What effect does Hughes achieve by repeating the phrase "does it" in "Harlem"?
Short words and hard consonants create a sense of angry uncertainty.
Short words and questions demonstrate Hughes's confidence.
The repetition creates a sense of peace and serenity for the reader.
The repetition highlights Hughes’s feelings of self-respect.

Langston Hughes was a poet and an important figure in the Movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, which took place in the 1920s and 1930s. His poem "Harlem", which we are analyzing here, questions the impossibility of realization of the American Dream for African Americans.

To emphasize that question, Hughes repeats the phrase "does it" throughout the poem. He is asking what happens to a dream that cannot come true. Does it dry up? Does it fester? Does it stink? This repetition conveys anger and uncertainty at the same time, which is perfectly understandable. As we know, African Americans were denied several basic rights until a few decades ago in the U.S. Imagine, as a human being, having dreams but having them killed by the very country you live in. Hughes' anger, expressed as the speaker in the poem, is the result from such an injustice.

jayilych4real jayilych4real · Answer 2 · 2021-12-15T15:23:57+01:00

The effect which Hughes achieved by repeating the phrase "does it" in "Harlem" is:

A. Short words and hard consonants create a sense of angry uncertainty.

According to the given question, we are asked to state the effect which Hughes achieved by repeating the phrase "does it" in "Harlem" and how it helped to advance the plot.

As a result of this, we can see that from the complete text, the author makes a repetition of the phrase "does it" so that his use of short words and hard consonants would create a sense of angry uncertainty.