Moving from one place to another allows you to experience many new aspects of life. However, moving from one country to another is a life changing the experience. A person which changes the place of living of the certain reasons most likely will experience specific difficulties, with an understanding of accepting them. No matter if the previous conditions of life were worse, the person will still go into challenges for himself with the dream of the idea that the life will be better later. Many people immigrate to have a better living, yet some move to explore new opportunities.
Every immigrant has different experiences and when they move to a new country. For instance, the culture shock, different curricular living and language barrier. In the relation with the moving to another country, the person will be allowed experiencing many new aspects of life and will face her life challenges, which are needed to be solved such a racism and discrimination. Since, Langston Hughes was an American poet, novelist, and playwright whose African-American themes made him a primary contributor to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.
Langston Hughes poetry portrays with vivid imagery of his travels abroad and writes of his deep-seated thoughts and views on racism and inequality in America. He writes about a symbolism of the struggle in which problem of life the racism and discrimination and a different life’s changing had to endure throughout his time here in America. According to the article “The Life & Times of Langston Hughes” Arnold Rampersad describes that Hudhes’ parents were from mixed races, and Langston had a mixed blood of African American, European American and Native American lineages.
He lived in several places in his childhood as his family moved around a lot (Rampersad). His African-American themes made him a primary contributor against racism during that time. Consequently, his familial background was one of the major reasons that caused him to take this position. That’s why Hughes felt all experiencing difficulties in a person. How many times have you ever heard the advices about the difficulties in life from your parents, but never really paid attention, because thought they exaggerate a lot? Every person did, especially during your childhood, but still cared more about less important things.
Everyone, no matter, what age has a lot of challenges and problems to solve or overcome every day. The poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes is one of the examples which explain how difficult climbing the up in the life is. Hughes uses a hidden metaphor-meaning in which he compares the living a life and climbing the opposite of crystal stair. In the poem, mother to son says “I’se still climbin’, And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” meaning there is no person on the world whose life is always easy (Hughes, “Mot. o Son” line 19-20).
Mother tries to deliver the message to her son that he will be facing a lot of hard times in his entire life, but also tells to never give up, “Don’t you set down on the steps ‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard. Don’t you fall now” (Hughes “Mot. to Son” line 15-17). And exactly in this poetry author reveals some of the difficulties, experience that had to feel his family before. And life is not so easy. Life by itself may demonstrated his family as a guiding force, where each experience acted as a pointer.
Each experience may also be a cursor to the right direction. There may be turnings as the corner brings in unexpected situations. On the other hand, there will also be turning points. The mother warns him that there should be no turning back, and no descending down the steps. This expression connotes that one should not lose hope or let one’s past haunt him. One must not fall down losing one’s balance. The son is advised that he must not descend back because of the simple reason that ascending the stairs is “hard” (Hughes “Mot. to Son” line 16).
The mother still continues to climb that staircase of life with steel resolve and determination. Though, the experience of life has not proved to be a crystal staircase for her. Moreover, very often people after relocating faced with other problem as racism which considers as “an artificial classification of people in a society” (Smith). Racial discrimination is one of the worst social problem that still exist up to this very moment in every part of the world. It can be defined as the mistreatment of the group of people on the basis of race, color, and religion.
To some, racism is a way of life, and to others, it is a repulsive term that represents closed-mindedness. Racism comes from different cultural values, ethnic backgrounds, as well as the physical appearances. The conflict of racism occurs when “the majority group of society feels that the different cultures and values of the minority group brings the deviance to the society” (Johnsson, Zolkowska and McNeil). The United States of America, which brought people from all over the world, is stated as the land of opportunity and freedom, it is also the country that is notorious for the racial discrimination.
Racism and discrimination have been one of the most significant issues that people have been facing and fighting for, and is still occurring around us without even knowing. Actually, Grady Smith in the article “Black Nativity” has explanation that “racial discrimination is also the belief that race accounts for differences in human character and that a particular race is superior to others” (Smith). This problem is very serious because it always leads to destruction, not only to certain human being but also to society.
Besides, Langston Hughes has another poetry where expresses own opinions and hopes about racism and discrimination. The poetry “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” is Langston Hughes’s first mature poem about the past of the black race. He wrote it in 1920 at the age of seventeen, while traveling by train to visit his father in Mexico. In the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” Hughes uses the use of symbolism to convey the story of his people. This is a succinct and powerful poem that ties black history to the four rivers of the world, which written in the first-person voice.
The poem begins, “I’ve known rivers” where the “I” means a collective voice of black people from ancient times to the present (Hughes “The Neg. Sp. of R. ” line 1). The “rivers” are used as a metaphor for the source of life. Hughes portrays the rivers with the Afro American culture have become one. The poem traces the movement of black life from the Euphrates and Nile Rivers in Africa to the Mississippi. The Euphrates symbolizes the original center of human civilization. The Mississippi River is a symbol of black culture in America and Congo to represent the center of Afro American culture. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it” refers to the act of slavery (Hughes “The Neg. Sp. of R. ” line 6).
This poem so poignantly and dramatically expresses what it means to be a black American that it helps to assure Hughes’s continuing fame. There are many solutions in the world to prevent racism. However, this does not mean that such attempts would put an end to racism because racism will always exist as long as we live. In any case, racial discrimination leads to psychological problems, large amounts of violence, and loss of opportunities for those who are discriminated against.
In conclusion, a life problem, racism and discrimination are not an ability that people are born with but it is based on how an individual is raised and what they learn when they are younger. Most of us, at one or another time, have to go through a lot of pain and difficulties in our lives, which can make us suffer so much that we give up trying to overcome whatever problems we might be facing. Sometimes life can get really tough and one should learn how to endure hard times in order to be able to use obstacles as stepping stones that will help one to live a more beautiful, happy life, with less stress and worries.
