Preview

Similarities Between Langston Hughes And Crazy Courage By Sherman Alexie

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
589 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Similarities Between Langston Hughes And Crazy Courage By Sherman Alexie
One of the most famous quotes in history is “Knowledge is Power” an expression that means the more knowledge you gain the more powerful you are as an individual. In the short story “The Birthmark”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the two poems “English B”, by Langston Hughes and “Crazy Courage”, by Sherman Alexie, the authors describes individual knowledge and power through the same idea, but through different methods.
The poem entitled “English B”, by Langston Hughes begins with the speaker’s English teacher instructing the class to do a writing assignment, claiming that any piece written from the heart will automatically be true. As the speaker is walking home he wonders if the assignment is as easy and simple to write about oneself and it

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Mark Twain and Langston Hughes are both respected authors. A piece from Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, appropriately named “Huck and Jim,” describes the battle Huck is having with himself if he should return his friend, Jim, runaway slave. Hughes story, “Salvation,” is the story of his childhood experience in which Jesus did come to him, resulting in his own disbelief. In both of these individual stories, the characters did not fully understand the truth about their dilemmas. They were simply believing what was common around them. This can certainly happen when reading literature. One can become swept up in the story and unintentionally adopt the values before them as their own, whether true or false. Christians should be especially…

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hughes, hired a team of designers, craftsmen, engineers, and piolets who worked with him on “Hell’s Angles.” At the peak of the depression, these men were happy just to have a job, let alone an interesting one that allowed them to work for Hughes. Together the team help him build his plane “Hughes H-1 Racer” also known as “The Silver Bullet.” On September 13, 1935 Hughes set the world’s record for flying land planes, at 352 mile per hour.…

    • 283 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Themes of conflicts between mother and child come up often in literature. For example, in “Rules of the Game”, and excerpt from “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan, the complicated relationship between Waverly Place Jong and her mother is shown as Waverly becomes a chess champion at only 8 years old. Similarly, in Langston Hughes’ poem “Mother to Son” we see a mother giving her son life advice on how to overcome obstacles and keep climbing, based on personal experience. Both of these works of literature showcase mothers almost demanding things of their child in an attempt to help them, and ___, which all ties together in the mother/child theme. However, that motherly advice can be taken the wrong way and cause the child to be anxious, self conscious and not too trusting of their mother.…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I think that Hughes’ mantra of “Let America be America again” is accurate, as he doesn't want to revert America to a past decade, which is controversial, because the further back in time you go, the fewer rights minorities have, he wants to make America the dream that people thought it was so long ago. The American dream was being able to come from nothing and being able to provide for your family in a country that was totally free and equal. I think that America as a whole is rooted in things like patriotism, liberty, and equality, but we are having trouble making this more widespread as one of the freedoms we have is freedom of speech, and with being able to say and think what you want there are people who don't think that everyone is equal.…

    • 217 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The artists that I have chosen are Langston Hughes and Augusta Savage. Their works of art that I am going to discuss are Langston Hughes’ short story entitled ONE FRIDAY MORNING, and Savage’s sculpture of THE HARP.…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The land of the free and the home of the brave is a simple yet powerful motto that supposedly describes the inherent rights allotted to each American. Yet, the truly brave are often the ones who have the least amount of freedom. America is a young nation with a past full of prejudice, but more importantly a past full of bravery and triumph. Americans like Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Malcolm X, all fought for equality. These great Americans rose to the occasion and succeeded in their fight for freedom by displaying the bravery echoed in our national anthem. Each of these people experienced great adversity, but adversity is not what defined their greatness. These courageous Americans stood up for basic freedom and equality, but they were not the first. These people are the grand-children of a movement that changed America forever, the snow…

    • 2282 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Langston Hughes, a major African American writer, is committed to telling the truth about the lives of black people through his passionate poetry. For instance, in his poem “Let America be America Again”, Hughes, being less than sanguine, claims that in reality people who possesses power often deprive others of America’s – the land known of equality, liberty, and freedom opportunities. Not only have those in power deprived lower class American access to the opportunities promised by the America value system, they have replaced it with the relentless pursuit of money, sex, and power. Hughes successfully executed his claim to be true by contributing tone, connotation anaphora, abstract language and personification.…

    • 1353 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “One nation under god... with liberty and justice for all”. Both Walt Whitman and langston Hughes express their love for america by writing theses amazing poems.…

    • 128 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The phrase “Knowledge is power”, means that a person’s future awareness will increase with everything that they learn. As in Fredrick Douglas’s life, and within my own, our awareness has increased by learning about other people, even if not by our own choice. Though my own experiences have not been as drastic as Fredrick’s, they have been pretty wild.…

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Let America be America Again”, Langston Hughes speaks on his opinions of the American Dream. Throughout the poem, Hughes compares his hopes and dreams for America with the reality of life for those outside of certain cultural, religious, and societal groups. This is a dramatic and diverse poem, fluctuating from peaceful moments to angry explosions. The author starts by mentioning of the key vision of America, where there is the hope for liberty and equality. Yet for the oppressed races, American life has been one of persecution. Writing now in the first person, the author empathizes with all struggling Americans, "I am the farmer/ the worker/ the Negro/ I am the people." With the gift of optimism, the writer urges "We, the people, must reclaim the land/ and make America again!"…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Superman And Me Analysis

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Often people may here the saying “knowledge is power.” What people may not take the time to think on is what kind of power and can be released through knowledge. In the poems “Crazy Courage” and “Superman and Me” the idea being expressed is that knowledge is necessary to a person release their true individual power. The specific individual power in both cases is the strength to be oneself and fight against nonconformity. In both passages the authors depict some sort of knowledge that ultimately gives the characters their individual strength.…

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The similarity between both stories of Georges Orwell in shooting an elephant and Langston Hughes in the salvation showed that they both dealt with the issue of ‘’fitting in’’ in a very similar ways. Georges described to us the struggle that he faced when winning the mobs approval and respect when he shot down an innocent animal and sacrifices what he believed to be right while Hughes shows himself as a little boy at a church revival where he showed his owns behavioral tendencies toward obedience and was pressure not only to make everyone in church happy but also lied to please his aunt about being saved by Jesus. Orwell knew he did not have to shoot the elephant, yet he did it anyway. Throughout the story, Orwell was increasingly pressured…

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everyone has a life full of choices. They have to choose between right or wrong, left or right, and up or down. Choices reflect self-discipline, as well as character. They also permanently affect one’s life, whether it be in a positive or a negative manner. Choices can also dictate whether or not someone reaches their wildest dreams. As everyone has lives full of choices, everyone has dreams. But as all things do, dreams progressively get more and more realistic with age. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, and “Harlem” by Langston Hughes are two well-written poems that have similar real-life themes; choices, and dreams.…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While reflecting and brainstorming for this essay, I took the advice of the author and followed the directions on pages ninety and ninety one. As instructed I wrote down some of the broad generalizations and assumptions I came to while pondering over the words knowledge and individual power. Having knowledge leads to individual power over ones own environment. It makes you a better person and improves the environment for all those around you. It gives you the strength and sets a standard that will positively make you feel and live better. Knowledge and individual power help you make better decisions and guide you toward justice in daily life. I read “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, “Crazy Courage” by Alma Luz Villanueva and “Much madness is divinest sense” by Emily Dickinson. After reading, I went online to get some concept of what others were expressing on the topic. The website that published Lauren Axelrod’s work on comparisons of Emily Dickenson’s and Alma Luz Villanueva writings summed it up.…

    • 787 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes presents a powerful critique of racism in America and, while recognizing the difficulties of integration, presents the idea that the foremost characteristic amongst all people is that we share the same human experience.…

    • 636 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays