Langston Hughes Mother To Son The Negro Mother Comparison
Langston Hughes Mother To Son & The Negro Mother Comparison
Americans in the early 20th century have been through a series of pivotal events that has affected the country greatly such as the Women Suffrage Movement, The Depression, and two World Wars. However, in my opinion the Harlem Renaissance is the most critical moment in our nation’s history especially for African-Americans. The Harlem Renaissance is during the 1920s and 30s when in the upper Manhattan district of Harlem had become the flourishing capital of African-American culture as writers, musicians, artists, photographers, philosophers, and intellectuals created works that probed the black American heritage with a psychological intensity and fierce pride. African Americans such as Countee Cullen, Angelina W. Grimke, James Weldon Johnson and much more have been remembered for their writings during the Harlem Renaissance as well as Langston Hughes, who was known as the “king of the Harlem Renaissance.” James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1,1902 to a lawyer and a teacher. Hughes did not live a normal childhood; his parents were divorced and he was forced to move from town to town living with relatives. As a child Hughes had taken up an interest in writing poetry. His career as a poet began, rather abruptly in the spring of 1916 when he was voted class poet even though he had never written a poem. However, he written six poems for graduation and began taken an interest in writing from then on. Hughes wrote novels, plays, short stories, essays, but he was most known for his poetry. The realities of the black experiences and the possibilities of hope and advancement were constantly present in his poetry. He displayed his message in various ways, one in particularly through a mother’s point of view, which is shown in “Mother to Son” and “The Negro Mother.”
Langston Hughes’ “Mother to Son” is written entirely from a mother’s viewpoint. I found this interesting because most poets usually write in their outlook. The title implies that the poem is written or spoken from mother to son. “Mother to Son takes the form of a dramatic monologue; that is, a poem spoken in a imagined speaker in this case, a mother to her son. The son has either asked his mother a question or complained...