The Major Themes in the Poetry of Langston Hughes - Book Report/Review Example

A Discussion of the Major Themes in the Poetry of Langston Hughes Langston Hughes is regarded as one of the major African-American poets. In a sensethis designation might be seen as an ironic commentary upon the very dilemmas and themes that Hughes wanted to tackle within his career. Should he be regarded as "African-American", "American" or simply a poet Hughes constantly returned to the theme of how a person should identify him/herself and how society would do the same thing. Should a person agree with how he is classified or should he insist upon a self-definition and self-realization. It is these themes that will be considered in this analysis. In one of his most famous poems, Hughes asks a question that, in the best traditions of literature, he does not answer. In A Raisin in the Sun he poses a series of questions: What happens to a dream deferred Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun Or fester like a sore And then run Does it stink like rotten meat Or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode (Hughes, 1995) If any one poem could be said to encapsulate the whole of Hughes's vision it would be this one. The "dream deferred" is the dream of opportunity in America that, Hughes argues, has been denied to his fellow African-Americans. An interesting point that is rarely raised in the numerous discussions of this poem is that "deferred" implies that the dream has not been permanently denied to black people, but rather delayed. The "dream", which may sensibly be regarded as "the American Dream" found within Jefferson's vision of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" (Jefferson, 1785) has been denied to African-Americans and Hughes, in characteristically direct manner, asks the simple but profound question "what happens" when it is denied. The comparison of a black person to a "raisin in the sun" is a remarkably evocative image. First there is the very literal physicality of the image: of a wrinkled piece of fruit becoming even more wrinkled under a blazing sun. The various possible fates for this "raisin" (African-American) are rather dire and stress very direct, again physical imagery. Thus the idea of it festering and running like a sore is complemented by the image of a rotten peace of meat. The only possibility actually given by Hughes is that perhaps it just sags like a "heavy load". It is interesting to note that the actual possibility provided is far less graphic than the questions posed, and yet, most profoundly imagines the raisin becomes almost like a slave weighed down under a load. If nothing changes, then the dream may actually "explode". The sense that the raisin (black people) will not be destroyed, will not shrivel up in the heat, fester like a boil or stink like rotten meat, but rather will explode into what may be assumed is violence is a logical conclusion to the poem. The questions are rhetorical up to the last one that is deliberately set off from the others through the use of italics. In Song for a Dark Girl more questions are raised, and once again Hughes leaves them poignantly unanswered. While it is called "Song for a Dark Girl" it might more accurately be called "Song by a Dark Girl" (Walker, 2005). In three short and simple stanzas Hughes paints the picture of a tragic story and a question that has apparently never been satisfactorily answered. Thus "Way Down South in Dixie" the girl says that "they hung my black young lover/To a cross roads tree." The second stanza repeats the first line and then links the lynched black man to Jesus in the parenthetical line in a brilliantly simple manner: (Bruised body high in air) I asked the white Lord Jesus What was the use of prayer. (Hughes, 1995) The "bruised body high in air" is both the body of the black man hanging form the tree and that of Jesus hanging from the cross. This may be an even denser image as Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, is said to have hung himself from a tree. Judas was the betrayer in the story of Jesus, but the black man is an inversion of him: he is the betrayed. Hughes does not answer the question posed to Jesus, but rather has the girl dwell upon the body hanging from the tree. Now, however, it is transformed into something else: Way Down South in Dixie (Break the heart of me) Love is a naked shadow On a gnarled and naked tree. (Hughes, 1995) (my emphasis) The hanged body has turned into "a naked shadow" that embodies "love". Perhaps this is a suggestion that the executed and broken body (whether it be of the black man or of Jesus) is enough of a message in and of itself. The body is quite literally the embodiment of love and hope. Prayer may not be needed at all. Another major theme within the poetry of Hughes is a much more optimistic attempt at 'hope'. While Hughes does often deal with the despair of the African-American experience there are also a number of quite personal poems that offer individual, idiosyncratic view of the struggle. An example of this theme is found within two poems, Mother to Son and Jazzonia (Englar, 2006). In Mother to Son Hughes gives a brief monologue that is spoken, as the poem's title suggests, by a mother to her son. The poem adopts a casual tone, giving the woman the vernacular of her place and time. It is not a passionate plea for action or an eloquent rendition of despair but rather exactly the kind of comment one can imagine a woman giving to her son: Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. (Hughes, 1985) The metaphor of life being a "crystal stair" is fascinating. It evokes the idea of some kind of stairway to heaven and also, through the word "crystal" something of the fairy tale. But once it is introduced Hughes juxtaposes the "crystal stair" with the "splinters", "boards" and "no carpet on the floor" (Hughes, 1985). The stairway is thus made very real rather than the fantasy, soft idea of the "crystal" stair. But within this realism there is a most definite and certain sense of hope, introduced by the mother's statement that "all the time" she has been "climin'", "reachin'" and "turnin'". Thus while the passage up the stair is not easy, as the mother states in the opening lines, there is a sense of hope within the actual process of moving. Thus actual life, with all its reaches and climbs and turns, may be much more gritty than an imaginary crystal course, but it is, most important real. Thus the mother teaches the boy an unforgettable and valuable lesson: that there is hope if she, and he, and all African-Americans, in the fact that they are "still climbn'". In Jazzonia Hughes concentrates upon an undoubtedly positive aspect of the African-American experience in the early Twentieth Century - that of the Harlem Renaissance. Two lines are repeated with slight variations throughout the poem: Oh, silver tree! Oh, shining rivers of the soul! (Hughes, 1995) There is a kind of surreal exuberance to the poem, as it concentrates upon small individual details, such as the "long headed" nature of the "jazzers" and the eyes of the dancing girl that are so "bold", but these are all set within the context of the celebration of life that Jazz is seen as being. Hughes has a theme of art and music somehow transcending the realities of everyday life, and places the experience of Jazz within a wide historical context with mention of both Eve and Cleopatra. Jazz is seen as a temptation, as this reference to the most tempting women in myth/history suggests. In a sense, as Tracy (2001) suggests, Hughes suggests that Art somehow transcends race within its universal themes and ability to transport people beyond the here and now. Hughes had a vision beyond the purely poetic, as is seen in many of his plays. The play Mulatto: A Play of the Deep South (Hughes, 2002) is one of his most controversial creations because it deals with some of more controversial and perhaps stereotypical aspects of the African-American experience. It was first produced on Broadway in 1933, but was seen as hurting his image through the gratuitous adding of a rape scene in order to improve audience figures by the producer. The play portrays and encapsulates the nature of the uneducated black speech of the time and was (and often still is) seen as perhaps being a little too realistic for many African-American audiences. Some suggested that Hughes should always be a champion of the black cause, rather than producing material; that might be used by racists to support their viewpoints. Thus the ongoing conflict between the white plantation owner and his mulatto son reveals negative qualities in both characters. This play shows that Hughes was not prepared to be a mouthpiece for political viewpoints, but rather that he always wanted to be true to what he saw within the world, and even the African-American community - warts and all. The fact that some were uncomfortable with this insistence on veracity just shows the value of this work. In conclusion, the major theme of the work of Langston Hughes was the place of the African-American within American society at the time he was living. The struggle to be treated as equal individuals was found both within the wider racist society and also within the self-image of many black people themselves. Hughes portrayed many of the problems of doubts of the black community, while celebrating its joys and triumphs, as his poems about Jazz and the Blues illustrate. Works Cited Englar, Mary. Langston Hughes Voice of Harlem. Compass, New York: 2006. Hughes, Langston. Collected Poems. Vintage, New York: 1995. Hughes, Langston. The Plays to 1942. University of Chicago Press, Chicago: 2002 Jefferson, Thomas et al. "The Declaration of Independence", 1785. Tracy, Steven. Langston Hughes and the Blues. University of Illinois Press, Chicago: 2001 Walker, Alice. Langston Hughes: American Poet. Amistad Publications, New York: 2005. Read More