Lansgton Hughes And Jesse B Semple example essay topic

"Lansgton Hughes and Jesse B. Semple " In the early 1940's an African American writer by the name of Langston Hughes, who flourished during the Harlem Renaissance in New York, had established a character in his short story writings named Jesse B. Semple. Through these short stories he used this character to represent the black man of his times. However the question remains, is Jesse B. Semple an accurate representation of the black man of 1940's? This question can best be answered by looking at the conditions of society during that time period, what the mind set of the black man in that era and comparing it to the representation that Hughes created with Jesse B. Semple. Langston Hughes was born on February 1st, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. He started education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

He went on to write and publish his first work, a poem called, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" in Crisis magazine. He then continued his education at Columbia University in New York in 1921. He then lived for sometime in Paris and after returning to the United States, he worked in Washington D.C. as a busboy. Later after that, Vac hel Lindsay discovered Hughes literary talents. Hughes talents did not only exist in poetry, he also expanded his talent into music, play writing, and short stories, for example the "Simple" stories.

His most prominent work however was written and published during the Harlem Renaissance a time where many other African-American authors were showcasing their work and being published. Hughes however, stood above the rest with his multiple talents and work which spread across the board. The white society of America at the time of the Harlem Renaissance and years after began to label him as a radical. Hughes remained extremely prolific to the very end of his life. Hughes published over forty books, including a series of children's books. However, if you add his translations and his many anthologies of black writing, the amount of books he has published would double.

He remained a controversial figure, having been considered a dangerous radical in the 1940's. Hughes was now, as he retained his lifelong commitment to racial integration, rejected by 1960's radicals considered to be a part of the problem, rather than part of the solution. However, that would not stop Hughes from being recognized as one of the important black authors in African-American literature. Later on in his life, Hughes died at the age of sixty-five from congestive heart failure on May 22nd, 1967. The society in which Langston Hughes was projecting his work to was the era of the Harlem Renaissance. However, even though the, "Simple" stories were created during the Harlem Renaissance they held more importance during the 1940's.

To best comprehend what the character, Jesse B. Semple represented you must look at the society of that era and the point in time he was created. Hughes began writing the, "Simple" stories in 1943. It started as a weekly column in the Negro Newspaper, the Chicago Defender. During the 1940's the black man was still experiencing oppression and segregation from the whites in America. The Civil Rights movement had not yet taken place so blacks were still considered less then a citizen. Blacks in America could not vote yet nor could they eat in the same restaurants as whites or even get a job other than a servant in a white business or establishment.

Therefore, with the type of climate that the society of the 1940's had, many of the black authors coming out of the Harlem Renaissance, especially Hughes, were considered radicals. During the 1940's there were many authors creating poems and stories to try and uplift the spirit of the black community in New York. However, Langston Hughes felt inspired to write about a fictional character, which in he attempted to represent all of the feelings of the black man without being blatant or bold: "Jesse B. Semple is certainly no romantic hero, protest victim or militant leader, no charismatic character for the young to emulate" ("Critical Essays" Klotman; p. 180). He created Jesse B. Semple, a character that would make an effort to represent the common man.

His characteristics were that he had little formal education, but he had a lot of common sense and could see the truth in many situations. In many ways Langston Hughes used Semple and his stories to project the voice of all the black men of that time. Semple touched on issues such as racism, interracial marriages and any other important issues that showed what it meant to be black during that period. Hughes took every issue that he felt was necessary in the accurate representation of the Negro man, and projected through the life of Semple. Hughes also took the name Semple and often called him, "Simple" to emphasize how simple his life seemed at a glance, but in fact it was not simple at all. The events Jesse B. Semple went through in his stories and his opinions and views of what was going on in the world showed a certain irony that the society of that time had for them.

With the stories of Jesse B. Semple and his, "simple" life, he felt he had captured the mindset of every black man of the 1940's, because he felt most black men in 1940's were bound to the same characteristics which Semple had. Now fully understanding the life and inspirations of Langston Hughes, the society and mind set of the black man in the 1940's, and the representation that Jesse B. Semple held for the black men of that time, we can answer the question: Is Jesse B. Semple an accurate representation of the black man of the 1940's? When observing the work of Lansgton Hughes with the "Simple" stories and comparing it to the society and the condition which black men during that time were under at the time of the Harlem Renaissance and in the 1940's, which Hughes himself was going through at the time he was writing these pieces, it is clear to see that the representation of the black man through Jesse B. Semple was accurate.

Bibliography

Hughes, Langston, The Best of Simple. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1961 Meltzer, Milton, Langston Hughes: A Biography.
New York, NY: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968 Klotman, Phyllis R.
Jesse B. Semple and the Narrative Art of Langston Hughes". Critical Essays on Langston Hughes. Boston, Massachusetts: G.K. Hall & Co. Jackson, Andrew P. "James Langston Hughes (1902-1967) " web.