Resumo de Rejecting Social Norms For The African-american In Poetry: I,too And Dream Variations

Langston Hughes has been described as one of the most influential black poets of the twentieth century. He wrote during an African-American literary revival known in America as the Harlem Renaissance. His poetry reflected at that time, the struggle of the African American person in a country with contradictory ideals; a brutally oppressed and marginalized person in a so-called free society. It raised many issues for the African American including whether or not the black person in America was truly American and truly free. In order to accurately express these struggles of the African American person, Hughes both engaged and also rejected the social norms of the day for the black person. He engaged in order to have a literary platform in which to be able to express his poetry; poetry that clearly represented the hypocritical nature of America?s social system for the blacks, thus raising a social consciousness for Black Americans. At the same time, Hughes rejected the humiliating and horrendous social class that had been set up for the person of color. In Hughes? poem, I, Too , he expresses quite plainly and eloquently that the black person is also an American person: I, too, am America. Although for this time (of the poem) the black person was relegated to the kitchen as a servant for a white household in order not to be seen in so-called respectable white society, there is also a hope that sometime in the future a black person would be able to participate in white society as an equal and to also be appreciated for who he or she is: "They send me to the kitchen when company comes.........Tomorrow, I?ll be at the table when company comes." The more ideal hope is the hope that white society would actually become enlightened and convicted for the their racism against African Americans: "Besides, they?ll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed ". Hughes also rejects the practice of relegating the black person to the kitchen which is expressed in these lines: "But I laugh and eat well, and grow strong." The laugh is a laugh of rejection of these practices and can also be defined as a harbinger for a rise in society for the African American. The next line also reveals a such a reality for the African American: "Tomorrow I?ll be at the table, when company comes. Nobody?ll dare say to me, eat in the kitchen, then." In Dream Variations, the hope for complete freedom for the Black person is expounded upon. What is expressed in this poem is this: Yes, the black person is different, of course, than the white person but every bit as natural. His blackness is equated with the darkness of night and it is just as natural and beautiful as the whiteness of the sunlit day: "While night comes on gently, dark like me." The other hope is that the black person would be able to find their own happiness in a world without racism or restraint by white society: "To fling my arms wide in some place in the sun.....". The phrase fling my arms wide...to whirl and to dance denotes a physical and emotional freedom not yet found for the African American. A place in the sun could mean that the black person could actually find a vocation or calling that would bring happiness, respect and success in American society; to find some place of his or her own in society. The second verse has changed a little; it simply means to be able to express freedom in broad daylight without restraint: "To fling my arms wide in the face of the sun." Hughes engages himself in the literary genre, the poem, to reveal the double-standards of white free society. His poetry expressed, quite beautifully, the hopes and dreams of the African American person.

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