The Harlem Renaissance

Paper Summary:

This paper introduces, discusses and compares two writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes and his "Refugee in America" and Zora Neale Hurston and her "The Eatonville Anthology." Specifically, it relates the thoughts of these two writers to the statement by W.E.B. Du Bois in "The Souls of Black Folk." "It is a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others...One ever feels his two-ness...An American, a Negro."

From the Paper:

"Hurston wrote her story for a white audience, but it would appeal to blacks too, because it depicts the townspeople with such accuracy. The townspeople represent people in a small town anywhere, with their particular idiosyncrasies and beliefs. Her style is much like the way the people of the town speak, and helps represent who the people are, and how they talk. She uses dialect when the people speak, such as "'fresements was served! Every gent'man would please take his lady by the arm and scorch her right up to de table fur a treat!" (Hurston 66). Again, this is a depiction of their two-ness. They speak the language of America, but in their own unique way, adding their own flavor and inflection, making it distinctively American and Negro at the same time. "

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• Analytical Essay # 130542 : "Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance"
• Research Paper # 103229 : "Changing Times and the Harlem Renaissance"

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