Langston Huges Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Langston Huges - Essay Example Well, everyone knows, except us, that all Negroes have rhythm, so they elected me as class poet† (Johnson, p.138)." He also wrote newspapers for the school, wrote plays, short stories, and edited the year book. It was at this time in high school when he realized that he had a passion for books and wrote â€Å"when Sue Wears Red†, his first jazz poetry. In 1919, he briefly lived with his father in Mexico although the relationship between the two was poor. In 1920 Hughes went back to his father with hopes that he would help him enroll to Colombia University. Initially, before arriving to Mexico, Hughes states that he had been thinking about his father and the strange dislike of his own people. Hughes did not understand it because he was a Negro and liked Negros very much (Hughes and McLaren, p.65). His father had plans of taking him to a university overseas to make a career in engineering and not become a writer. At some point they came into a compromise whereby Hughes agr eed to study engineering only if his father would allow him to attend Colombia University. Hughes has struggled since childhood to fit in the United States as an African American. At a young age, he did not have an easy life and racism encounters was the order of the day though he decided to remain loyal to his own heritage. He had due respect for his background as an African American to an extent of using his racial pride as the base of his works. The struggles in his life shaped him into becoming both a poet and an inspiring leader to the African American people. Having struggled in making a living, he finally figured out what he really wanted to do by stating in his autobiography that he wanted to write seriously and as well as he knew how about the Negro people. This is what gave Hughes an establishment of his own style; a style that would give a reflection about his personal African American experiences whereby race had its own inequalities (Hughes and McLaren, 66). Hughes soug ht out a communism world, one with an ideology that offers to establish classless views, lack of social status and get rid of segregation in the society. The political views regarding racial discrimination were a major obstacle in Hughes’ life. This enabled him to express his opinions and perception about issue facing the colored people in America through his works. Hughes wrote in a respectable way to demonstrate to his fellow black writers the significance of writing educative works rather than criticize harshly. I n the year 1924, went to back to the United States did odd jobs like a busboy and an assistant cook at a restaurant in Washington where he met Vachel Lindsay, an American poet. Hughes decided to show some of his poet work to Lindsay who was fascinated enough to make connections and promote Hughes’ work for a larger audience (Baxter, p.45). That same year, his poem â€Å"Weary Blues† won a prize in the literary competition of the opportunity magazine . He was also lucky to receive a scholarship to enroll at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Again, Hughes poems caught the attention of novelist Carl Van Vetchten, who also made connections for Hughes and the following year his first poetry book weary blues was published. The first time that Hughes gained recognition as a recommendable literature figure was in 1920s, a time for â€Å"