Langston Hughes's 'Not Without Laughter' - a Critical Essay

A 3000+ word essay on Langston Hughes's oft-neglected first novel, a semi-autobiographical bildungsroman. The essay focuses on the oppositions and conflicts that the protagonist faces as he grows up - racial, familial, social and religious. The essay concludes and demonstrates how Hughes, through his hero, reconciles the oppositions and discords into a unifying vision.