Afro-American+Fragment

Afro American Fragments

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The stock market crashed in 1929, a year before Hughes published Afro American Fragments. In most countries the Great Depression began in 1929 and lasted through the 1930’s. He founded black theatre groups in Harlem, Chicago, and Los Angeles in the 1930’s and 1940’s. ======

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Hughes poems reflected African American music, blues and jazz being the two main styles of music that were seen through his poems. This let him try new things with his poems and game him a wide range to experiment with through free verse writing. Afro-American Fragments was not exactly considered to be one of his usual blues or jazz poems. Afro-American Fragments was seen as a different style of writing and was not fully accepted like the previous works done by him, along with his previous work, Fine Clothes to the Jew published three years before in 1927. Afro American Fragments did not have the blues/jazz feeling that was included in many of his previous poems. =====

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Afro-American Fragments is an example of a lyrical poem. In this poem, the speaker is expressing his feeling towards Africa, and how much he misses Africa. The speaker starts by expressing how much people talk about Africa, how the only memories that he holds of Africa can now only be found in books, or songs. He also explains how the true meaning of Africa is beginning to fade, how these memories that he now finds in books and songs, do not show the Africa that once was, the Africa that he knows. He explains how time has played a key factor to the fading memory of his country. ======

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A controlling idea that would arouse curiosity in the reader would be why is it that the speaker misses Africa so much? What is in Africa that the draws the speakers attention that he needs to keep his memories alive? The speaker informs the reader that his memories of Africa are fading, but what is it that he misses in Africa so much that cannot be expressed through books or songs that are made to describe or in honor of Africa. He makes the reader go through the pain that he is feeling, he allows his feeling to transport from him to the reader. The reader is now able to feel the same pain that the speaker expiriences. ======

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The speaker uses many different literary devices to get his point across. Repetition is used to remind the reader of the purpose of the poem. Repetition is used to remind the reader that the poem is written to express the speaker’s feeling on how his memories of Africa seem so far, so long ago. He starts and ends the poem off with just about the same phrase, to keep the reader focused on that one main idea. Another device that Hughes uses to reinforce his feelings is an anaphora. He repeats the same word at the beginning of several lines to go hand in hand with his use of repetition. It also used to make his poem flow easier, this goes together with the fact that his word choice makes him poem move slowly and drag on. Hughes uses a comparison; he compares the effect that the songs and books about Africa have on him to the beating rhythm of a heartbeat. Hughes uses many words that help relate the purpose of the poem to himself. For example, there are many words in the poem that relate to dark, to being dark that bring up the controversy of race, ie. Beat, Africa, dark, race.Overall the speaker is able to express his feeling to the reader while at the same time explaining that this situation can and most likely will be applied to any memory. ======