The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain Literary Elements

Persuasive Essay

The essay was published in 1926, in the middle of what is known as the Harlem Renaissance.

The narrator of the essay is the author Langston Hughes, a poet and writer who advocated for a distinctly Black aesthetic across the artistic disciplines.

The tone of the essay is generally imploring, as Hughes celebrates Black artists who have embraced Blackness in their work while appealing to those who may have eschewed their Blackness in favor of whiteness. While Hughes is critical of this second group, he still imagines a hopeful future in which elements of Black culture, like jazz music, can remind Black citizens of their history and vitality.

As a nonfiction essay, there is no discernible protagonist or antagonist in the piece. However, Hughes clearly celebrates those who have centralized their Black identity, while criticizing those who have attempted to assimilate to white culture.

There is a major obstacle in the way of the serious Black artist, according to Hughes: the "racial mountain." This mountain is a racial barrier that does not allow a Black artist to create work that people will take seriously; the mountain is a result of societal pressure to conform to whiteness and devalue the cultural production of Black communities.

At the end of the essay, Hughes encourages the African-American artist to create great works of art in spite of the mountain, building "temples for tomorrow" rather than for today, and finding freedom in conquering the racial mountain (14).

As a nonfiction essay, there are few instances of foreshadowing present in the text. However, Hughes opens the essay with a reference to a "young Negro poet" who denied his identity as a Black artist. This anecdote provides Hughes with an example of the self-loathing Black artist, which he will continue to explore and explain throughout the essay.

Hughes uses understatement when he describes many Black people's reaction to Jean Toomer's novel Cane, saying simply, "they are afraid of it" (9). Here, he suggests that Toomer's work forces Black people to reckon with their own Blackness, which many have tried hard to suppress.

Throughout the essay, Hughes alludes to many different African-American artists as examples to support his points, such as Clara Smith, Charles Chesnutt, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charles Gilpin, and Jean Toomer. While the young Black poet remains anonymous, Hughes is likely referring to Countee Cullen, whose poetry tended to follow traditional conventions of European literature.

Hughes uses competing imagery to describe whiteness and Blackness throughout the essay. Whiteness is dull, drab, and homogeneous while Blackness is vibrant, unique, and powerful.

The central paradox of the essay is Hughes's argument that in attempting to suppress or relegate their Blackness, aspiring Black artists are actually missing out on worthwhile artistic material.

When describing the lifestyle of the upper-class Black family, Hughes describes them as surrounding themselves with "Nordic manners, Nordic faces, Nordic hair, Nordic art (if any), and an Episcopal heaven" (3). He uses parallelism to emphasize the repetitive and dull experience of assimilation.

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In describing the "low-down folks" and their celebration of Blackness, Hughes says, "Their joy runs, bang! into ecstasy. Their religion soars to a shout" (4). Here, Hughes personifies abstract elements of culture to communicate the vitality and strength inherent to Black identity.