Langston Hughes and Tennessee Williams: Writers Comparison

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Langston Hughes
Tennessee Williams
Analysis
Conclusion
Reference List

Introduction

The modern and temporary world has ushered in numerous artists in various fields over the decades. The twentieth century is credited with producing the world’s best and memorable artists. These fields include: music, writing, poetry, drama, movie among others. An artist is someone involved in creating an art or skilled in an art. Artistry is more conformed to the study and practice as opposed to theory. This research paper will attempt to compare two artists of the twentieth century, Langston Hughes and Tennessee Williams.

Langston Hughes

Hughes, also known as James Mercer was born in Joplin Missouri to Caroline (Carrie) Mercer Langston and James Nathaniel Hughes on February 1, 1902 and lived 65 years. He was a poet, writer, novelist, dramatist, essayist, columnist, lyricist and a social activist. Hughes was an African American born of a mixed race; both of his great-grandmothers were African American while both great-grandfathers were Whites.

Being Native American descent and European American, he spent his childhood in the small towns of the Midwest. His Uncle from whom, he got his name was the first African American in the United States Congress in 1988, His maternal grandmother, an African American, had first married Lewis Sheridan Leary, who died in 1859 after joining the Harper’s Ferry incident. She later married Charles and had a daughter and gave her the name Caroline, who was the mother to Hughes. His Parents divorced when he was still very young and spent most of his childhood life with her grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas (Sheridan, 1999, pp. 169).

Hughes grandmother died when he was still in his early teens and he had to move in with his mother, who by that time hade got a new husband. His grandmother died when he was thirteen and he went to live with his mother who had remarried. It is here that he joined Lincoln high school, and was elected the class poet. He lived with His father after graduation. Langston went on with writing even though his father was of a different opinion, suggesting that he study engineering.

Racism forced him out of Columbia University after one year during which he held different odd jobs. He travelled a lot in this period; to West Africa and France and England in 1920s.He wrote his first poem, The weary blues in 1926 then wrote the award winning literature novel, Not without a laughter in 1930 after graduating from Lincoln University in 1929.

Hughes’ poems were largely focused on uplifting the blacks who were despised, and of low economic strata. His fictions and poems were centred on the insightful views of the black American working class which he conveyed as full of music, elation, amusement and suffering. His life was marred with accusation of being a black gay as claimed by British film maker Julien. Accusation based on his gay practice was levelled on him although he refuted them.

Hughes did stage and film performance and dedicated part of his work to writing for children. He wrote several books during his most insightful lifetime and was among the blacks who filmed about the sufferings of African American in the Soviet Union in 1932.During his life time, Hughes received major awards and recognition for his artistry, among which were the Spingarn Medal by the NAACP for his distinguished achievements as an African American in 1960 and induction into National Institute of Arts and Letters.

He died in New York on May, 22, 1967 from prostate cancer and was cremated. Other recognitions after his death included, was the naming of a school after him in Reston, Virginia, his home being warded the New York City Landmark status and being in Asante’s list of 100 greats in the years 1979, 1981 and 2002 respectively. Langston Hughes was among the most decorated African American artists in the United States (Academy of American Poets, 2010, par. 1-4).

Tennessee Williams

Williams also known as Tennessee, was born in Columbus Mississippi on March 26, 1911.He thrived in playwright and always got awards for his exemplary his works. When Williams moved from Tennessee the state where his father had his origin to New Orleans in 1939, he decided to take the Tennessee as his new name. His parents were Cornelius Williams and Edwina, they were of Welsh descent and Tennessee’s maternal grandfather was an Episcopal priest.

His father was a drunkard, rough and bad tempered while the mother was a borderline hysteric. She despised her husband’s lifestyle; was used to a genteel life. She found life much more difficult when they moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1918. The young writer’s first school Soldan did not contain him for long as he moved to University City, another high school. He was later to go to the University of Missouri, where he did not take long as he quickly moved to the Washington University for a year and finally to University of Iowa where he settled to complete his studies in 1938. During his early life, he won a number of prizes most of which were on essays.

Tennessee’s sister was lobotomized due to her paranoid tendencies, which later incapacitated her. He moved to New Orleans, Louisiana where he worked for Works Progress Administration and started writing his book on Streetcar Named Desire, he then moved to Key West, Florida in 1940s and fell in love with Frank Merlo who later died from cancer; Williams also identified himself as a gay-man (Williams, 1947, pp. i-vii).

Tennessee received various awards for his playwritings and had memorable plays in 1944 like Glass Menagerie which won play of the season at the time. It is believed that he used his personal and family experiences to inspire his plays, as also claimed by his director Elia Kazan. Other plays that hit success for Tennessee where, Summer and Smoke, A rose tattoo, the famous ‘A streetcar Named Desire’ among others. When the motion pictures came into play, Tennessee sprung even more as he could reach the global audience, these movies included the previously produced hits and the new ones earning him a second Pulitzer award in 1955.

William Tennessee thrived in different forms of plays, writing numerous over the years, they included, apprentice plays like Candles to the Sun (1937) to ‘stairs to the roof’ (1947), major plays that were available on motion pictures like, Baby Doll (1956) the latest being In Masks Outrageous and Austere (1983). He also wrote various Novels that were filmed, not to mention the insightful short stories he wrote. Tennessee was very close to his sister who was mentally ill and this really affected him, Frank Merlo was a great support to him as he helped him counter depression. Williams Tennessee died on February 25, 1983 from what was unclear as the police report suggested the effects of drugs and alcohol while other reports suggested choking as the cause of death.

It is his secretary John Uecker who found his body in his suite and was buried in New York City. When his brother persisted, he got interred in St. Louis Missouri’s Calvary Cemetary. In honouring his grandfather, Tennessee left his literacy rights to support creative writing at the University of the South. Other recognitions made to him were: induction into St. Louis Walk of Fame and Poet’s Corner at St. John the Drive Cathedral Church, aimed at praying for the poet’s fire to keep burning (Haley, 2001, par.1-7).

Analysis

Langston and Williams had several similarities; they were both from unstable families, Langston’s parents divorced when he was a child and his father went away in Mexico , Williams on the other hand had a rough father who was a drunkard this did not ease their lives as children. They were both born in the early 1900s, they were among the pioneers in poetry and playwritings of their times. Their unstable lives can be traced back to their families and seems to draw lines.

In both cases the writers drew most of their inspiring works from their experience; Langston’s works were mainly on the sufferings of the African Americans based on his experiences, when he had to leave Columbus University due to racism. Williams dew his works from the harsh life he had to experience in which his loving sister was incapacitated. Another parallel from these two authors was the fact that they were gay with Williams proclaiming himself.The two writers contributed greatly to the development of poetry and writing which is the legacy they left to aspiring writers.

Williams and Langston were dissimilar in many ways; first, William’s being a white, did not experience racism as Langston, whose life was greatly affected from a tender age. His father left because of racism, and he had to transfer from the University of Columbus for the same. Langston’s writings were focussed on uplifting the struggling African American population while Williams’ works were more focused on other life experiences which were not race related. Williams’ life became very unstable with allegations of being a drug addict and drinker while Langston was much insightful in his writings, he even wrote to children as is evidenced in his books.

Conclusion

Langton and Williams are examples of writers who never gave up their love for poetry and playwriting despite all the trying experiences they had. They were the pioneers of poetry and playwriting in the twentieth century and greatly contributed to the development of the modern poetry and filming; Williams left his rights to the Southern University to support writing programs. These writers drew a great portion of their message from their harsh experience and left a mantle of poetry writing that continues to burn.

Reference List

Academy of American Poets. (2010). Langston Hughes. Web.

Haley E. D. (2001). Biography: Tennessee Williams. East Tennessee State University. Web.

Sheridan B. R. (1999). Charles Henry Langston and the African American Struggle in Kansas. Web.

Williams, T. (1947). A streetcar named desire. London: Heinemann

Click Here To Order Now!