The Dream Keeper
Why Langston Hughes?
When I was younger I heard of Langston Hughes but never actually took the time to look him up. I would hear his name in movies, shows and discussions and would still wonder who he is. I actually would get Langston Hughes mixed up with Louis Armstrong. I asked my mother if Langston Hughes was the trumpet player the sung the song "What a Wonderful World". She just laughed at me and told me to look up Langston Hughes and Louis Armstrong. Than when i started getting into his poetry i decided to do him for my project.
Biography
James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and her husband, before the family eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio. Actually it was Lincoln, Illinois where Hughes started writing poetry. In November 1924, he moved to Washington, D.C. Hughes's first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. In 1930 his first novel, Not Without Laughter, won the Harmon gold medal for literature. He wrote novels, short stories and plays, as well as poetry, and is also known for his engagement with the world of jazz and the influence it had on his writing, as in "Montage of a Dream Deferred." His life and work were enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.Hughes refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience of black America.He wanted to tell the stories of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language itself. Sadly Langston Hughes past away from prostate cancer on May 22, 1967, in New York.
Analysis.
"I Dream A World"
A.Figurative Language (Repetition "I dream a World")
(Aliteration) (Personification) "Where wretchedness will hang its head"
The tone of this poem was fanciful. I chose those words because in the poem he was dreaming of a peaceful world, a better world. A world without racism, discrimination, freedom, and no greed. But when your dreaming you are imagining so I said he was imagining a wonderful place. I chose the word fanciful because it means the use of imagination and from the first line " I dream a world where man no other will scorn...." the first word that popped in my head was imagination because of the word dreamed.
C. Theme
The theme of this poem is that Langston Hughes dreams of peace without wretchedness, heartache, no freedom,and racism. I would say peace do upon you.
A.Figurative Language (Repetition "I dream a World")
(Aliteration) (Personification) "Where wretchedness will hang its head"
B. Tone
The tone of this poem was fanciful. I chose those words because in the poem he was dreaming of a peaceful world, a better world. A world without racism, discrimination, freedom, and no greed. But when your dreaming you are imagining so I said he was imagining a wonderful place. I chose the word fanciful because it means the use of imagination and from the first line " I dream a world where man no other will scorn...." the first word that popped in my head was imagination because of the word dreamed.
C. Theme
The theme of this poem is that Langston Hughes dreams of peace without wretchedness, heartache, no freedom,and racism. I would say peace do upon you.
"Po Boy Blues"
A. Figurative Language (Repetition)
"When I was home de sunshine seemed like gold."
"I was a good boy, never done no wrong"
"Fell in love with a gal i thought was kind'
''Weary,weary early in de morn"
B. Tone
The tone words i chose for this poem was disheartened and ambivolent. In the poem the boy was having mixed emotions. He was showing sorrow and happiness. At first when he said "When I was home de sunshine seemed so gold" he was happy. Then he showed sorrow after he met the girl and he said "Weary early in de morn."
C. Theme
Analysis
A. Figurative Language (Repetition)
"I was a good boy, never done no wrong"
"Fell in love with a gal i thought was kind'
''Weary,weary early in de morn"
B. Tone
The tone words i chose for this poem was disheartened and ambivolent. In the poem the boy was having mixed emotions. He was showing sorrow and happiness. At first when he said "When I was home de sunshine seemed so gold" he was happy. Then he showed sorrow after he met the girl and he said "Weary early in de morn."
C. Theme
The theme of this poem is love hurts. The boy was a very happy boy and I had found that from when he said "When I was home de sunshine seemed so gold.""I was a good boy,
Never done no wrong.". Then he starting falling for this girl but to find out all she wanted was his money " Fell in love with A gal I thought was kind. She made me lose ma money" Then he was heartbroken and became sad "Weary early in de morn."
''Life is Fine''
B. Tone
C. Theme: The theme is think before your actions. The narrator thought before he did something and if he had did it he probably would have died.
"The Negro Mother"
http://www.history-timelines.org.uk/people-timelines/23-langston-hughes-timeline.htm
The theme of this poem to me is that love hurts. They boy in the poem was happy and once he met the girl she broke his heart and then he became weary. I came up with that decision when he said " I fell in love with a gal I thought was kind. She made me lose ma money an' almost lose ma mind."" I's so weary I "Life is Fine"
A.Figurative Language (Repetiton)
''Life is Fine''
B. Tone
The tone words for this poem is regretful and accepting. The narrator could have drowned or jumped off a high building if it was not for his instincts. He regret that he let his friend drown and that he even thought about jumping off the building. He is accepting the fact that he is alive and that he is fine. I had found my opinion when he had said "Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!"
C. Theme: The theme is think before your actions. The narrator thought before he did something and if he had did it he probably would have died.
"The Negro Mother"
A.Figurative Language. (Simile)
"Dark as the night"
"Stand like free men supporting my trust."
"Shining like the sun"
(Repetition) "I am"
(Personification) "Sometimes, the valley was filled with tears,"
B. Tone
The tone words for this story is determined, confident, and strong. The Negro mother was very strong willed. Determined for people to remember her and fought for her freedom carrying a unborn child. I had used strong and determined when the poem had said
"Sometimes, the valley was filled with tears,
But I kept trudging on through the lonely years.
Sometimes, the road was hot with the sun,
But I had to keep on till my work was done:
I had to keep on! No stopping for me --
I was the seed of the coming Free."
C.Theme
Stand up for what you believe in. The Negro mother was a slave and been through it all. From getting whipped,being pregnant as a slave and picking cotton. She was telling the reader that she was a fighter, but black people should know where they are coming from. Remember her. Remember the woman who picked cotton, remember the woman who birthed you, and remember the woman who lived the life as a slave.
"FROM DUSK TO DAWN"
| 1902 | This timeline starts on February 1 1902 when James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, second child of Carrie Langston Hughes and James Hughes | |
| 1903-1907 | His parents separated and Langston Hughes move home repeatedly staying with relatives and friends | |
| 1907-1915 | Hughes lived with his grandmother, Mary Sampson Patterson Leary Langston, in Lawrence, Kansas, and briefly with his mother in Topeka, Kansas. | |
| 1915-1920 | During this period he lives with his mother in Lincoln, Illinois, and in Cleveland, Ohio where he attended high school where he graduated on June 16, 1920 | |
| 1920-1921 | Langston Hughes lives with his father in Toluca, Mexico | |
| 1924 | Langston enrolls at Columbia University in September study engineering as agreed with is father but becomes involved with writers in Harlem and publishes "The Negro Speaks of Rivers". He drops out of Columbia University travels to Africa, Holland, and Paris. In November 1924, Hughes returned to the U. S. to live with his mother in Washington, D.C. | |
| 1925 | Hughes wins the Opportunity magazine poetry contest for "The Weary Blues" | |
| 1926 | The Weary Blues is published by Alfred Knopf and Hughes enrolls in Lincoln University, a HBCU in Chester County, Pennsylvania | |
| 1927 | Hughes second book of poems, Fine Clothes to the Jew, is published by Alfred Knopf | |
| 1929 | Hughes receives a B.A. degree from Lincoln University | |
| 1930 | Hughes publishes his novel, Not Without Laughter, The Dream Keeper and Other Poems | |
| 1932 | He goes to the Soviet Union to make a film depicting the plight of many blacks living in the United States | |
| 1934 | The Ways of White Folks, a collection of short stories, is published | |
| 1935 | Hughes's play, "Mulatto," opens on Broadway | |
| 1937 | Langston Hughes travels to Spain as a correspondent for the Baltimore Afro-American and other various African American newspapers | |
| 1941 | Hughes establishes his theatre troupe in Los Angeles and publishes The Big Sea, his first autobiography | |
| 1943 | Hughes begins writing columns for the Chicago Defender. | |
| 1949 | He spent three months at the integrated University of Chicago Laboratory Schools as a "Visiting Lecturer on Poetry" | |
| 1950 | Simple Speaks His Mind, a collection of short fiction, is published. | |
| 1951 | Hughes publishes Montage of a Dream Deferred, a collection of poetry. | |
| 1956 | I Wonder As I Wander, Hughes's second autobiography, is published. | |
| 1960 | The NAACP awardS Langston Hughes the Spingarn Medal for distinguished achievements by an African American | |
| 1961 | Hughes was inducted into the National Institute of Arts and Letters and publishes Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz, a collection of poetry | |
| 1967 | Hughes Died May 22, 1967 (aged 65) in New York, United States Hughes' Panther and the Lash was posthumously published | |
| 1973 | The first Langston Hughes Medal was awarded by the City College of New York. |
http://www.history-timelines.org.uk/people-timelines/23-langston-hughes-timeline.htm
"I ask Myself"
I ask myself why do people depend on me.
I ask myself why do people come to me for advice.
I ask myself why do i put up with the BS.
I ask myself why do i even go through BS,
Pain starts hitting my head like drums as i keep thinking about why me?
I'm not special. My name isn't eatable so why is it always in your mouth.
Why do i give my trust to you knowing that you just gonna spit it up and throw it away like garbage.
Than you ask me why do i have a wall built up. Maybe your looking for somebody willing enough to climb over it.
Or maybe i'm just shielding my life from the foolishness they call earth.
I ask myself why is Gods world being damaged.
I asked myself why my parents split.
I ask myself why my mother depend on me, her youngest, while the oldest is right beside me.
I ask myself why do i push myself forward just to get pulled back 5 steps.
I over think things that could be the answer. Yes that's it i over think things right.
NO! Its not right.
I think because my mind plays tricks on me and i tell him everyday im not a dog.
I think with my head and not my heart just so it won't break. You could let your emotions gets the best of you but i'm not.
I ask myself why did she choose him over my father.
I ask myself why do i miss my father.
I ask myself what am i doing with my life
And i ask myself why don't i thank myself for being myself and talking to myself before i wreck myself.
A. Figurative Language (Repetition) "I ask Myself"
(Simile) "Pain starts hitting my head like drums"
(Onomatopoeia) "NO!"
B.Tone
The tone words I chose for this poem is sorrow, wonder, and unappreciated. The author of the poem was filled with wonder. She was asking herself why did she go through such problems. Why didn't she think before she spoke or thought before her actions.
C.
The theme of this story was think before you speak. The whole poem the author was drifted in her thoughts. Asking questions to herself that was unanswered. Why didn't she do this before that.