Change is hard to accept, but it is also hard to bring. Change can be brought in a number of different ways; it could be brought through assault, speeches or words. Wars forced change through assault, Gandhi helped bring it through speeches and Hughes caused it by his poems. Winston Churchill once said, "There is nothing at all wrong with change, if it's in the right course". Winston Churchill believed in change so long as it was for the better. Langston Hughes also thought in the same change. He wanted to change America and make sure they are accept African People in the usa as their own American brothers. Langston Hughes observed the racial prejudice against his community. He was terrified at the racial inequalities confronted by African Us citizens, which affected his poetry and made him dedicate his work to delivering change. Hughes evolved his poetry style, during the Harlem Renaissance in 1920s, as he began to admire jazz music, manipulating his poetry towards music. During the early 1930s, Langston Hughes was mainly influenced by The Great Depression. Hughes' thoughts became pessimistic and his dreams became hopeless, as he started to share it in his poetic work. Hughes' environment influenced his thoughts, which motivated him to mirror it in his poetry. This triggered Langston Hughes' poetry to advance from conversations of racial inequalities, to jazz poetry, and then to his pessimistic views on life.
As an outcome from witnessing racial misuse, Langston Hughes decided not to be a bystander. Hughes began to reflect his environment in his work. He started out to create in his poems the difficult challenges faced by African Americans. Hughes based the majority of his work on the theme of social injustice. He expresses, in his poems, the racial inequalities faced by African People in america, as these were subject to low course and discrimination. His critics often objected that he portrayed lower-class areas of life through his selection of subject material, but Hughes often sensed that he needed to communicate that, to be able to convey his communication. Hughes wanted to bring change through his poems; he wished to show that Blacks aren't really not the same as other ethnic groupings. Hughes truly portrayed this through his poem "I, Too Sing America". On this poem, he illustrates unimportance of blacks throughout that time when he writes, "I am the darker sibling / They send me to eat in the kitchen / When company comes" (Hughes 2-4). Hughes first conveys the image of how blacks are treated. Then he proceeds on, "Tomorrow, / I'm going to be at the stand / When company comes. " (Hughes 8-10). Hughes then shows the change that he aims to cause. The poem goes on on to show that the change is accepted as, "They'll observe how beautiful I am / And become ashamed" (Hughes 16-17). Hughes then closes off of the poem with, "I, too, am America" (Hughes 18) and implies that Blacks aren't really different, as they are also American and sing the same countrywide anthem as other People in the usa. Hughes expresses deep concern for the anguish that his community faced, through his poems, and aims to bring change.
Later on during the 1920s, a fresh movement were only available in America known as the Harlem Renaissance. Most African People in the usa started to move from the rural agricultural South to the metropolitan industrial North during 1914-1918. During this time many BLACK gathered in New York. Many settled in New York and in the district of Harlem. This movements brought many talented African People in the usa together. In addition, it helped bring many good dark-colored musicians together, who publicized jazz music during that time. The Harlem Renaissance also brought many artistic Blacks who possessed their talents in skill and books. These African People in the usa found a new way to explore and experience dark life in America. Many intellectual DARK-COLORED and music artists challenged racism and turned down to imitate white American styles. These talented and intellectual performers celebrated their black dignity and imagination. This brought on these African People in america expressing their true feelings about the racism they experienced, and their desire for flexibility and democratic privileges. The African Americans explored their identities and celebrated their dark-colored culture, as they tried to renew it from the existing low class perception. With so many intellectual and talented figures, writers, musicians and artists, and poets started creating a variety of original work coping with African-American life. These works then marketed and attracted a great many other blacks from across the world and established a fresh ethnical community within America.
Hence, Langston Hughes became connected to the Harlem Renaissance. He quickly became known for his work through the Renaissance and led poetry section. He established a different style in his poetry and innovated jazz poetry in his work. Hughes began to pay attention and admire blues and jazz music. He spent enough time in blues and jazz clubs, which influenced him to write about jazz poetry. Hughes really loved hearing jazz and wrote it in his poems, as he said, "I tried out to create poems like the music they sang on Seventh Street. . . (these sounds) had the pulse do better than of people who keep on going. " (Famous Poets and Poems, www. famouspoetsandpoems. com). Hughes altered his theme of his poetry and began to write in the nature of jazz. A lot of his poems were place to music and communicated operettas, a genre of opera. Hughes' jazz poetry is usually displayed through the poem "The Weary Blues". In this particular poem Hughes discusses him listening to jazz as he writes,
"He played out that unhappy raggy tune such as a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a dark man's soul
O Blues!" (Hughes 13-16).
Hughes shows his love for jazz music during the Harlem Renaissance, as he changes the theme of his poetry and comes after a move to jazz poetry.
Consecutively, THE FANTASTIC Depression brought an end to the Harlem Renaissance and the African American literary activities. It obligated many of the talented and imaginative African Americans to become full time labourers, as there is scarce of jobs. Many artists give up their literary work to produce a living for themselves and support their families. This ruined the hopes and dreams of several artists of the freedom and rights. Some artists also became involved in radical politics, given that they not only thought racial injustice, nevertheless they also experienced through job damage and lower salary. This made most intellectual poets hopeless about their success and freedom. Challenging for life started as money and food become a major issue, and for the African People in the usa their shade was also another issue. It was hard to allow them to speak out, given that they could not make a living from just literary work at a time such as this, causing most to aid radical politics for some hope. The Great Depression caused hopelessness and people possessed negative views about their dreams, as it rejected hope for a smart future for the Dark colored communities. This business lead to people having pessimistic views on life and their life became more miserable as they continued to struggle and create their dreams once more.
However, Langston Hughes also experienced a lot from The Great Depression. His dreams of bringing change appeared hopeless now. Given that the literary activities had gone down, Hughes also struggled for survival. Langston Hughes' poetry also improved during this time period, as Hughes became considering socialism. Hughes recognized the Soviet's ideologies of communism as there have been no defects of equality. The communistic economies offered struggle and poverty, but Hughes still believed in it since there was no racism or classes in culture. Hughes got part in the communist party in the US, along with other Black figures. Witnessing his dreams and of other African american artists become bleak, Hughes' thoughts became pessimistic and were shown in his poetry. In his poem "Life Is Fine", Hughes creates his pessimistic thoughts,
"I needed the elevator
Sixteen flooring surfaces above the ground.
I thought about my baby
And thought I'd leap down" (Hughes 10-13).
In another poem Hughes writes about his dreams being put off as advised by the subject "Perfect Deferred", where Hughes creates "What goes on to a aspiration deferred? / Will it really dry up / Such as a raisin in sunlight?" (Hughes 1-3). This implies that Hughes became hopeless about his dreams arriving true, as they were belated because of the Great Depression. Hughes thoughts became pessimistic as his desires for his dreams turned bleak, but he still keeps some desire to keep him on track and keep him writing his poems.
In final result, Hughes brings a major change in the eye of People in the usa, through his influential and powerful poetry. He witnesses the sociable injustice confronted by African People in america, discovers his admiration in jazz music, and suffers pessimistic thoughts and weakened expectation through the 1930s. Langston Hughes reflects the ambience in his poetry, as his styles change regarding to his emotions, thoughts and setting. Hughes' poetry emerges from study of social injustice, followed by jazz poetry, and then to his pessimistic views on life. Hughes strategies of delivering change are unveiled in his poems and become his dreams. They can be however, shunned as he faces the fantastic Depression and the enduring it triggers to his community. His dreams are deferred and his hopes of providing change among his people diminish. He learns from his experience and relates it in his poem "Dreams", as he creates, "Hold fast to dreams for if dreams pass away /
life is a damaged winged bird that cannot take a flight. " (Hughes 1-2). Langston Hughes teaches his readers and admirers to combat their dreams and also to not let them postpone, as dreams become your success alive.
