Identity In The Poetry Of Langston Hughes

Search for Identity in the Poetry of Langston Hughes

In exploring the problem of identity in Black literature we find no

simple or definite explanation. Nevertheless, it is generally accepted

that it is rooted in the reality of the discriminatory social system in

America with its historic origins in the institution of slavery. One can

discern that this slavery system imposes a double burden on the Negro

through severe social and economic inequalities and through the heavy

psychological consequences suffered by the Negro who is forced to play an

inferior role, 1 the latter relates to the low self-estimate, feeling

of helplessness and basic identity conflict. Thus, in some form or the

other, every Negro American is confronted with the question of `where

he is' in the prevailing white society. The problem of Negro identity

has various dimensions like the colour, community and class.

The inescapable reality of the Negro existence in America is colour

which is inherent in the concept of self, manifest in race-consciousness.2

This is significant because a Negro establishes his identity with

other individuals, known or unknown, on the basis of a similarity of colour

and features, thus making his racial group membership the nexus of his

self identity.3 In 1915, the Association for the study of Negro life

and history made special endeavours to convince the Negroes that they

could never acquire respectability in society if they despised their

history and looked upon themselves as inferior. It was felt that "the

American Negro must remake its past in order to make his future."4

After the Negro began to search his identity in the glorious past-his

heritage and his folk tradition, he began to feel proud of his black

wholesome colour. Langston Hughes has been given the credit for nourishing

the black sensibility and inspiring it to create Afro-American

literature and transforming it into a literature of struggle.5 Commonly known

as the `Poet Laureate of the Negro race', Langston Hughes is known as a

folk poet pursuing the theme `I, too, sing America.' He made

remarkable contribution to the American literature and came to be regarded as a

leading voice of the Renaissance of the black arts in 1920's of the

United States. His own life influenced his art. Being born in a Negro

family and at a time of racial discrimination from his early childhood, he

had to bear the ruthless behaviour of the whites. So, from the very

beginning of his life he faced many problems viz., racial discrimination,

lack of identity in the society and no actual or practical freedom of

blacks etc. All this put a remarkable impact on his mind, on his soul

and made him a poet of blacks.

A great votary of black art, Hughes inaugurated a distinct movement of

"negritude" which may be regarded as the soul of Harlem. Rising from

his consciousness of the colour of his skin and passing through various

stages of identification with people and territory of Africa and finally

grounding it in the American Past, negritude in the poetry of Hughes

evolves into a definite and enduring concept expressive of definite

vision.6 But he doesn't suffer from what W.E.B. DuBois terms as double

consciousness - "two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two

warring ideals in one dark body."7

Langston Hughes in his essay on "The Negro Artist and the Racial

Mountain" writes, "no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself." He

is always the product of race, movement, and milieu. He strongly

condemns the attitude of self hate and says, "I am a Negro and beautiful."8 He

believes that, like other races of mankind, the black race is neither

uniformly admirably nor uniformly despicable: "we know we are beautiful

and ugly too."9

The miserable life of the Blacks in dirty slums, consisting of houses

with yawning roofs and broken walls is depicted in later poems, truly

expressive of their plight in 1920's. The poem "Theme for English B"

expresses the necessity of the American identity for the black bourgeoisie

and the common Negro who for the former is too boisterous, too black

and too rough to be of any use. But they were persons who were trying to

uphold the race. Another poem "Freedom Train" celebrates a long

struggle of the Afro Americans. It is a dream which has not come true and will

not come true for the Afro American masses.

Uprooted from