Langston Hughes: The Early Years

Question

Lance Carson

Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri to two bookkeepers. His parents separated when he was very young. His father moved to Mexico, and his mother left him for long periods of time in search of steady employment. Hughes's grandmother raised him in Lawrence, Kansas, until he was 12, when he moved to Illinois to live with his mother and stepfather. The family later moved to Ohio. From these humble origins, Langston developed a deep admiration for those he called "low-down folks," poor people who had a strong sense of emotion and pride. How do you think Hughes expressed these feelings?

Hughes began writing poetry in high school. He gained some early recognition and support among important black intellectuals such as James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B DuBois (also an "Amazing American"). While working as a busboy at the Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C., Hughes gave three of his poems to Vachel Lindsay, a famous critic. Lindsay's enthusiastic praise won Hughes an even wider audience. Have you ever written a poem? What was its subject?

Many people write poems about experiences or feelings they've had. Hughes spent the summers of 1919 and 1920 with his father in Mexico. While on a train on his second trip, he wrote his first great poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." The poem was published in The Crisis, a magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. You may ask your librarian how to find this poem so that you can read it. Here's how it begins: I've known rivers:/I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
Question

How is this expository essay similar in style to a biography?
Responses

A Both are written in a formal style using third-person narration.Both are written in a formal style using third-person narration.

B Both are written in a formal style using first-person narration.Both are written in a formal style using first-person narration.

C Both are written in an informal style using first-person narration.Both are written in an informal style using first-person narration.

D Both are written in a stream-of-consciousness style using slang language.

Answer 1

The correct response is:

A Both are written in a formal style using third-person narration.

Expository essays typically present information in a formal tone and often use third-person narration, similar to how biographies are written.