Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance

Longboats Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance Harlem Renaissance was undoubtedly a pagan and social-political vogue for the African American race. The Renaissance was umteen things to people, simply it is stovepipe described as a cultural movement in which the richly level of black artistic cultural production, demanded and received recognition. galore(postnominal) a(prenominal) African American authors, symphonyians, poets, and leaders were competent to express their creativity in legion(predicate) ways in response to their social condition. Until the Harlem Renaissance, poetry and lit seasonture were dominated by the white people and were all ab let out the white culture.One writer in particular, Longboats Hughes, broke by means of and by those barriers that very few African-American artists had through with(p) before this period. Longboats Hughes played a major role and was a amazing influence on African-American culture throughout the United States during the era of the Harlem Renaissance. He has written some poems that were influenced during the Harlem Renaissance, Trumpet Player and Harlem. From my perspective these poems express his rhythmic style and his connection to the Harlem Renaissance.In the sasss and early sasss, thither was an African American cultural movement hat took place in the neighborhood of Harlem, radical York. It is variously known as the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Literary Renaissance, or the unexamp take Negro Movement. This movement developed at the end of World contend I in 1918, blossomed in the mid to late sasss, and faded in the mid sasss. there were several things that contributed to the rise of this time period, after segregation was made legal in the South, it made living conditions intolerable for African-Americans. They were impotent before the law and less than benevolent in the eyes of many whites (Harlem Renaissance 954). This ca functiond a huge migration to the North which seemed absolutel y necessary for African-Americans. There was an industrial explosion occurring in the North and it was creating a demand for labor. Many settled in northern cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, and Cleveland, but freshly York was the destination for most. This migration to the North was a huge breakthrough for African-Americans and was the beginning of the cultural movement, the Harlem Renaissance.The Harlem Renaissance was as well as considered as a literary movement led by the African-Americans. It was a time of African-American creativity in literature, music, dance, and art. This movement created amazing opportunities for African-Americans, they were able to pursue their hopes and dreams without being discriminated against. They persevered and finally received what they hoped and woolgather of from white society. African-Americans received better education, more employment opportunities, and were more decl ar in the performing arts. African Americans worked not only with a newly genius of confidence and purpose but in any case with a sense of achievement neer before experienced by so many black artists in the Eng, troubled history of the peoples of African descent in North America (Harlem Renaissance 953). During this time the black culture was go more popular and accepted by non-blacks. The Harlem Renaissance was important to African- Americans because it was the graduation major step towards equality. Many African-Americans began to write during this time and began getting sight for their writings. Some common themes represented during the Harlem Renaissance were the influence of the experience of slavery and emerging African- American folk traditions on black identity, the effects of institutional racism, the lemmas inherent in performing and writing for elite white audiences, and the interrogative of how to convey the experience of modern black support story in the urban North (Wisped, Harlem Renaissance). In many of the writings that I prepare depict from the Harlem Renaissance era, they unfeignedly depicted their struggles and experiences through their writings.There were numerous famous poets that emerged from this era, Longboats Hughes was integrity of the most famous poets and writers of this time. His poems were primary(prenominal)ly about his heritage and also the experiences of Africans. Hughes was a great writer with much diversity in his types of writings. His poetry was a way for us to see a picture of urban life during the Harlem Renaissance, the habits, attitudes, and flavorings of his oppressed people. These poems did more than reveal the pain of poverty, it also illustrated racial surcharge and dignity. His main concern was the uplift of his people, whose strengths, resiliency, courage, and humor he wanted to participate as part of the general American experience (Wisped, Longboats Hughes). Hughes was not guilty of his heritage and his main theme, black is beautiful, was evince and share d to the world through his poetry. During the literary movement, music was central to the cultural movement of the Harlem Renaissance, which was a main feature of Hughes poetry.He had an important technical influence by his emphasis on folk, Jazz, and blues rhythms as the basis of his poetry of racial pride. Hughes used this remarkable style of writing because it was important to him to have the readers feel and experience what they were instruction, to discover the covert rhetoric in lyric meaner to appreciate the overlap surrounded by emotive and discursive poetry. Rooted in song, the lyric reestablishes the ritual of human communion (Miller 52). The poem that I tangle reflected Languors lyrical style and expressed the struggles of his people was, Trumpet Player.After breeding it many times quietly, aloud, and with music I was able to real understand the meaning that was portrayed through this poem. The hooter musician in this poem was The Negro who sat on the stage, act ing his promulgate, and telling us his story about the past and present struggles of his life. In the first stanza where Longboats mentions Has dark moons of weariness Beneath his eyes, tells me that he has been through many things throughout his life ND by looking at him you can see the struggles he has faced.The parenthood that follows gives you an insight to what he remembers and his untamed past, Where the smoldering memory of slave ships blazed to the crack of the whips about his thighs. After reading the first stanza youve learned about the trumpet player and the life that he has lived. The Negro continues to play with the trumpet at his lips, has a head of vibrant sensory hair tamed down, Patent-leathered now, Until it gleams analogous Jet- Were jet a crown. In this stanza I felt that Longboats showed the beauty of the trumpet player despite the struggles he has faced.With music playing an important role in Languors style of writing and in the trumpet players life, he ex presses this in the third stanza The music, From the trumpet at his lips, Is h iodiny, complicated with liquid fire. The music that the trumpet player plays is analogous honey to him, it is tardily and feels good, mixed with liquid fire meaning it is strong and powerful at the same time. Longboats goes on to explain how important the trumpet is for the trumpet player. He describes the rhythm as ecstasy, distilled from old desire, by using the develop ecstasy Longboats expresses how moving and pleasurable the music is to the rumple player. Distilled from old desire reflects that the trumpet player has always had the desire to play, and even though his desire has aged he still has it at heart his soul to play. Within the fourth stanza Longboats goes deeper into position about how deep the desire within the trumpet player rattling is. Desire, That is yearn for the moon, Where the moonlights but a spotlight In his eyes, I felt that in this line Longboats is telling us that the t rumpet player longs for great things as high as the moon, but for him it is unreachable and bequeath only be a spotlight in his eye.He also amperes his desire, longing for the sea, where the seas a bar-glass, sucker size it is another way of telling us that his desires, hopes, and dreams are as big as the sea, but living the life of oppression it will only be the size of a humbled glass. The fifth stanza allows us to create an image in our mind what the trumpet player looks and feels as he is playing the trumpet. He is standing there with his Jacket that has a fine one-button roll, playing his trumpet without reading music from a page. Does not know Upon what riff the music slips, I saw this line to be powerful, the trumpet layer plays and creates music from within his mind and soul, his gift of music is so profound it emanates right out of him without reading a single note. Its hypodermic needle to his soul, Longboats also describes the intense timbre he gets as he plays, almost like a drug, maybe even painful to his soul. But softly, as the occupation comes from his throat, Trouble Mellows to a golden note, this last stanza defines for us why the trumpet player plays.Even though he has faced oppression, a cerise past, desperation, and struggle the trumpet player uses the music to mellow his soul and hold back his pain to a golden note. Throughout this poem Longboats Hughes was able to express using his Jazz-like structure and musical flow, the struggles, past and present, that his people have faced throughout their life. Another poem that I felt truly depicted the feelings of African-Americans during the Harlem Renaissance era is, Harlem (Dream Deferred). It is a poem about the dreams slaves had opus being on the plantations as well as in the streets of Harlem.Throughout the poem, we are not quite sure what the dream is but we are sure of the negative effects dreams can have when they are deferred. Longboats captured me with his first line What happe ns to a dream deferred? He speaks of the African- Americans from the plantations, who have dreams but are being suppressed by oppressing forces. Racism dividing whites and blacks from any type of equality in America allowing them to have dreams but holding them back to enough to never fulfill those dreams.He continues to ask what will happen to this dream does it dry up like a raisin in the sun, he uses the example eat up raisin because they start out as a plump Juicy grape, but transform into something different once they are left out to ray. I felt that Longboats wanted us to know that his people had dreams, but the mistreatment and touch sensation of black inferiority from the white slave masters eventually caused those dreams to funk up like a raisin and lose their meaning.He then asks could it fester like a sore and then run, meaning does the dream put together at you like a wound or sore, but if zipper is done to heal that sore, or to reach your dream, does it run away f rom you. Longboats gives a very descriptive image to the point you can almost feel and smell what would happen to your dream if it was deferred, Does it tint like rotten centerfield, the dream becomes so stagnate it begins to turn fowl. In the line could it saddle sore and sugar over like a syrupy sweet felt that Longboats was saying that dreaming was sweet in the inside but ill-humoured over and became harder to reach from the outside.When Longboats said maybe it Just sags like a heavy load, he meant these dreams started to weigh on his peoples hearts, it became a buck to have any dreams. The last question of the poem Or does it expand? stands out the most to me, you have a dream that you dreamed of so much that it leaves you in espalier and escapes you. Longboats Hughes wrote this poem during a time when African-Americans were enduring injustice, and feeling there was no way to reach forward.I felt he truly captured what it was like for African-Americans at that time and how they were treated. Harlem Renaissance was a time when many African-Americans depicted their struggles and experiences through writing. It was a time that brought out many great changes and it allowed African-Americans to express their culture without fear and shame. This movement changed the way African-Americans were seen by whites, and he black culture became more accepted. Many great writers came about during this time, one of which was Longboats Hughes.His poetry was a truthful reflection of the African-American culture and Harlem. He was influenced by the struggles presented in the Harlem Renaissance, which was expressed through his poem Harlem (Dream Deferred). He also emphasized how music replenished the soul through emotional connections by the use of form and language through his poem Trumpet Player. Longboats Hughes had a true connection to the Harlem Renaissance, he helped define he spirit of the age through his lyrical style and brilliant writings.