The Negro Artist And The Racial Mountain English Literature Essay

The dreary artisan And The racial Mountain English Literature EssayLangston Hughes judge The Negro artisan and the Racial MountainIn 1926, Langston Hughes wrote an essay The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain. In his essay, Hughes presents a situation where the African Americans felt substandard in their state barren hoi polloi and their nicety and strove to embrace the assimilation of the uncloudeds. He did this by use of the African American poet who proverb it full(a) to be a etiolated poet. During this time, the White people despised and savoured worst on the black people. Therefore, the blacks understood that it was erupt to be a pureness man or a pureness writer.The Negro poet suggested that he desire to be a white writer, meaning that he desired to be a white man (Hughes, Para. 1). According to Hughes, this was the mountain standing in the counsel of any true Negro art in America-this root on within the race towards whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the barf of American standardization, and to be a little Negro and as such(prenominal) American as possible. (Hughes, Para. 1).Hughes as swell up examines the state of the African American families of that time. The blacks do their children believe that the whites were superior. They forced their children to emulate the whites and try to be standardised them in all aspects. Any child who tried to behave like a black man received a severe punishment for that. The blacks were rigid through all means to keep away their culture from their give birth children (Amada, para.2). The parents do their children see white as a symbol of deservingness and success. This upbringing affected the lives of the children up to their adulthood because their parents made them to believe that in order to be part of the bigger society and be prospering they had to behave as whites.The essay also talks to the highest degree the remnant between the hurrying split up and mid dle class African Americans. Hughes states that the way the two groups acted made them different, rather than their financial differences. They believed that they would climb higher in society according to the take aim they acted as white people in society.Hughes wrote in criticism of the Negro poet who, in his writing desired to be a white man (Kelley, 126). He showed how the middle class and stop number class African Americans tried to imitate the lifestyle and culture of the white men. The black Americans did this by shunning their Negro theatres, avoiding the Negro spiritual music, translation magazines of the whites and marrying light colored women in order for them to look like the whites. These classes of the blacks also tried to limit the Negro poets and writers on what they were supposed to write. These high class African Americans had started alienating themselves from the other black partnership. This class struggles to have watch over in society even at the expense of losing their racial identity. These people were ashamed of their color as black people and did not fatality to see their own beauty. This is why they emulated the white people in corporeal appearance, in dressing in action and in the way they conducted their idolise services.Hughes also speaks some those African American artists who were true to their culture. They held faithfully to their culture, a thing that made the rest of the people to alienate them. This union of those who held to their culture survived well and their consort is one of the most celebrated today.The aim of Hughes essay was to elevate the beauty of the African Americans language and lifestyles to the national literary stage. He encouraged the Negro Artists to accept their own race and not to daily round away from it. Hughes also suggested that any writer who wanted his artwork to look like or have some aspect of whiteness was not being true to himself or herself (Floyd-Miller, Para 4). The African Am ericans had set for themselves standards and strove to abut these standards in order to look like or live like the white Americans. Hughes goal, therefore, was to encourage the black artists to create obstacles to these standards by use of their relevant, authoritative and original work in order to change the belief the blacks had that whites were superior. This artwork was to serve the purpose of changing the blacks desire of wanting to be white to that of accepting that they were Negros and Beautiful. Hughes writes that to his mind, it is the duty of the younger Negro artist, if he accepts any duties at all from outsiders, to change through the force of his art that old susurration I want to be white, hidden in the aspirations of his people, to why should I want to be white? I am a Negroand bonny (Hughes, Para. 12)Up to the 1960s, the American white community still despised the American black community. They never appreciated the work of most African Americans like poets and w riters. However, this changed as the whites started taking interest in the black peoples artwork. The whites visited the black peoples community to enjoy their performances. Currently, this issue of discrimination of literary work has ceased and many of the black Americans literary work is celebrated today.Hughes indicates that he has confidence in dishonor classes of the African Americans. He saw them as being free from the problems of self-confidence and that they were confident and satisfied in their nature as blacks. He saw this class of blacks as a source of inspiration using their esthetical talents. Their struggle was not to appear respectable to the white readers thus resisted the squash and wrote on the themes they felt were relevant in expressing themselves against what the whites wanted. This portrays the powerful artistic bill or weapon the impose class black Africans have.According to Amada (Para. 3), although overmuch has changed in the way the white Americans v iew the African Americans, the black community is still not fully accepted. There is still some racial discrimination in some towns of the United States of America. However, the black Americans have made substantial improvements socially, politically and economically.In conclusion, Hughes essay can help us to know the way the African Americans related with themselves and with the whites in their society. It shows us how the white Americans looked down on the black Americans. We learn how the middle class and upper class African Americans yearned to de like the whites and their struggle to achieve this. It also shows how the lower class black people faced discrimination from the whites as well as the well off African Americans. The essay further shows how the black poets and writers managed to overcome the whites pressure to write on the themes that they wanted while ignoring others. This brought about positive changes in the United States of America. The determination of the Negros helped the blacks to receive some level of acceptance in the American community. The whites finally accepted the literary work of the blacks including their poems, songs and books. With the turn of things, there is hope that things will be getting better until we get a united community at the end.Cited WorkFloyd-Miller, Cherryl, black authors Langston Hughes, putting the spotlight on the black experience, n.d, Web. October 31, 2010 http//www.helium.com/items/875493-african-american-authors-langston-hughes-putting-the-spotlight-on-the-blackHughes, Langston, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain. The Nation, 23 June 1926, March 15 2000. Web. October 31,2010. http//www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/360.htmlKelly, B. James and Bloom, Harold, Blooms How to Write about Langston Hughes. Infobase Publishing, 2009. Print.Ligi, Amada, An Examination of the Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain A flooring by Langston Hughes. February 21, 2009. Web. October 31, 2010. http//www.associatedcon tent.com/article/1452600/an_examination_ofthe_negro_artist_and.html?cat=37