Scott A. Wicker Jr.

Mrs. Pritchard
English II
22 March 2016
The Life of Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes inspired other authors to become freethinking, and more creative than
any other author during the Harlem Renaissance. He accomplished this by using a mixture of
poetry and expressing what he believed throughout his daily life. Lessons from his child hood
gave him the material needed to express to other authors his love for African Americans and
equality. Life lessons, childhood memories, and dreams of equality provided Langston Hughes
with the knowledge and tools he needed to produce poetry that would be recognized as some of
the greatest realist and modernist works of the century.
The Work of Langston Hughes was highly influenced by the people in his life. One of the
most persuasive people was his grandmother, Mary Langston. The years that he lived in her
company solidified his passion for writing. Mary passed on her love of literature to Hughes,
inspiring him to write poetry. Mary encouraged Hughes to submerse himself into books creating
a near obsession for reading and writing that stuck with him throughout his lifetime. In his early
life, he had a different influencer to persuade his actions, his mother, Carrie Mercer. Carrie was
an inspirational woman who taught, acted, and wrote poetry. The brilliance of Hughes poetry
was derived not only from the infusion of his mothers ideas into works of his own, but his
unwavering passion and desire to be heard. His father unintentionally inspired his son to pursue

his dreams in life. During the summers of 1919 and 1920, Hughes spent time with his father in
Mexico City. He learned that he loathed his father because of the prejudice that he held against
African Americans and his outlook on life. Disliking such a distinct figure in his life had its
effects of Hughes, driving him to the point of considering suicide. The only thoughts that kept
him from taking his own life included those of potentially, having adventures, climbing to the
top of a volcano, attending bullfights, graduating, and marrying (Zieger G.).
Langston Hughes was not influenced only by people, but also by the events that shaped
his life. It was far from glamorous; some might even say that it was depressing. As a young child
Langston Hughes stayed with either of his parents. James Hughes, Langstons father, left the
United States because of the racial inequality that prevented him in practicing law. Carrie Mercer
moved from city to city looking for a well-paying job that could provide for her family. Because
of the situation that he was in, he had to be frequently relocated to live with different people.
Langston Hughes would live with his mother, father, close family friends, and grandparents,
which eventually took a toll on his attitude. The sense of abandonment, isolation, and desolation
plagued Hughes until he found his passion, literature. His love for reading and writing solved his
problem of loneliness and desolation by filling a void that he had in his life caused by the
absence of his parents.
The relationship between Langston Hughes and his father was far from splendid. This
relationship was made worse when it was time for college, which was to be funded by his father.
James Hughes disliked that his son was interested in literature, and wanted Langston to pursue a
more manly trade. After negotiating, the two came to an agreement where James would
allocate the necessary funds for allowing Langston to attend college at Colombia University as
long as Langston agreed to take engineering instead of literature. His father assumed that he had

finally gotten his son to surrender his hopes as a writer, but he was wrong. By the time they had
come to this agreement Langston Hughes had already published his first poem The Negro
Speaks of Rivers in The Crisis which was published by the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The path as an influential African American writer
had been chosen for him from this point on.
While Langston Hughes was attending Columbia University, he was praised for being a
spectacular student. He on the other hand had a different outlook on his environment, and on the
school itself. Hughes felt as if he did not fit with the crowd at Columbia University saying, he
felt like an outsider among his privileged classmates. He actually based his poem "By what
sends Children's Rhymes" off of his experiences while attending Columbia University. From the
point of view of Langston Hughes, scholarship was less important than exploring the arts and
recording the daily lives of the average person and writing prolifically.
The themes of Langston Hughes portray the actual events and people that were influential
in his life. For example, in the essay The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain Langston
Hughes writes, An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never
be afraid to do what he must choose.(Hughes). He fights for the right of artists to make their
own decision, which leads to his first theme, freedom and creativity. In the poetry of Langston
Hughes, he brings out the creative expression in those that read his works. Langston Hughes
inspires other artists to follow their passion and write about any subject that they see fit. The
origin of Langston Hughes making this revolutionary statement comes from his past experiences
with W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Locke. Both Locke and Du Bois made accusations towards
Hughes about his choices in writing. Both mainstream authors wanted Hughes to present an
uplifting portrait of African American life in order to combat the stereotypes that filled earlier

literature while Hughes disagreed with their purposeful assimilation of literature to try and
change the social outlook of a whole race. Langston Hughes was invigorated to celebrate
differences, express racial pride, and show the beauty in blackness.
Langston Hughes always was happy to portray freedom and creativity to inspire
ambitious authors. He frequently exhibited positive traits to other writers to inspire them to keep
perusing their goal. Mother to Son was the poem Hughes wrote as encouragement for others.
The theme of the poem is hard work no matter what circumstance is thrown by society. Hughes
references life as a dilapidated stairwell of bare wood. He portrays life obstacles as tacks and
splinters in wood disheartening anyone from moving forward. It may seem as if life is fraught
with obstacles preventing you from achieving what the reader wants, but in the words of the
mother (narrator), Dont you fall now-- / For Ise still goin, honey, / Ise still climbin,
(Hughes Mother, 17-19). The narrator demonstrates unwavering strength to push past
problems and motivates the reader to do the same.
Hughes never backed down from what he believed in. Langston Hughes wanted to
portray the life or an African American in its true nature. He and other writers of his period saw it
as a necessity to get rid of the literature that did not portray the true thoughts and lives of African
Americans. From this mindset, the poetry of Langston Hughes took a turn towards naturalism
and realism. His writing held certain traits of naturalism and realism, such as telling how it
actually was. For example, the poem "By what sends Children's Rhymes" by Langston Hughes.
The reason for the existence of the poem was to portray the lack of equality between Caucasian
and African American children. As exemplified by, Lies written down / for white folks / ain't for
us a-tall: (Hughes childrens, 11-13). Langston Hughes is referring to the laws written down
in the U.S. constitution that are not actually being enforced because of the beliefs of society. He

blatantly says that white people are lying to themselves; telling themselves that black people are
free just because they put their freedom in the form of law.
By what sends Childrens Rhymes is not the only time that Langston Hughes brought
racial and cultural inequality to the eyes of his audience. His poem Cross goes even deeper
into the rift that was the relationship of Caucasians and African Americans. For example, Cross
ventures into the life of someone neither white nor black. The reader is able to understand the
dreadful problems those have to live with when they abide between the races as a mulatto.
Langston Hughes describes these people as being stuck in the purgatory of races; neither race
will accept a mulatto due to their own racial pride. This idea is demonstrated by Hughes saying,
My old man died in a fine big house. / My ma died in a shack. / I wonder where Im going to
die, / being neither white nor black? (Hughes Cross, 9-12). The message delivered by these
lines is extremely powerful in its own way. It explores the societal and cultural gap of the two
races within four lines. It shows that even mixed race families still have a gap in equality, and the
offspring of the two parents never be accepted by society.
The Negro Speaks of Rivers is by far one of the most profound poems Langston
Hughes wrote during his lifetime. As he wrote The Negro Speaks of Rivers, he took inspiration
from the way Walt Whiteman wrote Song of Myself. There are striking similarities between
the two, such as the use of anaphora to increase the dramatic tone of the poem. The Negro
Speaks of Rivers is a subtle reference to the equality of the human race. Lines such as, I bathed
in the Euphrates when dawns were young. / I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to
sleep. / I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. (Hughes Negro, 6-7) were
not written to show the world, but to explore the important civilizations that African Americans
were apart of throughout history. The speaker is presenting his knowledge of past successful

societies through the use of insightful and articulate detail. The speaker presents his
knowledge to combat the negative stereotype of inferior African American intelligence compared
to other races. The Negro Speaks of Rivers may have been Langston Hughes first poem, but
the message relayed to the reader will remain throughout all of his poems.
Langston Hughes inspired himself and other artist to become free thinking and more
creative. Through Langston Hughes mother, father, and grandmother he was taught free thought
and creativity while also engraining into him African American pride. He later used what he
learned to influence other artist and become one of the most renowned artist of American history.
The difficulties Langston Hughes experienced throughout his lifetime are a clear influence on his
ideology and poetry.

Works Cited
Niemi, Robert. "The Poetry Of Hughes." Masterplots II: African American Literature, Revised
Edition (2008): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Apr. 2016
Roessel, David. Hughes. New York: David Cambell Publishers Ltd., 1999. Print.
Schwartz, Christian, ed. "A Reading Guide to Langston Hughes." www.poets.org. Ed. Christian
Schwartz. Academeny of American Poets, 1 Jan. 2000. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.
<https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/reading-guide-langston-hughes>.
Zieger, Gay Pitman. "Langston Hughes." Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia (2016):
Research Starters. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.