Langston Hughes and His Work: Inside and OutI. General Introduction of Langston

Langston Hughes and His Work: Inside and Out
    Welcome to our Literature class, today we will focus on Langston Hughes and his writing styles. (1) The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s gave birth to many powerful African-American literary works. Langston Hughes was one of them, who created many potent pieces of poetry. Hughes’ writing style could be seen as a stray from the norm as it does not fit the mold of what was previously considered fine poetical work.
    In many ways, the uniqueness of Hughes’s writing style made his compositions not only effective as poetry themselves, but also as a powerful ally in the struggle for African-American social equality.
    One of the ways in which Hughes’s poetry does this is through the use of colloquial language. In his poetry, Hughes’s uses a non-standard dialect that is very " true to form" of the author. (2) It can also be argued that the use of this language creates an air of authenticity surrounding the work as the poet is writing in a manner that he and his people most easily recognize, which is the same manner in which he speaks. This can be seen in his poem Still Here, when Hughes uses the words "friz, " "done tried, " "done scattered" and "I been. " This technique allows a reader to enter the mind of the poet, hearing him say his words to himself, in the manner he said them, as he wrote them.
    Another technique Hughes uses can be found within the effect that his choice of vocabulary provokes. (3) Hughes’s vivid description of the events of his poems opens the reader’s eyes to the severity of the hardships faced by African-Americans of the time. For example, in his poem Third Degree, which describes the beating of a black man by the police in order to "encourage" him to confess to a crime, the words "Blood on my sport shirt" and "Three kicks between the legs" are used. This vivid description makes it clear to the reader brutality of the event and introduces him or her to the world of agony faced by many African-Americans at during the Harlem Renaissance.
    A similar way in which Hughes’s is effective deals with the impact of the poem upon the reader. (4) Because of the previously mentioned vivid descriptions and the candidness with which Hughes presents his material, a reader can’t help but feel the shock value of his work. His poem Ku Klux, for example, instills within the reader the stinging effect of white supremacy as seen from the eyes of the African-American. The power structure implied between the exchanges of the white Klansman and the black man of the poem is supported by words such as " Boy" from the Klansman and " Mister" from the victim. Most effectively, the final stanza of the poem is the epitome of what Hughes’s style is trying to accomplish; creating what actually happens, how it happens and seeing the effects of these happenings accurately as a third person observer;
    "A klansman said, ’Nigger,
    Look me in the face-
    And tell me you believe in
    The great white race.
    An additional technique used by Hughes is effective because it applies the words he puts on a page to the culture he represents in person in an unexpected way. The rhyming schemes of many of his works are quite sing-songy and more accurately invoke a musical jazz beat when read. As this beat is most frequently found within the African-American culture, the link from Hughes poems with this kind of rhyming scheme to this culture is undeniable. For instance, his poem The Backlash Blues repeats many phrases and also rhymes throughout, creating this jazz-beat effect.
    Finally, Hughes’s uses of free verse are quite effective as a choice for stanza construction. As his words and rhyming schemes can be seen as a stray from the norm, it is most appropriate, if not unavoidable, that the structure of his lines be as free-spirited. (6) Additionally, more formal and traditional styles of writing might not be able to adequately contain the power of the words Hughes uses or bridle the creativity with which he presents thenu It would be dangerous for Hughes to fit his commanding text into a sonnet format, for example, in fear that he might lose some of the poem’s vivid descriptions, shock value or jazz-style rhyming schemes.
    For all these formerly mentioned reasons, Hughes’s poetry was a powerful force in the Harlem Renaissance and effectively communicated the message which he was trying to transmit. However, some of Hughes’s colleagues of the time criticized his writing style. They argued that his work would have been more effective if presented in a different manner.
    Specifically, one of the reasons his fellow poets made this criticism is that they saw his work as less than professional. (7) They believed that free verse and jazz beats had no place in poetry and diminished the strength of the poem as a literary work.
    Furthermore, these poets believed that the only way for African-Americans to gain recognition in a previously unexplored field was to "play" in this field in the same manner that the others before them had "played. " In other words, black poetry was not notable before this time period. During this time period however, black poets were making their name known. (8) It was the opinion of Hughes’s critics that the best way to be recognized as effective poets was to mimic white poets who had gained recognition in the field by using established formal styles.
    Another criticism made of Hughes was that his work fulfilled the stereotypes that whites had over blacks. Namely, that at the time of the Harlem Renaissance, whites stereotypically thought of blacks as a people of lesser intelligence. Hughes’s critics said that his work bought into this prejudicial image of the African-American. They argued that using colloquial language implied that Hughes was not capable of using the English language in an eloquent, formal fashion. It was their belief that words like " ain’t and a-tall (at all)" restricted the African-American poet from rising into the public eye as an established writer and in fact condemned them to fall into the white stereotypes of the time.
    While there were many fantastic writers during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, Langston Hughes is a man that produced work that made his feelings and message clear. For his writing style, he received public attention and scholarly criticism, (10) but for his work to right the wrongs committed against the civil rights of African-Americans by means of poetical exposure of these wrongs, he was and is respected by all. That’s all for the lecture, thanks.