Langston Hughes' Influence on American Literature

Langston Hughes was one of the great writers of his time. He was named the "most renowned African American poet of the 20th century" (McLaren). Through his writing he made many contributions to following generations by writing about African American issues in creative ways including the use of blues and jazz. Langston Hughes captured the scene of Harlem life in the early 20th century significantly influencing American Literature. He once explained that his writing was an attempt to "explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America" (Daniel 760). To fulfill this task, he wrote 15 volumes of poetry, six novels, three books, 11 plays, and a variety of non-fiction work (Daniel 760). He also edited over 50 books in his time (McKay).

James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri February 1, 1902. He grew up in Lawrence, Kansas. His life was hard when he was young; his parents were separated with little money to go around, and he was very lonely. "Po' Boy Blues" expresses how he felt during those times:

When I was home de

Sunshine seemed like gold.

Since I come up North de

Whole damn world's turned cold.

I was a good boy,

Never done no wrong.

Yes, I was a good boy,

Never done no wrong,

But this world is weary

An' de road is hard an' long.

Hughes lived with his relatives and moved around much throughout the first part of his life. He learned quickly to be independent. During part of his childhood, Hughes lived with his grandmother who taught him many stories and life lessons. At the age of 13, he moved back with his mother and her second husband in Illinois. Hughes entered Columbia University, New York in the fall of 1921. He soon abandoned his studies and in the fall of 1923, he sailed as a steward on a freighter, the S.S. West Hesseltine, to the West Coast of Africa where he learned about African culture.

Soon after, in 1924, he traveled to Paris to work as a cook's helper at a nightclub that featured primarily African-American performers. Experiences there inspired him to experiment more with jazz and blues rhythms in his poetry (Rempersad 286). Leaving Paris a year later, he returned to the United States, where he worked menial jobs to support himself while writing poetry. Five years later, Hughes earned enough money to be able to attend and graduate from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania.

Later in his life, Hughes lived in Washington, D.C. where he observed prejudice towards and within the city's black society. The upper-class blacks shunned the lower class viewing them as being "embarrassingly vulgar" (Dickinson 323). Overcoming African-American prejudice was a major focus in most of Hughes' writing. For example, he wrote about the joys, sorrows and hopes of the black man in America (Dickinson 321). Not all of his writings were so encouraging however. Other themes Hughes wrote about include lynchings, rapes, discrimination, and Jim Crow Laws. He commented that when he felt bad, he wrote a great deal of poetry; when he was happy, he didn't write any (Dickinson 321).

At first, Hughes primarily focused on writing for a black urban audience; throughout time, he changed his focus to middle-class blacks, and then to the men and women of Harlem as "black masses". Hughes ended up directing his writing to both whites and blacks of all classes. His basic philosophy, taken from the poem "I, too," was as follows:

Tomorrow, I'll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody'll dare

Say to me,

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

Besides,

They'll see

How beautiful I am

And be ashamed--

I, too, am America.

Hughes was said to have written with a sadness for the events that oppressed him, and at the same time with a sense of optimism for a better world he knew would come (Dickinson 326). For instance, Hughes fought segregation in the armed forces by writing scripts and songs for various government agencies, typically without pay (Rampersad 288). Hughes, essentially an optimist, clung to his belief that the barriers excluding his people from the American Dream might one day be abolished (Bevilacqua).

Harlem was a main focus in many of Hughes' poems and an influence for many of his other poems. He was very involved in the Harlem community. In 1938, to help African-American further take pleasure in their culture, Hughes founded the Harlem Suitcase Theatre. Hughes "encouraged children to plant gardens, poets and others to create, and everyone to pay attention to and learn to love the place they called home" (Bell-Russel). By observing the humble aspects of the black culture in Harlem, Hughes drew much inspiration for his writing. He created poems that were "responses to the feelings of oppression that pervaded the lives of Harlem residents" (Daniel 764). In 1951, he wrote a volume of poetry called Montage of a Dream Deferred, which was a "jazz-based portrait of Harlem as a community both unfairly maligned and in genuine distress" (Rampersad 288).

Hughes also helped create the manifesto for the Harlem Renaissance. In 1926, he wrote the essay "The Negro Artist and