. Identity made this poem successful. .
             "I Too" is also a response to Walt Whitman's "I Sing America." Whitman's poem is his own excitement and appreciation over "the country that offers him all he wants" (Constantakis 1). This connection can be found as easily in the very first line of the poem. The first line of "I Too" reads, "I too sing America" (Hughes 1). This response serves as Hughes opinion of the things that America doesn't offer to African Americans. Hughes wrote this piece while he was stuck in Genoa, Italy after he had lost his wallet and passport. Constantakis explains that white men had a much easier time catching a ship back overseas to America (Constantakis 1). This experience lit a flame and motivated Hughes to write this poem. The identity of the speaker was a strong enough theme to make this poem famous. "Its straightforward structure and deliberate choice of words suggest strength and determination" (Constantakis 1). This determination united a population of people for generations. .
             Hughes' identity has made a name for himself. Anne Borden recalls a time when Hughes stood up for not only his own identity, but for the identity of all writers. Anne relays a statement given by a fellow poet of Hughes from his piece, "The Negro Artist and Racial Mountain." The poet said, "I want to be a poet, not a Negro poet" (Borden 2).


Essays Related to The Identity of Langston Hughes

1. Looking for Langston - Black Gay Male Identity

"Looking for Langston" tells the story of African American Poet Langston Hughes and his life and consequences within the black gay culture. The film is presented as a reflection on Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance going on during that time period. ... Julien draws upon music, poetry, and film to celebrate identity and desire within the Harlem Renaissance. ... It is Langston Hughes search for a Black gay male identity. ... The images seamlessly transition from the past into present with scenes displaying the excerpts from the poetic works of Langston Hughes himself. ...

  • Word Count: 1030
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. Mulatto by Langston Hughes

"Mulatto," by Langston Hughes, explores the strained relationship between a white man and his Mulatto child. ... Once the reader has uncovered the identity of the stars, Hughes now reinforces the conflict that falls among both the biracial children and the stars alike. ... Hughes leaves the lasting lines "the bright stars scatter everywhere. ... The final line shows the readers that although Hughes poem primarily focusses on the isolation of the biracial child, self-identity is not lost among these "Great big yellow stars" (32). ... The use of these naturally orientat...

  • Word Count: 800
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Salvation Compared to Goodman Brown

Faith In Salvation: The Irony Of It All Young Langston Hughes and "Young Goodman Brown" share a many distinct similarities when dealing with spiritual and religious beliefs. ... Each story deals with the concept of identity. Goodman Brown and Langston Hughes have individual thoughts and beliefs about religion. ... Langston was forced into reacting. ... Learn that Goodman Brown and Langston Hughes are a lot alike. ...

  • Word Count: 602
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Interpretive Essay of Langston Hughes' Poem

Langston Hughes was born into an America still struggling to accept black people as equals. ... Darryl Pinckney supports this idea in his writing of "Black Identity in Langston Hughes."" ... He saw that the Mexican people took great pride in their identity through their art. ... As Pinckney in "Black Identity in Langston Hughes- writes, "The use of black' and the invocation of Africa were defiant gestures back in the days when many blacks described themselves as brown."" ... In defiance, Hughes called it the "Jim Crow Row."" ...

  • Word Count: 1190
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Interacial America

Langston Hughes firmly believed that African Americans and Caucasian Americans could with time grow together to form an interracial country. ... Langston Hughes composed an essay entitled "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" in which he "described the mountain as "this urge within the race toward whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of American standardization, and be as little Negro and as much American as possible" (The Nation 692-694) Although Hughes did not have a longing to turn into a perfect "American", he did believe that African Americans should con...

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

6. Analysis of appearances

The last poem, Langston Hughes" "Theme for English B," is concerned with appearance in terms of race and the relevance it holds to the person within the skin. ... By this, he means that his page, and by extension he, will maintain his own cultural identity. ... But it does inject its people with the identity of that race. ... Hughes, Langston. ... Reprinted from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (Knopf and Vintage Books, 1994). ...

  • Word Count: 832
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

7. There are Always Life Lessons to be Learned

Langston Hughes and William Blake were both prolific writers. ... Langston Hughes" "Mother to Son" is a poem about a mother enlightening her son that life for her hasn't been easy. ... He tells the story of hoe he came to know his own identity and to know God. ... In "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes, the mother gives the impression that she is talking someone who was a teenager or older. ... Langston Hughes and William Blake both wrote poems that influenced Americans in different ways. ...

  • Word Count: 1123
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Themes in the Poetry of Langston Hughes

The poem "I, Too" by Langston Hughes is an excellent representation of a theme that runs throughout Hughes' writing, a theme of dual identity. This theme is an effective means of illustrating the situation of black men and women in America, who cannot help but struggle with dualistic identities: belonging and not belonging, being both wanted and not wanted. It is also a reflection of Hughes' own life. ... By referencing this style of art and then pointing out this incredible disparity, he is stressing the dual identity of the African American. ... It makes extensive use of the very s...

  • Word Count: 2547
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Theme For English B

James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. ... It was in Lincoln, Illinois, that Hughes began writing poetry. ... Langston Hughes died of complications from prostate cancer in May 22, 1967, in New York. ... At this point the question of his identity, and what will appear on the page that is supposed to represent this identity, still remains. ... This is why, ultimately, his identity has been so difficult to define in the first place. ...

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

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