erica in the aftermath of the Civil War (Rampersad 1).
Following his grandmother's death in 1915, Langston wrote his first poem. He published stories and poems in the monthly school magazine and was eventually elected Class Poet and editor of the Annual (Rampersad xii). Most important, by graduation, Hughes has tentatively committed himself to becoming a writer--and to writing mainly about the black American experience (Rampersad xii). In May 1925, when he won first prize in a poetry contest, he was ready for a major step in his career. Aided by the white writer Carl Van Vechten, he saw The Weary Blues published in 1926 (Rampersad xiii). However, in 1927, Fine Clothes to the Jew was widely attacked in the black press for its bold depiction of lower-class African-American life, but its novel use of jazz and blues influences sealed Hughes's reputation as "the most creative and original poet of the Harlem Renaissance" (Rampersad xiii).
In the 1930s, Rampersad argues that certain features of his verse were altered as he began to emphasize the need for radical political action (Rampersad 2). Hughes then wrote some of the most poignant lamentations of the chasm that often exists between American social ideals and American social reality (Rampersad 2). Early in the 1940s, he returned as a poet to older themes. In the postwar years, Rampersad believes that Hughes watched "the historic evolution of African-American culture from its roots in the rural South to its often tangled exfoliation in the cities of the North" (2). His response was a body of verse, notably from Montage of a Dream Deferred to Ask Your Mama, shaped largely by the impact of the transformation of black music (Rampersad 2). He died on May 22, 1967, in Harlem.
Critical Interpretation of "Mulatto"
"Mulatto" is most easily described as a "racial conflict poem," which is Barksdale's terminology (4). However, such a classification does not reveal the many ...