Democracy And Lost in the Crowd

       The Langston Hughes poem I have chosen is Democracy. I choose my Langston Hughes poem by first reading the choices given by Mrs. Whiting, I then read the poems a second time and studied the emotions I felt as I read the poem. When I read Democracy for the second time I felt a connection with the poem. I understood the message Langston Hughes was sending. Langston Hughes was alive during a very tough time for the 'colored' people. The colored were being discriminated against due to their skin color. The pictures I choose to represent these pictures are mostly taken during the time of racism, segregation, and discrimination. As you can see through these pictures, life for Langston Hughes, who is partly an African American, must have been very harsh and unfair. That is why I understand why he sounds so hopeless when he writes about democracy. For example-

Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.

          If I lived in such a time where I was continuously judged by my color. Where I was forced to sit on the back in the bus, enter different door ways, and drink from different water fountains due to my nationality, I would feel depressed. I would lose hope, and I too would believe there would be no end to people's discrimination. I wanted to capture this in my Imovie, hence used pictures during the time of Langston Hughes, which was around the 1950's.

        The pictures I used to represent my poem "Lost in the Crowd" were more figurative. This is because my poem is filled with metaphors and oxymorons such as: I  am the unspoken love of the anxious father..., I am the mile the crippled run... I also wanted my poem to have that mysterious feeling to it, like strangers do. That is why I recited my poem slowly, and clearly. Reciting my poem slowly allowed me to add a lot of pictures in my Imovie. This also added to the stranger feeling I wanted my poem to have. This is because strangers are mysterious, and they can be many different things, like the pictures and paintings I used to represent my poem.