Langston Hughes’ Representation of African-American Anger

Abstract

Set up in the backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance, this paper seeks to explore the response of the Black Americans of the early twentieth century upon crumbling of the promised American Dream. Langston Hughes belonged to the second phase of the Harlem Renaissance in which the intellectuals were much more rebellious and critical of the American experience, in comparison with the early intellectuals, who did not criticise, but instead tried to reclaim their identity by portraying Harlem as their cultural hub. Through his poems, Hughes seeks to bring forth the Black American consciousness, their composite identity and their disillusionment with the cherished American dream.