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Dream Variations by Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes, born in 1902, in Joplin Missouri, in the middle of a segregated country that allowed its African-American population to develop up to a certain level, never above the lowest of the white classes, even in the happiest of cases. He wrote his poetry like a man who was proud to express his African-American descent and was the first to introduce the music rhythms of his African ancestry along with those of his American more recent cultural identity into the poetry he wrote.
Langston Hughes poem "Dream Variations," written in the form of a stanza, expresses the dream of a whole population caught under the merciless and implacable laws of discrimination based on the color of its skin. Dreaming of being completely free is a constant of the human race and the humanity in those often treated as sub-humans by their fellow countrymen is reaffirmed in this poem, as a common thread.
Another unique feature of our humanity is music and dance and the Africans have their own distinctive style of expressing themselves when dancing. The African-Americans have taken their ancestor's love for music and dance and blended it into their religious experiences and their expression of grief or joy, marking the birth of a new identity. The author of this poem appears to aspire to a complete liberation from any temporal or special restriction. All he requires if the freedom to dance in the sun and a tall slim tree to sleep under.
The contrast between white and black is freed of any qualitative comparison meaning whatsoever in the anonymous place the author is dreaming of in his poem. The day in this place he is dreaming of has two characteristics: it is "white" and "quick," while the night is gentle, tender and "black" like him. His freedom comes as an expression of submission to nature and its laws, in the absence of the judgment of the human race.
In every stage and period in history, the black American is present, as demonstrated in the line of imagery repeatedly used in the poem, "My soul has grown deep like the rivers." The poem portrays the Negro as the cause rather than effect of human civilization. "The Negro" is a historical narrative of the life of the black American. Evidently, he had been present where human civilization thrived. Thus, human
American Modernism and the Edenic Themes Langston Hughes and Jay Gatsby: Different Strokes for Different Folks in the Search for an Edenic World The search for Eden has always had an eternal quality since the development of primordial man. At times, this search has manifested itself as a quest for a promised land full of natural resources, while at others, it has taken the form of a journey seeking social acceptance and
Antonia: Introduction etc. The landscape of the agrarian lifestyle in Nebraska is such that Mr. Shimerda is the least suited for this type of life. He has the soul of an artist and so longs for a more refined world in which to express himself. He is a man who needs to live among people with ideas who express those concepts in conversation, which is not the world he finds
(It will be recalled that Wright's then unpublished Lawd Today served as a working model for The Outsider.) Cross, in his daily dealings with the three women and his fellow postal workers feel something akin to nausea. His social and legal obligations have enslaved him. He has inherited from his mother a sense of guilt and foreboding regarding his relationship to women and his general awareness of amoral physical
Harlem Renaissance. Two Poet Writers from Harlem Renaissance Many people familiar with Langston Hughes' works refer to him as the literature Nobel laureate of Harlem because of the way he accurately captured Harlem's passions, moods and events. However, his works were never provincial. By telling the story of Harlem through his poems, he shed light on truths that were important to people from all backgrounds. Langston Hughes was without a doubt one
Uncle Tom's Cabin - Fiction as a Catalyst for Fact The Origins of a Living Document Stage Night North and South Polarized: Critics Respond The Abolitionist Debates The Tom Caricature The Greatest Impact The Origins of a Living Document In her own words, Harriet Beecher Stowe was compelled to pen Uncle Tom's Cabin "....because as a woman, as a mother, I was oppressed and broken-hearted with the sorrows and injustice I saw, because as a Christian I felt