Oh Sweet Irony
Rebecka Price
Dollieslager
English 111
4/22/15
Oh Sweet Irony
Langston Hughes was well known for his disbelief in god; he relayed a story from his childhood about when he was a twelve year old boy that led him to this conclusion. He went to church with his Aunt for their “revival,” where they were attempting to bring the children into the church. His elders told him about the details of what he should expect to happen when he was saved. He expected physical concrete feelings to happen, he expected to feel, hear, and see god. Then all the children are urged to come forward and be saved by god. All of the children, except for Langston and Westley, start singing and dancing along to the chaos that began to ensue. Then all the adults start to pray for these “lambs” that haven’t been saved. Westley simply decides to simply get it over with and just joins in with the other children. Shortly after Langston does the same as Westley due to pressure, and no longer wanting to be the center of attention. After this event he goes home and cries, and while his aunt and uncle believe that’s he’s crying because he let Jesus into his heart, he was crying because he nolonger believes in god (Hughes “Salvation”).
Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1902. His parents were separated when he was very young, and he was sent to live with his grandmother, until he was 13. He then moved back in with his mother, Caroline Mercer Langston. He went to high school in Lincoln, Illinois and Cleveland, Ohio. The time in which Hughes was alive was a period in which normality meant mainstream white Anglo-Saxon America. There was heavy racial segregation, and just about everyone was a denomination of Christianity. Though, through all this diversity Hughes managed to become a major and very well-known African American author. He is one of many to influence African American expression through the Harlem Renaissance. He had this tendency to break fomr the conventional, and this made him influential. He also lived to see the day African Americans got their god given rights, through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s ("Langston Hughes Biography"). His story "Salvation" was a defining moment in his life because it established his tendency to break from the traditional.
When Hughes was very young his father left him and his mother and moved to Mexico in order to escape racial segregation. Hughes father “hated black people” and this fact confused Hughes, because he and his father were black (“Langston Hughes”). Then when Hughes turned 18 he made a trip to Mexico to visit his father and on the ride there, Hughes wrote the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” a poem about his uncertainty with what the future may hold. This became one of his most famous poems. However, at the time, he and his father were in debate about what Hughes should do with his life. Hughes wanted to be a writer and his father pushed for him to be an engineer, seeing as his father was paying for college. Hughes eventually persuaded his father that he could write and his school was then paid for, but he only attended for a year at Columbia. Soon after, he discovered Harlem, at neighborhood in New York city that was rich in African American culture, and became an integral part of the literary community there ("Langston Hughes Biography"). He broke away from conventions; much like his father wanted him to, but with the degree in writing.
The story Salvation, most defines the point in his life when he broke away from the conventional religion. Instead of an Anglo-Saxon religion, at the early age of twelve, Hughes began to shun religion and be an atheist. His first religious experience was not what he had expected at all, his elders built up this image of being saved by the lord, and how he would be able to hear and see the lord and savior. Hughes was distraught when none of this happened to him, he was hurt and confused, and felt betrayed to the point he did not believe in God. He even wrote a poem called “Goodbye Christ,” where he proclaims to God to just get out of the way. It’s Hughes time to shine, and there is no one that is going to sell him short of his life (Hughes “Langston Hughes: Goodbye Christ, Hello Persecution.”). At that time that ideal would basically be heresy. He proclaimed that God has no right to take part in one’s life, his life. Moveover, it is easy to look at this poem and tell just how against religion Hughes was, even though some people probably whole heartedly disagree, Hughes calls out God and, more or less, calls him a fraud.
In the year 1924, Hughes was discovered by a white poet named Vachel Lindsay, who at the time was well known and published (Van Wienen). Hughes managed this by slipping Lindsay his poems while bussing his table in the hotel Lindsay stayed at. Hughes then goes on to publish The Weary Blues, under the publishers that Lindsay had sent him to (Shmoop Editorial Team.). This collection was different mostly because of how lyrical it was as opposed to common poetry at the time. Hughes had taken the mood and style of a jazz song to his poems, in the way they were written and spoken ("Langston Hughes and His Poetry."). This was another way he broke from the conventional and traditional style. This was a push for him, and it did certainly help his career as a writer, he then went on to publish another collection, and during World War II he wrote for a column in an African American newspaper, called the Chicago Defender.
Moreover, he also did a fair share of traveling he had been to almost all the states, as well as Mexico, The Soviet Union, and Spain ("Langston Hughes Biography"). Through these travels, he got to look at all different forms of government. The one that stood out to Hughes was communism because in writing communism sounded a lot better then what was happening in the states with segregation. Though, as many know, communism is nice on paper, it is not in practice. Though Hughes admits he himself had never actually read theoretical books on government, he believes the draw to communism was emotional, and more to help him find a way to solve the problem in his head ("Langston Hughes"). Because he was American though, it seemed blasphemous to others, since at the time, America was trying to suppress communism. Communism was a threat to democracy so much so that the United States got involved in many wars over it, in fact. However this ideal that there was a better way to live then being oppressed by “The Man”, as said in 60’s vernacular, was a common thought of African American people at the time.
After his death, many poems were found, about other men, and people theorized that this may be because Hughes might have been gay, as he had never married. However it may be more plausible that he was either bisexual, or asexual, mostly because there aren’t any records against those claims either. He enjoyed both men and women’s company, and it is honestly no one’s business who he did what with. It is just interesting, because it is another way he broke from traditional lifestyle ("Langston Hughes.").
Langston Hughes’s defining moment was at the age of twelve when he found that he no longer believed in God. This made him stray from the conventional and toward the unknown, so to speak. He proved that a rewarding life is one you build for yourself, and while his road was full of controversy and difficulties, Hughes made the best out of what he had. He shows that people aren’t defined by their belief or race, but by what they choose to show the world. He wouldn’t have been able to achieve that, had he not learned at the age of twelve how he felt about religion. He influenced the world to say how they feel and call things out that aren’t right. By breaking tradition and helping to show African American culture in a better light, Hughes helped to push his people past oppression. It is hard to pin point one’s own defining moment, a point in their life when they feel life had completely changed, but when looking from the outside in, it is easy to say this was a defining moment in Langston Hughes’ life.
Works Ctied
Hughes, Langston. "Langston Hughes: Goodbye Christ, Hello Persecution." - Atheist Nexus. 26 Sept. 2009. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. <http://www.atheistnexus.org/group/blackfreethought/forum/topics/langston-hughes-goodbye-christ?xg_source=activity>.
Hughes, Langston. "Salvation." Literature Network Forums. 20 Feb. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. <http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?67465-Salvation-A-short-essay-by-Langston-Hughes>.
"Langston Hughes." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Apr. 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes>.
"Langston Hughes and His Poetry." YouTube. Library of Congress, 10 Feb. 2009. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnpItYHdP8Q>
"Langston Hughes Biography" Kansas Humanities Council. Kansas Heritage Group. 1 Jan. 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. <http://www.kansasheritage.org/crossingboundaries/page6e1.html>.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Langston Hughes Timeline of Important Dates." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. <http://www.shmoop.com/langston-hughes/timeline.html>
Van Wienen, Mark W. "Vachel Lindsay." Vachel Lindsay. Modern American Poetry, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lindsay/lindsay.htm>.