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Langston Hughes

People always listen to music, watch movies or plays, and even read poetry without once even thinking what is could be that helps and artist eventually create a masterpiece. Often times, it is assumed that artists just have a "gift", and people just do not consider the circumstances and situations that gradually mold a dormant idea into a polished reality. This seems to be the case with nearly every famous actor, writer, painter, or musician; including the ever-famous Langston Hughes.
In order for a person to really understand how Mr. Hughes's life shaped his poetry, one must know all about his background. In this paper, I will write a short biography of Hughes's life and tell how this helped accent his literary genius.
Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, but lived with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas until he was thirteen. This arrangement was necessary because for some reason or another, his mother and father either did not or could not take care of Langston Hughes. Hughes felt hurt and rejected by both his mother and his father, and was unable to understand why he was not allowed to live with either of them. These feelings of rejection caused him to grow up very insecure and unsure of himself.
Although growing up without his parents was difficult and confusing for Hughes, it was during this time that his fire for literature was sparked by his grandmother, who always told Hughes stories of independent and strong forbears (Mullane 499). Hughes's grandmother, Mary Sampson Patterson Leary Langston, was prominent in the African American community in Lawrence. Her first husband had died at Harper's Ferry fighting with John Brown; her second husband, Hughes's grandfather, was a prominent Kansas politician during Reconstruction. Hughes has been quoted as saying, "Through my grandmother's stories, always life moved heroically to an end. Nobody ever cried in my grandmother's stories. They worked, or schemed, or fought. But no crying. When my...