In the Article, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain", Langston Hughes talks about African American artists and how view themselves and their work. In the beginning of the article Hughes starts out by saying a fellow poet, stated that he wish he were a White poet. His friend stated he wanted to write like a white poet. Hughes was ashamed and felt sorry for the young man. Hughes thinks that African American's should embrace their race and spirituality. Hughes understood that middle class African American families grew up with their parents telling them to act like the white children, and that's why these young artists wanted to be like the white artists. Hughes states that it would be hard to embrace your own beauty if you were brought up in a house where you were said to act like white people. They were brought up thinking there was something wrong with the way they were, which is a wrong interpretation. Artists who create racial art would have a very high mountain to climb, but African American artists choose to not even try and climb this "mountain". Hughes, however, said that there are some common people of color who embrace their race and their spirituality; these are the artists Hughes likes. The conflict between the African American artists is a conflict within themselves. They need to express themselves and write about what they want to write about and not worry about what others think. He finishes up the article by saying once again he is ashamed of the African American artist who wants to be like white artists. Hughes wants the African American artists to find beauty in their race, create art and stand by their art.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Langston hughes
In the Article, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain", Langston Hughes talks about African American artists and how view themselves and their work. In the beginning of the article Hughes starts out by saying a fellow poet, stated that he wish he were a White poet. His friend stated he wanted to write like a white poet. Hughes was ashamed and felt sorry for the young man. Hughes thinks that African American's should embrace their race and spirituality. Hughes understood that middle class African American families grew up with their parents telling them to act like the white children, and that's why these young artists wanted to be like the white artists. Hughes states that it would be hard to embrace your own beauty if you were brought up in a house where you were said to act like white people. They were brought up thinking there was something wrong with the way they were, which is a wrong interpretation. Artists who create racial art would have a very high mountain to climb, but African American artists choose to not even try and climb this "mountain". Hughes, however, said that there are some common people of color who embrace their race and their spirituality; these are the artists Hughes likes. The conflict between the African American artists is a conflict within themselves. They need to express themselves and write about what they want to write about and not worry about what others think. He finishes up the article by saying once again he is ashamed of the African American artist who wants to be like white artists. Hughes wants the African American artists to find beauty in their race, create art and stand by their art.
Imitation #1 (1960s) Claude McKay "Dawn in New York"
"The Dawn! The Dawn! The crimson-tinted, comes
Out of
the low still skies, over the hills,
Manhattan's roofs and spires and
cheerless domes!
The Dawn! My spirit to its spirit thrills.
Almost
the mighty city is asleep,
No pushing crowd, no tramping, tramping
feet.
But here and there a few cars groaning creep
Along, above,
and underneath the street..."
These eight bars are from a Claude McKay poem entitled, "Dawn in New York". The poem is written as a narrative poem. Claude is witnessing the sunrise, as the sun rays blanket New York City. He is very observant and explains to us the atmosphere that was surrounding him that morning when he watched the sunrise in New York City. I can picture him, standing out on his balcony and shouting because the sunrise he is witnessing is so amazing. He uses many descriptive words in this poem to describe the way the city looks at dawn such as "crimson tinted", referring to the sky. Claude describes it as being very quiet. “…Almost the mighty city is asleep…” . New York is supposes to be the city that never sleeps, but at dawn it seems as though it has fallen asleep. There are no people walking the streets, only cars. He uses personification when describing the cars, "...a few cars groaning creep along...". He uses an A, B rhyme scheme, along with end rhyme in this poem. Claude uses repetition with the word dawn, which is an important theme of the story so it makes sense that he repeats the word throughout the poem. The overall context of the poem is, a man that is excited and amazed at the sight of a natural beauty, a sunrise, over one of the most amazing cities in the world. I think he is joyous to finally “make” it to the city.
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