Hughes's autobiography exemplifies the obstacles that many African-American artists faced during the early twentieth century in the United States.

Hughes was able to eventually enroll in college, but decided to drop out to work for different kinds of shipping vessels that sailed around the world.

Paris at the time was going through a musical revolution with Jazz and Blues, and from that, Hughes gained interest in those genres and drew inspiration to his now well known poetic style.

However, eventually Hughes learned that this lady was driven by prejudice and wanted to promote her own perspectives on black ideas.

[6] From 1922 to 1924 Hughes worked on the S.S. Malone, experiencing many west African countries before returning to the US in 1925 to live with his mother in Washington DC.

[1] He described those early days in Paris as initially exciting but the reality of having no money quickly weighed on him and he was forced to find cramped accommodations, sharing a room.

His descriptions of the difficulties finding employment as a Black American who was not a singer, musician or dancer at the height of the Jazz Age in Paris showed the anti-foreign sentiment of the local Frenchmen.

He made multiple trips back and forth across the Atlantic, meeting many important figures in the Harlem Renaissance as well as some of the most celebrated stars of Paris.

She mentioned how Langston Hughes's autobiography "is the product and portrait of a very unusual spirit, in its narrative of crowded happenings and contrasts and the envisioning of a strange and significant time.

"[8] Wood emphasized the idea of how the social circumstances of the time period and Hughes's situation really shaped his writing.

[8] An analysis of the book called it "one of the most insightful studies of the Harlem Renaissance ever written by one who had actually lived during that time,"[9] providing incredibly detailed accounts of the outside world and the spaces Hughes moved in as well as the people he found himself around, but he left much to be desired as to his internal states.