Friday, November 6, 2015

What similarities are there between Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes views on America?

Both poets are speaking of an America that should be
vastly different than it is.  I think that Dunbar and Hughes were radical for their time
in that they demanded that the marginalized voices of African- Americans should be
understood and grasped by the cultural majority.  In some respects, Dunbar experienced
much more difficulty than Hughes.  Dunbar was challenged by the issues of race as well
as artistic voice.  He understood that there was a real and valid issue of ethnic
condition that had to be addressed in his work, but also felt challenged by the
limitations this might hold on his ability as an artist.  In this light, one can see
Dunbar fighting both the demons of racial injustice and artistic limitations forced by
an exterior condition.  Hughes was able to understand these same forces, but embraced
it.  Whereas Dunbar sought to give voice to the condition of those who were silenced by
social valences as well as his own artistic creativity, Hughes embraced both dimensions
in his writing of racial injustice in so many different forms.  While one might have
laid the groundwork for the other one, both writers saw an America in front of them and
envisioned what it could be in terms of its inclusion of "the
other."

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