Poet Hughes Life and My Contribution to Poetry Essay

Poet Hughes Life and My Contribution to Poetry - Essay Example Biography James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on 1 February 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. He was the second child to Caroline (Carrie) Mercer Langston and James Nathaniel Hughes. Hughes mother worked as a teacher. Langston had a rough childhood. One of the experiences that greatly bore on him was the divorce of his parents. Upon divorce, Langston’s father left for Cuba and later settled in Mexico. He sought to escape racism that was rampant in the United States of America (West 160). After his parents separated, Langston stayed back with his mother. However, his mother travelled a lot in search for employment. As a result, Langston grew in a number of Midwestern towns. Langston’s maternal grandmother, Mary Patterson Langston, played a major part in raising young Langston Hughes. She was of great influence to young Langston in matters relating to racial pride, which she drew from black American oral tradition and activist experiences. Langston stayed with his grandmother i n Lawrence, Kansas, where he spent a better part of his childhood. Upon the death of his grandmother, Hughes moved in with his family friends, James and Mary Reed. He stayed with them for two years but later moved in with his mother in Lincoln, Illinois. Carrie remarried while Hughes was an adolescent. This made them move to Cleveland, Ohio where he attended high school. Their home was auctioned in February 1918 for $16,667. Since Hughes spent most of his childhood away from his father, they had a poor relationship. He lived with him for a short period in 1919. After graduating from high school, Hughes moved back in with his father in 1920. He hoped to convince his father to allow him to attend Columbia University. Hughes’ father had a dislike for Negroes and hoped that his son would study abroad. He was willing to support his son financially had Hughes agreed to do away with his ambition as a writer and pursue engineering. Hughes and his father came to a compromise that he w ould undertake engineering at Columbia University. After a two-year stay at the university, Hughes left due to racial prejudice. To earn a living, Hughes worked various odd jobs. At one time, he worked as a crewmember aboard the S.S Malone. Working on this ship saw him spend six months travelling partly to West Africa and Europe. He returned to the United States and secured a white-collar job working at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. He served as a personal assistant to Carter G. Woodson. The job was too demanding for him, as it did not give him enough time to pursue his writing. Consequently, he quit the job and got another job as a busboy at the Wardman Park Hotel. It is at this place that he met the poet Vachel Lindsay. Lindsay was impressed by Hughes’ work and went ahead to publicize his discovery of Hughes as a poet. Some of Hughes earlier work was already published in magazines and was about to compile them into his first book of poe try. Hughes went ahead to enroll in Lincoln University which was synonymous with blacks in Chester county, Pennsylvania. Upon completing his B.A degree from Lincoln University in 1929, he went back to New York. He did a few travels to the Soviet Union and the Caribbean but spent a better part of his adulthood in Harlem. Controversy looms over Hughes’s sexuality. Some people such as Arnold Rampersand, Hughes primary biographers believe that he exuded homosexual tendencies in his poems thus belief that he preferred African American men (p.69). Hughes died on May 22, 1967.

Discussion Compilation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Discussion Compilation - Assignment Example The age of enlightenment denoted the epoch of an intellectual movement back then in the 18th century. This took place in zones of central Europe and North America. The end of the thirty years of war in 1648 sparked this era and the French Revolution in 1989 marked its end. The 20th century has carried the label of the tag the age of anxiety (Eder, James and Seth 70). In this notion, the dominant perception is the idea of one using technology to obtain power over the citizens. At this level, one can easily realize the span of time since the 16th century to 20th century digital era took many ideological perceptions and inclinations by different personality who helped shape the history of philosophy, politics, and leadership. In the discernment of Freud, his contribution got right the making of history. According to Freud, the development of civilization with age would definitely bear a striking similarity with the development of the individual. In this realm, what Freud insinuated was that the society would one way or the other grow. The growth, be it social, political or religious perspective, it is borne by individual actions within the society (Eder, James and Seth 84). ... His philosophical inclination stems out from the fact that he was a child of enlightenment. What one would require an insight from Freud and Karl Max, if they were around is their belief and concentration on the power and influence of non-rational drives and impulses as guiding human thinking and his behaviour? For Karl, the human capacities have an insinuation of freedom of their thinking. He might have got this perception wrong since he relates to every human achievement as the outcome of false consciousness (Eder, James and Seth 70). The fact is that even since the age of enlightenment, much development in human capacity and their ideas do not entirely subscribe to the ideas of the ruling class. If Karl were alive today, he would have risen to the fact that conscious thought, as Freud sides with it, has played a big role towards linking these two ages, the age of enlightenment and the age of anxiety. During the age of enlightenment, as the world of civilization drifted onto the un known future of the age of anxiety, nature was put at a distance so as to rationally observe and classify. According to Locke, there was an erosion of the hierarchical great chain of being and the development of science of government, which sprouted the aspect of egalitarianism. This path seemed to bear the theory of natural light to equality and the security of self and the body of self (Eder, James and Seth 65). These extensions by Locke help to link the two ages together. He comes out as the first ideologue for capitalism. The contribution of personalities as from Locke to Equiano, one can see the emergency of possessive selfhood. The philosophers of this time assumed an amazing intellectual turn toward the end of 18th century.