Research Paper..

I have changed my paper's topic..
the new topic is about...
Muhammad Haji Salleh and Langston Hughes..
The similarities between two great writers: Muhammad Haji Salleh and Langston Hughes in their searching of identity.

Langston Hughes and Muhammad Haji Salleh are both searching for their roots and identities..
The searching starts when they are seen different from who they really are.

Muhammad Haji Salleh and Langston Hughes use poetry as a vehicle to express their identity complexities. The poem ‘blood’, written by Muhammad is very similar to Hughes’ ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers”. For instance, compare these two lines, “the blood in me has traveled the centuries/flowed in unknown veins/crossed mangrove rivers and proud straits” in Muhammad’s blood with Hughes’ The Negro Speaks of Rivers, “I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the/ flow of human blood in human veins.” In both poems, the words “blood” and “river” are used to symbolize the idea of origin and identity. For someone who has been living in the post-colonial era, Muhammad is in the confusion of his searching of identity, thus the idea or searching his origin is seen as very important and interesting to him as in a way that he could get closer to his cultural tradition. Aptly titled ‘blood’, the poem is about the blood ties between the persona and his ancestors which he believes that even though he is not able to determine who his ancestors were (‘flowed in unknown veins’), he should not be denying his blood kinship. Regardless of all the uncertainties, he claims in the last stanza, ‘ i am both branch/ and remote stalk of this tree’. Muhammad Haji Salleh’s use of “i” indicates a point of emphasis. The usage of first person pronoun closely mirrors Western individualism, focusing attention on the individuality. “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” is a celebration of racial roots and histories. The persona, whose “soul has grown deep like the rivers”, traces the origin of his origin of his African American self back to Africa with his reference to Congo and the Nile. It is important for African American to prove the worth of their blackness, that is to write themselves into existence. Being fair-skinned, Hughes was mistaken of being “white” by the first African that he met with. Both Muhammad and Hughes share the same problem of searching for their roots.

Muhammad and Hughes are both great poets and they have unique style in writy poetry.