The Black Man and Langston Hughes

The term identity is be by Websters dictionary as being the state or fact of remaining the comparable one or ones, as below varying aspects or conditions however in exploring the concept of Identity in black literature, we can bewilder no definite explanation or definition. We can try to accept that it has been rooted in social situations that argon generally more discriminatory, such the institution of slavery. In some vogue shape or form, the average or normal African American is confronted with the doubtfulness of where do I fit in amongst the washrag federation?The problem with African American Identity has many dimensions, such as community, class, and color. The reality of the African American is one that is inescapable in America. distort which is inherent in the concept of self, manifest in race consciousness. This is exceedingly significant be creator an African American establishes his identity with other individuals, knget or unknown, on the basis of a similarit y of color and features, that allowing the individual to be included in groups membership, the subject of his self identity. After the African Americans began to explore for their identity sorting through heritage, tradition, and folk traditions. Langston Hughes to me has been nourishing the black aesthesia and inspiring it to create Afro American literation and transforming it into a literature of struggle. The poetry of Langston Hughes has the authorship of I, too utter America He made extraordinary contributions to American literature and has came to be regarded as a leading voice in the Renaissance of the arts in the 1920s.Hughes growing up asked the same question to himself of who he was, his lack of identity in society, which put a biggish impact on his mind and nous and made him a poet of the blacks. Hughes genuine a distinct movement of negritude which may be regarded as the soul of the Renaissance. Rising from the consciousness of his skin color and passing through assorted stages of identification with hoi polloi and territory of Africa, and finally grounding it in the American Past. Negritude in the poetry of Hughes evolves into a definite and enduring concept communicative of definite vision. He Hughes doesnt suffer from what W. E. B Dubois terms as a double consciousness. Two souls, twain thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body. Search for identity seems to be a vital aspect in the work of Langston Hughes. The identity of an American black citizen was denied to him and there was a loss of identity which a new man living in the 20th century experiences. The Black people of America argon American, the African and Black Americans are at the same time.Africa which is thought to be homeland for blacks, was dealt with by Langston Hughes, who missed the natural stunner of Africa and dreaded being caged in the mayhem of civilization. He searched his roots suffer in Africa. Primitivism had already be scre w a fascinating substitute for people for people not interested in the 2nd industrial revolution. It gave new meaning of going back to the roots and ones identity. The poem The lightlessness Speaks of Rivers is an example of the of the urge and need of the blackamoor to go back to his own land to find ethnic connections. The poet says Ive known riversIve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of clement blood in human veins. In the poems entirety the rivers symbolize the glorious past, which have been flowing since humanistic discipline inception. So the African who has known rivers cannot be rootless or with out past. Hughes also established a definite identity between the Blacks of America and the untainted of Africa which he states in his poem called Negro I am a Negro Black as the night is black, Black like the depths of my Africa. Ive been a slave Ive been a worker Ive been a singer whole the musical mode from Africa to GeorgiaI carried my sorrow son gs. It was not easy to beneficial up and go back to Africa. It became the dreamland for the poet, a country in which he could escape into when he finds life difficult to cope with. The poet to me seemed widely cognizant of misery, frustration, and isolation which to him is something that other blacks are facing. This epiphany of his leans him to the universal significance and appeal to the poets handling of black life in America. His retreat into African is not a romantic escape from realities of life, but it provides a point of view to look at the realities of the life of black people in America.To say the blacks were tempered horribly by white Americans is an understatement, they were compared to beasts and were treated accordingly. The black man was lynched, wound and burnt, while the black woman was raped and desecrated. Lynching of the black on the charge of raping a white woman was one of the most habitual events. Fear to the race and hatred, for the black was a common beha vior of the white masses. The treatments to the blacks becomes unequivocal in the following lines of I, too sing America I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, exactly I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Hence the stanza shows that the black worker doesnt find any place in the heart of the whites. He is sent to the minimise by the company bosses who are indifferent towards the blacks. The African American feels nonsocial in the northern city where there are large The Negro feels lonesome in the northern city where there are a large number of people, yet he still feels lost in the Poem star he relates his profound sense of isolation only(a) As a bottle of licker On a table All by itself.The whites dont permit the political exemptdom to the blacks. Blacks are deprived of their basic necessities of life. They dont have a comely place to live in. Their miserable condition is shown in the poem purge Who have nowhe re To eat. No place to sleep, The tearless Who cannot Weep. In this the blacks are alien on their own land. The blacks want a chance to eek out a decent living and have equalize rights across America. Langston Hughes says monarchal doings take place in the shadow of the worlds greatest democracy The blacks have no right to participate in the political affairs.Langston Hughes poetry is also preoccupied with the social problems faced by the blacks. Man is called a social animal. Blacks are not given the equal place in the society. The poet shows this inequality in the poem Merry Go Round the social whites have no sympathy even for a young black child. He has to sit in a unintegrated section. Hughes writes Colored child at carnival Where is the Jim Crowe section On this pleased-go-round, Mister, cause I want to ride? Down South where I come from White and colored Cant sit side by side. Thus the merry go round is a metaphor for America.It is a kind of ridicule on the American Societ y which we know as a free Society. A clear picture of the exploitation of the blacks is presented that cultural, social, and psychological space has been denied to them. Hughes never forgetting the images he has seen growing up, he has grown up shell shocked. He can clearly make out the contradiction of principles, for America was a democracy, but for the Negroes, America was fighting for a free and equal world. One where Jim Crow was eradicated, however he understands that the flame of liberty can not be extinguished by lynching and imprisoning blacks.From all this it become evident that Langston Hughes deals with the racial discrimination, lack of identity in the society and lack of freedom for the blacks. His aim and ultimate effect of his poetry is raising awareness and alter of the black people in their struggle for freedom in America. He was proud of his Afro-American legacy and tradition. He forcefully projects the theme of identity in his poems. He not only inspires the bl ack to make it to the merry-go-round but more than that he evokes a vision of a just society. works sitedGeorgene Seward, Psychotherapy and Culture Conflict (New York Ronald Press, 1956), p. 129. Arthur A. Schaumburgs The Negro Digs up his Past, in Alain Lockes The New Negro, pp. 931-37. Jay Saunders Redding, To Make a poet Black (WashingtonMcGrath, 1969), p. 3. throng A. Emanuel, Langston Hughes (New Haven College and University Press, 1967), pp. 148-162. W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (New York New American Library, 1969), p. 45. Langston Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers. Selected Poems (New York Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 4.Langston Hughes, Negro. Selected Poems (New YorkAlfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 8. Langston Hughes, I, too, verbalise America. Selected Poems (New York Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 275. Langston Hughes, One. Selected Poems (New YorkAlfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 92. Langston Hughes, Vagabonds. Selected Poems (New York Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 91. Lan gston Hughes, The Big Sea The Collected Works of Langston Hughes ( New YorkJoseph Mclauren, 1979) Volume 13 P 165 Langston Hughes, Merry-Go-Round. Selected Poems (NewYork Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 194.