Air Raid Over Harlem

Protests of 1935: “An Analysis of Air Raid Over Harlem” When the Italian forces invaded the nation of Ethiopia in 1935 it disturbed many African Americans throughout the United States. This incident caused many blacks to protest in the streets of Harlem, New York. In Langston Hughes poem, “Air Raid over Harlem” (1935), he uses the literary devices of colloquial language, capitalization, and rhyme to illustrate the feelings, thoughts, and actions of many Americans during the time of …

…African Americans try to accomplish through the protests. The narrator wishes that this creature can take away all the bad and shine the good down on his people. Throughout this poem Hughes uses many examples to show the feelings, thoughts, and actions of both black and white Americans during the nineteen thirty-five protests in Harlem, New York. He accomplishes this endeavor by using the literary devices of colloquial language, capitalization, and rhyme to do so.