18 pages • 36 minutes read
Langston HughesI look at the world
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“I, Too” by Langston Hughes (1926)
Both “I, Too” and “I look at the world” feature an “I” in the title and the first line. The poems center around Black speakers unafraid to voice their truth. In “I, Too,” self-love is more explicit: The male speaker looks forward to a day when others will “see how beautiful” (Line 16) he is and “be ashamed” (Line 17) of their racist behavior. Indeed, both poems are rather optimistic about the future. “I look at the world” says there’s a way to knock down oppressive walls and build a nonracist world, while “I, Too” imagines a time when a Black man can eat at the same table as white people. “I, Too” is much more well-known than “I look at the world.”
“Goodbye Christ” by Langston Hughes (1932)
In this poem, Hughes doesn’t use allusion to address the theme and promise of communism. Instead, Hughes uses jaunty rhythm and the lyric form to directly express the idea of replacing Christ, a figure of capitalism, with individuals linked to communism, including Karl Marx and Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the communist Soviet Union.
“Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou (1978)
In this poem, Maya Angelou presents another group of historically marginalized people casting off oppression: Women. In “I look at the world,” a Black person confidently declares their identity, and in “Phenomenal Woman,” a woman boldly asserts her identity. In both works, the world is transformable. Neither women nor Black people resign themselves to the fates assigned to them by society. Angelou and Hughes show how these marginalized groups can act. Angelou doesn’t mention skin color in her poem. However, since she is a Black woman, it’s possible to infer that the phenomenal woman is a phenomenal Black woman.
Further Literary Resources
“How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston (1928)
Like Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston was a critical part of the Harlem Renaissance. She wrote the classic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), as well as short stories and essays. "How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is an essay by Hurston. The speaker in Hurston's text is clearly a Black woman. Like the Black person in "I look at the world," the speaker isn't ashamed of her identity. In fact, Hurston’s tone suggests that the speaker is joyful about being a Black woman in the United States. Breaking with Hughes's speaker, Hurston's speaker isn't confined by America's racist history: "Slavery is sixty years in the past," says the speaker. "I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep." The freedom Hughes's speaker hopes to find, Hurston's speaker appears to have found already.
“Autobiographical Notes” by James Baldwin (1955)
Baldwin's essay "Autobiographical Notes" opens his essay collection Notes of a Native Son. Appearing almost two decades after Hughes wrote "I look at the world," Baldwin’s essay also deals with how difficult it can be to turn rhetoric into real-world action. In "I look at the world," it's not enough to critique a racist world. One has to be willing to put in the effort and tangibly change it. In "Autobiographical Notes," Baldwin sneers at the number of books addressing what he calls "the Negro problem." Baldwin says: "The bookshelves groan under the weight of information, and everyone therefore considers himself informed." As Hughes’s poem points out, to be informed or knowledgeable is only one step in a dynamic process. People need to move on to the next level and physically act.
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (2010)
Michelle Alexander's book shows how racism continues to exist in the United States. Even though it exists less overtly, it is, as the title suggests, just as harmful and limiting as Jim Crow laws. In her study of recent American history, Alexander shows how supposedly nonracist developments, like the war on drugs, came about to mainly punish Black people. Alexander highlights how supposed allies of the Black community—former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, among them—formulated and propagated racist policies to keep and further their political power.
Listen to Poem
Listen to the middle-school teacher Allison Agbasoga read Hughes’s poem. Afterward, she conducts her own analysis.
Related Titles
By Langston Hughes
